The HMO tenancy agreement template for room-by-room lets in England

Per-room vs whole-property HMO tenancies

There are two legitimate structures for an HMO. The choice affects liability for rent, notice serving, and what happens when one tenant leaves.

• Per-room tenancies. Each tenant has their own tenancy for their room plus a licence over the shared areas. If one tenant leaves, their rent obligation ends, the others are not jointly liable. Most HMO landlords prefer this structure. Our per-room HMO tenancy agreement, England uses it.
• Joint and several. All tenants sign one tenancy for the whole property. Each is liable for the full rent. If one leaves mid-term, the remainder owe the lot. Suitable for student lets where a clear group takes the whole property.
• Company or guarantor lets. A student or young-professional HMO often uses guarantors for each per-room tenant. Our Guarantor Agreement (LS-E-004) slots in alongside this template, and the HMO Landlord Bundle packages the agreement with the licensing and compliance documents.

Defining the room and the shared areas

The single most important drafting job in a per-room HMO agreement is the demise: exactly what the tenant is renting. The template lets the tenancy cover the named room only, identified by number and by a floor plan attached as an exhibit, so there is never an argument about which space belongs to whom. Everything else the tenant uses, the kitchen, bathrooms, hallways, garden and any common lounge, is covered by a licence to use shared areas rather than a tenancy of them.

That split matters in practice. Because the shared areas are licensed rather than demised, the landlord keeps control of them: you can access the kitchen and hallways for cleaning, inspections and fire-safety checks without the access-notice formality that applies to the tenant's own room, and you can vary house rules for the common parts without renegotiating every tenancy. It also means a tenant cannot claim exclusive possession of the lounge or block access to a shared bathroom.

The template's shared-amenity schedule lists each shared facility, states who cleans it and how often, and sets the house rules for noise, guests and bins. Vague drafting here is the single biggest source of HMO disputes between tenants, a clear schedule removes the ambiguity before move-in.

What the per-room tenancy must cover

The statute requires a written statement of terms. The prescribed content is minimum; the practical content is wider. Our template addresses both.

• Identity of landlord and each tenant (per-room)
• Address of the HMO and the demised room, with a plan as an exhibit
• Rent, frequency, method of payment, and the Section 13 reference
• Deposit amount, scheme and Prescribed Information acknowledgement
• Schedule of shared amenities (kitchen, bathrooms, common lounge) and the licence terms over them
• Cleaning regime, fire-safety obligations, bin schedule
• Tenant's two-month notice right, landlord's possession grounds, rent-review mechanism (Section 13 only)
• Rights-based clauses required by the RRA 2025, pets, benefits, children, bidding, discrimination

Deposits in a per-room HMO

Each per-room tenancy is a separate tenancy, so each room's deposit stands alone. It must be protected in a government-approved deposit scheme within the statutory deadline, and the Prescribed Information must be served on that tenant, for that deposit, every time a room is re-let. Missing the Prescribed Information for even one room blocks possession proceedings for that tenancy and exposes you to a deposit-penalty claim.

The Tenant Fees Act 2019 cap applies to each tenancy separately, so the ceiling is calculated on that room's rent, not the rent of the whole house. Charging a single house-wide deposit against one tenant, or rolling a departing tenant's deposit over to their replacement without re-protecting it and re-serving the Prescribed Information, are the two errors that most often surface at the possession stage. The template carries a per-tenant deposit clause and acknowledgement block so each room's paperwork stands on its own.

Periodic terms under the Renters' Rights Act 2025

Every new HMO room let in England is a periodic assured tenancy from day one. There is no fixed term to align with the academic year or a probation period, the tenancy simply rolls until the tenant ends it or the landlord recovers possession on a statutory ground. The tenant can end their individual tenancy on two months' written notice, which in a per-room HMO means rooms turn over independently rather than the whole house changing hands at once.

Rent increases go through the Section 13 statutory mechanism, once per year per tenancy, which lets you stagger reviews room by room. Possession requires a Section 8 notice citing a statutory ground; our guides cover the grounds and their notice rules in detail. What the agreement must do is stay out of the way: any clause that tries to recreate a fixed term, lock in rent rises outside Section 13, or exclude the Act's protections is unenforceable and undermines the rest of the document. This template is drafted to the current statutory regime rather than patched from a legacy AST.

Licensing and planning touchpoints

Mandatory HMO licensing applies to properties with five or more occupants across two or more households sharing facilities. Additional licensing (a local-authority scheme across a designated area) typically applies at three or more unrelated occupants. Selective licensing can apply to all private lets in a designated area regardless of occupancy.

Planning is a separate regime. Properties let to three to six unrelated occupants fall under use class C4 (small HMO). Above six is sui generis and needs express planning permission. Article 4 directions (in force across many London and metropolitan boroughs) remove permitted-development rights from C3 to C4, meaning you need planning permission for the HMO use as well as a licence.

Our HMO Licensing Application Pack (LS-E-027) walks landlords through the council application. The tenancy agreement itself must reference the licence number once issued and include the fire-risk-assessment acknowledgement.

The fire-safety and Awaab's Law overlap

HMOs carry tighter fire-safety duties than single-let properties: interlinked alarms, fire doors, emergency lighting in purpose-built HMOs, regular PAT and electrical testing. The template includes a fire-safety addendum the tenant signs separately, acknowledging the arrangements.

Awaab's Law (extended to the PRS) applies to HMOs at the point of commencement in your local-authority area. The landlord has a prescribed window to investigate damp or mould once notified in writing. Our Awaab's Law Damp / Mould Response template (LS-E-025) is the companion document, include it in your HMO tenant welcome pack.

Common HMO-tenancy mistakes the template is designed to avoid

HMO landlords get caught on a few recurring issues. Each is pre-empted in the template.

• Treating a per-room tenancy as joint and several, the template is explicit: individual liability for rent
• Missing deposit Prescribed Information for each per-room tenant, the template has a per-tenant insert
• Using a legacy AST template, now non-compliant for any new let in England under the Renters' Rights Act, ours is a periodic assured tenancy drafted to the current statutory regime
• Omitting the Section 13 rent-review mechanism, ours cites it by name
• No fire-safety addendum, the template includes one the tenant signs separately
• No shared-amenity schedule, creates disputes over cleaning, noise and access

Frequently asked questions