Croydon Landlord Licensing: 25 Sept Is the Last Legal Date

Croydon’s two new landlord licensing schemes start on 25 September, and the council’s own decision notice records that this is the last date they can lawfully start at all.

The date was moved once already. It was 1 September when Cabinet designated the schemes in March. On 8 July an officer decision rescheduled it, and the published notice is blunt about how much room was left: 25 September is “the latest lawful start date for these schemes i.e. six months from the Designation Decision at Cabinet on 25th March 2026” (Croydon Council, decision 2747).

The reason given was not policy. It was “identifying a need for additional time for full system testing and validation”.

There is a second document that explains what that means. On 13 August the Corporate Director of Housing awarded two contracts covering the computer system that will take the applications and the inspectors who will visit the properties. The schemes go live 43 days later.

What the council bought, and when

The award report covers two lots, both won by the same bidder (Croydon Council, decision 2788):

• Lot 1: the licensing system and administrative processing, a cloud-based platform handling applications end to end
• Lot 2: property inspection, reporting and compliance monitoring, including the inspection programme and enforcement support

Both run for about five years, ending 24 September 2031. Both went to the same company, identified in the public papers only as “Bidder A”. Two compliant bids were received for each lot. Bidder A scored 88.400 against 63.899 on Lot 1, and 86.400 against 74.704 on Lot 2, marked half on price and half on quality (contract award report Part A).

The price is not published. The estimated value of both contracts sits in an exempt Part B report, withheld under paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, which covers the financial affairs of a particular person. What the papers do confirm is that this is a key decision because it “incurs expenditure of more than £1,000,000”, that the supplier is a small or medium enterprise, and that it has no local presence in Croydon.

The council says it could not do the work itself. Its report records that delivery “cannot be achieved fully in-house within the required implementation timetable due to resource and capacity constraints”, and that the existing arrangement with its current supplier, Metastreet, expires in October 2026.

A 31-day gap between buying it and switching it on

The report’s own timetable is the clearest picture of how tight this is.

• 2 February 2026: procurement strategy approved by the Strategic Procurement Board
• 25 March 2026: Cabinet designates both schemes, for a 1 September start
• 3 June 2026: invitation to tender published
• 6 July 2026: tenders close
• 8 July 2026: the start date is moved to 25 September
• 11 August 2026: the date the report sets for contract award
• 12 to 24 August 2026: standstill period
• 25 August to 25 September 2026: mobilisation
• 25 September 2026: the schemes start

Two of those dates do not quite agree. The award report’s timetable books the contract award for 11 August, while the published decision record gives the date of decision as 13 August and publication as 14 August. Either way, the start date was fixed two days after tenders closed, five weeks before the system to run the schemes had been bought.

The council flagged the risk itself, in its own words. Under “Key Risks”, the report lists mobilisation delays, noting that “the implementation timetable between contract award and service commencement is challenging”, and system integration and testing risk, warning that “delays or technical issues could affect service readiness at go-live”. ICT risks are assessed as Medium.

What the schemes are meant to fix

The scale is not small. The selective scheme covers every privately rented home in 14 of Croydon’s 28 wards. The additional HMO scheme covers smaller houses in multiple occupation across the whole borough. Together with mandatory HMO licensing, the council expects them to regulate “in excess of 30,000” privately rented properties.

The evidence the council relies on is older than the scheme:

• a 2019 stock condition survey found 23.7% of private rented properties had at least one serious hazard
• 27% had an energy performance rating of E, F or G
• the borough has over 800 HMOs holding a mandatory licence
• modelling estimates over 3,000 unlicensed HMOs in each of two further categories, section 254 and section 257

The consultation ran for twelve weeks, from October 2025 to January 2026.

Licences are granted for up to five years, or less where the council has concerns about compliance or management (Croydon Council, selective licensing scheme 2026).

The three-month floor is statutory. Under section 82 of the Housing Act 2004, a selective licensing designation cannot come into force earlier than three months after it is made or confirmed (Housing Act 2004, section 82). The six-month ceiling the council cites is the other end of the same window, and it is why 25 September has no give in it.

What it means for you

If you are a landlord in one of the 14 wards, the applications portal opens on 25 September and not before. The council’s page says so in terms: “You will be able to apply online from Friday 25 September 2026. Please do not attempt to apply before this date.” The wards are Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Bensham Manor, Broad Green, Fairfield, Norbury and Pollards Hill, Norbury Park, Selhurst, South Croydon, South Norwood, Thornton Heath, Waddon, West Thornton and Woodside. Our guide to the schemes has the fees, the discounts and the documents you will need.

If you let a shared house anywhere in Croydon, the ward list does not help you. The additional HMO scheme is borough wide, so a shared house in Purley, Coulsdon, Selsdon, Shirley or Kenley is in scope even though those wards are outside the selective scheme.

If you rent, nothing in your tenancy changes on 25 September. What changes is that your landlord acquires a legal obligation, and the council acquires a register. Its own report says the data will let it “map hidden housing stock, accurately target poor property conditions, and address rogue landlords effectively”.

On the first day it does not work, the thing to remember is that the council will be four weeks into a brand-new platform run by a contractor it appointed in August. The council remains the data controller and keeps the decisions that matter: licence determination, enforcement, and quality assurance. The supplier processes.

For more Croydon information, see our guides to council tax bands, house prices across the borough and planning applications.

Sources

• Croydon Council, Decision: Commencement of Additional and Selective Licensing Schemes, ref 2747 (decision 8 July 2026, published 9 July; the move from 1 to 25 September, the “latest lawful start date” wording, the system testing reason, the delegation from Cabinet on 25 March 2026)
• Croydon Council, Decision: Property licensing schemes for private rented properties, Procurement Approval for IT system and service delivery, ref 2788 (decision 13 August 2026, published 14 August; the two lots, the award to Bidder A, contracts ending 24 September 2031)
• Croydon Council, PSH Property Licensing Program, Contract Award Part A (procurement timetable, bidder scores, the exempt Part B, the £1,000,000 key decision threshold, SME status and no local presence, Metastreet expiry, 30,000 properties, the 2019 stock condition figures, the HMO estimates, the risk register and the consultation dates)
• Croydon Council, Selective licensing scheme 2026 (the 14 wards, the five-year term, the 25 September application date)
• Housing Act 2004, section 82 (a designation cannot come into force earlier than three months after it is made or confirmed)