Barnet selective licensing: what landlords should prepare

Barnet selective licensing has been talked about for five years, and it is now closer than it has ever been. In February 2026 the council's Cabinet agreed to consult on a scheme covering ten wards, and that consultation closed on 15 September. If Cabinet approves it, almost every privately rented home in those wards will need its own council licence, not only shared houses.

Which wards Barnet selective licensing would cover

The ten wards named in the February 2026 Cabinet report are Burnt Oak, Childs Hill, Colindale North, Colindale South, Cricklewood, Finchley Church End, Friern Barnet, Golders Green, Hendon and West Hendon.

Barnet has around 48,700 privately rented homes (2021 Census), the second highest number of any London borough, and these wards were chosen because they scored highest on the council's combined measures of poor housing condition, deprivation and crime.

The rest of the borough is not included. Edgware, Edgwarebury, Mill Hill and West Finchley were part of an earlier version of the plan in 2023 but are not in the current one.

How we got here

Barnet consulted in 2021, approved a first phase for Burnt Oak and the two Colindale wards in 2022, then consulted again on a second phase in 2023. Neither phase started. The council's own report says the IT systems needed to run the scheme took far longer than expected to put in place.

Two things have changed since. The systems are now in use for Barnet's borough-wide additional licensing of shared houses (HMOs), which already applies. And since 23 December 2024, councils no longer need the Secretary of State to confirm a selective licensing scheme of any size. Barnet can decide this for itself.

What it would cost

The indicative fee consulted on is £910 per property, reviewed each year and subject to inflation (NRLA summary of the council's consultation). A designation can last up to five years, so a single licence would normally cover the whole scheme.

No start date has been set. The February report says a further report will go back to Cabinet with the consultation results before any decision is made. At the time of writing, 16 October 2026, nothing has been published.

What a licence asks of a landlord

The fee is the visible part. The conditions matter more, because they apply for the life of the licence and a council inspection checks them. Every selective licence in England carries the mandatory conditions in Schedule 4 of the Housing Act 2004:

• Gas: a gas safety certificate from the last 12 months, produced for the council when asked.
• Electrics: the electrical installation in proper working order and safe, and appliances and furniture you provide kept safe.
• Smoke alarms on every storey used as living accommodation, kept in working order.
• Carbon monoxide alarms in any room with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker.
• A written statement of terms given to the tenant.
• References requested from anybody who wants to move in.

Councils add their own conditions on top. The set Barnet approved in 2022 for its selective and additional licensing included one that matters to every landlord here: inspect the property at least once every six months, and keep a log of who inspected, when, what was found and what was done about it. The log is kept for the life of the licence and sent to the council within 14 days if asked. The final conditions for the new scheme will come with the decision. Letting a home in a designated ward without a licence is a criminal offence, and the council can impose a civil penalty while tenants can apply for a rent repayment order.

What to prepare now

Groundwork done now costs very little, and it means an application can go in on the first day rather than in a rush.

1. Check the ward, not the area name. Look it up from the postcode. Plenty of homes with a Golders Green address sit in Childs Hill ward, and Hendon ward is not the same as everywhere people call Hendon.
2. Gather the certificates. Gas safety certificate, electrical installation condition report and EPC, all in date.
3. Test the alarms and write the result down. A dated record of each smoke and carbon monoxide alarm working on the day is the simplest evidence there is.
4. Get a current record of the property's condition. If the last inventory was done three tenants ago, it tells the council and you very little about the home as it is today.
5. Budget for the fee, and check the final figure when the scheme is confirmed.

Where an inventory fits

A licence does not ask for an inventory by name. But a six-monthly inspection log, a deposit dispute and a damp complaint all come down to the same question: what condition was the home in, and when? A check-in inventory at the start of a tenancy, and a mid-term inspection partway through it, answer that question with dated photographs instead of memory, and a mid-term report every six months is exactly the kind of record the inspection log asks for.

Emilecon is based in Golders Green, in the middle of the proposed scheme area, so these are the streets we know best. Our inventory clerk service in Barnet covers every ward, with reports delivered within 3 hours of the visit. Send the details and a time is agreed with you.

Related: the mid-term inspection, what a check-in report must prove and what letting agents must do differently since 1 May.

Sources: Private Sector Housing Licensing Scheme, Barnet Cabinet, 2 February 2026; NRLA licensing update, July 2026; Barnet licence conditions, Appendix 7, 2022; Housing Act 2004, Schedule 4 and section 84 on legislation.gov.uk; Barnet Council, houses in multiple occupation. This is general information, not legal advice. Licensing is the landlord's responsibility and the council's own pages are the final word.