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Operational Outsourcing

Croydon Council property licensing

The Oyster Partnership delivers property licensing administration and inspections for the London Borough of Croydon. If you are a landlord or managing agent with a property in Croydon, you are in the right place.

Apply on Croydon Council’s website

01Who does what

Croydon Council has appointed The Oyster Partnership to run the day-to-day administration of its selective, additional and mandatory HMO licensing schemes.

Oyster Partnership:

  • validates then processes your application and checks your documents
  • answers your questions by phone and email
  • carries out property inspections and reports on what it finds
  • keeps your application moving and tells you what is needed

Croydon Council:

  • sets the schemes, the licence conditions and the fees
  • decides whether to grant, refuse, vary and revoke any licence
  • takes all enforcement action
  • holds the data on our system

Croydon Council makes the final decision on your licence. Only the Council can decide whether to grant a licence, waive a fee or change a condition.

02Contact

Talk to a licensing officer

Phone 020 8050 0276, Monday to Thursday 9am to 5pm, Friday 9am to 4pm.

Email croydon@oysterpartnership.com, we aim to respond within 2 working days.

If you are part way through an application and stuck, please call us. It is usually quicker than emailing.

For information about the licensing scheme, including which wards are covered, fees and licence conditions, visit Croydon Council’s website.

03Checking an officer is genuine

Someone has knocked. Is it us?

Our officers carry a photographic identity badge showing their name, their photograph, the Croydon Council logo and The Oyster Partnership logo. It looks like this:

Sample badge, front: the officer's photograph, the Oyster logo, Inspecting Officer, the officer's name, staff number OYS-C-000 and expiry date, working in partnership with Croydon CouncilSample badge, back: Croydon Council Housing Licensing. To verify the card, call Croydon Council on 020 8726 6000 and quote the staff number. If found, return to Croydon Council, Bernard Weatherill House, 8 Mint Walk, Croydon CR0 1EA. The holder is authorised by the London Borough of Croydon under section 239 of the Housing Act 2004 to enter and inspect premises

Please ask to see it. If you are not satisfied, do not let them in, close the door and call us on 020 8050 0276. We will confirm whether the visit is genuine, while you wait only during office hours, please see above

We will never ask you for money. Not at the door, not by phone, not by bank transfer. All licence fees are paid to Croydon Council online, see above for fees. If anyone asks you to pay us directly, it is not us, please report it on 020 8050 0276.

04What happens after you apply

  1. You apply and pay on Croydon Council’s licensing portal.
  2. We check that your application is complete and your documents are valid. If anything is missing, we will contact you. This is the most common reason applications take longer than expected.
  3. Where an inspection is needed, we will contact you to arrange it.
  4. An officer inspects the property and reports the findings.
  5. We prepare your application, with the supporting evidence, for the Council to consider.
  6. Croydon Council makes the final decision on whether to grant or refuse your licence.

05Common questions

Do I apply to you or to the Council? You apply through the Council’s website. We will process your application on the Council’s behalf.

Is my property in a selective licensing ward? Selective licensing applies in 14 wards across Croydon. Check the Council’s website to see if your property is in one of them.

My property is already licensed as an HMO. Do I need another licence? No, not for the same property. See the Council’s guidance.

What documents do I need before I start?

All licences:

  1. Gas Safety Certificate
  2. Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)
  3. Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
  4. Floor plan
  5. Management details (licence holder and any managing agent)

Mandatory and Additional HMO licences also need:

  1. Fire Risk Assessment
  2. Fire Alarm Certificate
  3. Emergency Lighting Certificate (if the property has emergency lighting)
  4. A floor plan showing room sizes, and which facilities are shared and which are exclusive (kitchens, bathrooms, WCs)

How long will it take? It depends on whether an inspection is needed and whether your documents are complete when you submit. We will keep you updated at each stage.

Will my property be inspected? Some properties require an inspection before a decision is made. If yours does, we will contact you.

I use a managing agent - who applies? Either you or your managing agent can submit, but the licence holder must be the appropriate person in law.

I have missed the deadline. Please apply now. Operating an unlicensed property is a criminal offence and may result in a Civil Penalty Notice or prosecution by the Council. Applying is always better than waiting.

I want to make a complaint. If it concerns the service you have received from our officers, contact us at croydon@oysterpartnership.com. If it concerns a licensing decision, a fee or the scheme itself, it should go to Croydon Council.

06About the service

The Oyster Partnership has worked with London councils on housing and regulatory services for over 20 years, including licensing scheme delivery and application backlog recovery for boroughs across the capital. The Croydon service is led by an experienced private sector housing licensing team, supported by a specialist licensing platform already used by London boroughs to run schemes of this size.

07Our commitment to Croydon

We are recruiting for this service in Croydon, buying from Croydon suppliers, and working with local community organisations to reach landlords and tenants across the borough.

08Complaints, privacy and accessibility

  • Complaints about our service will be handled by us, with a published route and response time. Complaints about a licensing decision, a fee or the scheme will be directed to the Council’s corporate complaints process.
  • The page will state that Croydon Council is the data controller for licensing data and that The Oyster Partnership processes it on the Council’s instructions, and will link to the Council’s licensing privacy notice rather than publishing a separate one.