Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Let-only agents are not ‘persons managing’ for HMO licensing offences: Upper Tribunal in Cetin v Epping Forest DC on Housing Act 2004 s.263(3) and s.72

Published on: 06 August 2025

Published by a LexisNexis Local Government expert

Legal News

Article summary

What are the practical implications of this case?

This decision carries real weight for practitioners as it narrows HMO licensing offences and the levying of civil penalties to genuinely ‘ongoing’ management activities, rather than brief, ‘snapshot’ involvement by agents at the outset of a let. It is expected to bolster ‘let-only’ instructions for finding HMO occupants and putting tenancies in place. Local authority enforcement teams should treat this as essential reading and revisit any live matters targeting letting agents under comparable arrangements, particularly where the likelihood of achieving a conviction could be materially reduced...

What was the background?

The appellant was a director of Discover Residential Ltd (the Company), a letting agency based in Essex. On 20 April 2023, the respondent local housing authority issued him with a financial penalty of £7,064.32 after the Company—acting on a ‘let-only’ basis—had arranged the letting of rooms in a five-room HMO flat above a shop on Borders Lane, Loughton, to two tenants: Mr Spinks, who moved in on 2 October 2021, and Ms Weir-Clarke, who moved in on 11...

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