One fixed price for build and compliance
Fire doors, alarms, compartmentation and certification are inside the quote, not billed as extras once an officer has been round.
HMO Conversions · London
HMO conversions
in London,
built to pass inspection.
A licence-ready house in multiple occupation, fire compartmentation, en-suites, shared kitchen, certification and paperwork delivered by one settled crew on a fixed price agreed before we lift a tool. Typical 4-6 bed conversion: 8-14 weeks on site.
5.0★ on Google · Gas Safe & NICEIC partners · Written quote back in the same week.
15 yrs
On the tools
£1M
Public liability
5.0★
Google rated
12 mo
Workmanship guarantee
Same wk
Written quote
Service overview
One team from empty house to licence-ready HMO
What it is
An HMO conversion turns a single-family house or tired flat into compliant multi-occupancy accommodation. The scope typically covers layout changes and stud partitioning, fire-rated compartmentation to walls and ceilings, FD30S fire doors with intumescent strips and self-closers, a mains-wired interlinked fire alarm system, emergency lighting where required, en-suite shower rooms, an upgraded shared kitchen with adequate cooking and food-storage provision, thumb-turn locks and protected escape route, sound insulation between rooms, additional consumer unit capacity, heating rebalance, decoration and full certification. We hand over the electrical certificate, gas safety record and fire alarm commissioning documents your licensing officer will ask for.
Who it's for
Landlords adding rooms to an existing rental, investors buying a house specifically to convert, and portfolio owners bringing older HMOs up to current licensing standards after an improvement notice. If you would rather one contractor be accountable for both the build and the compliance paperwork than juggle a builder, an electrician, a fire-alarm firm and a joiner, this is built for you.
When you need it
Most owners call us after an offer is accepted on a large house with an oversized reception or box room, when a council licensing inspection has flagged fire doors, alarm grade or room sizes, or when a single-let yield no longer covers the mortgage and the property has the footprint to work harder.
Why professional matters
HMO work is judged, not admired. A conversion is signed off on details a normal refurbishment never touches: door fire ratings, ceiling build-ups, alarm category and grade, room floor areas measured to the last square metre, and the integrity of the escape route. Getting those right during the build costs a fraction of retro-fitting them once an officer has already been round.
The cost of getting it wrong
What a non-compliant HMO conversion actually costs you
An HMO that looks finished but does not meet the licence conditions is not a finished HMO. Every shortcut below is one we have been called in to unpick from someone else's job.
If ignored
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Rooms let before licensing sign-off
Letting an unlicensed or non-compliant HMO exposes you to enforcement action, rent repayment claims and an unmortgageable asset. Empty weeks while remedial work is done are the cheapest part of that.
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Wrong fire doors, full re-hang
Standard internal doors, missing intumescent strips or a self-closer left off will be flagged. Doors then come off, linings are re-worked and the decoration around every frame is redone.
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Under-specified alarm system
The wrong alarm category or grade means a licensed electrician has to lift finished ceilings and chase finished walls to re-cable. That is a second strip-out of rooms you just paid to plaster.
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Undersized rooms that cannot be let
A room a few square metres short of the minimum is a room you cannot legally let. Partition walls come out, layouts change and the room count you built the numbers on drops.
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Overloaded services
Six tenants on a boiler and consumer unit sized for one family means cold showers, nuisance tripping and callouts every winter, exactly when voids hurt most.
Common mistakes
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Designing the layout before checking local standards
Room-size minimums, amenity ratios and Article 4 direction on planning vary between London boroughs. Drawing bedrooms first and checking rules second is the most expensive order to do it in.
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Treating it as a normal refurbishment
A builder who does not price compartmentation, alarm grade and door specs is not cheaper, they are simply quoting a different, smaller job than the one you need.
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Splitting build and compliance across firms
When the builder blames the alarm firm and the alarm firm blames the ceilings, the landlord pays for both to come back. One accountable contract removes that argument.
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Leaving certification to the end
Certificates depend on work being inspectable at the right stage. Boarding over first-fix before it is signed off means opening it back up.
How it works
A step-by-step system,
not a guess.
-
01
Step 1
Free survey & feasibility
We visit, measure the existing footprint, check escape-route geometry, consumer unit and boiler capacity, and give you an honest view of how many lettable rooms the property realistically supports.
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02
Step 2
Layout, compliance & fixed quote
A proposed room layout with floor areas, the fire strategy (doors, compartmentation, alarm category) and an itemised fixed-price quote back inside the same week, including planning or building control applications where needed.
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03
Step 3
Strip-out, structure & first fix
Partitions built, openings formed, compartmentation installed, additional circuits and consumer unit capacity added, en-suite waste and supply runs set out, alarm and emergency lighting cabling run and inspected before boarding.
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04
Step 4
Second fix, en-suites & fire doors
En-suites tanked, tiled and commissioned, kitchen installed, FD30S doors hung with strips, seals, closers and thumb-turn locks, sound insulation completed, heating rebalanced across the new room count.
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05
Step 5
Certification & handover
Alarm commissioned, Part P electrical certificate issued via our NICEIC partners, Gas Safe record on any gas works, snag-free handover with a licence-ready document pack and a 12-month workmanship guarantee in writing.
What you actually get
Concrete outcomes,
not adjectives.
Licence-ready document pack
Electrical certificate, gas safety record and alarm commissioning paperwork handed over together at completion.
Room count you can actually let
Floor areas confirmed against local standards at design stage, so the yield you underwrote is the yield you get.
Void time protected
PRINCE2-managed programme with weekly progress updates from the founder, because every extra week on site is a week of lost rent.
Services sized for occupancy
Consumer unit capacity, hot-water demand and heating rebalanced for the real number of tenants, not the family the house was built for.
12-month guarantee in writing
Anything falls short of the agreed scope inside the first year and we come back and put it right at no cost.
Materials & methods
Materials, methods & conversion types we deliver
HMO conversions in London happen in stock that was never designed for them, Victorian terraces with a single stair, 1930s semis with a small rear return, and mansion-block flats where leaseholder consent decides the whole programme. Here is the range we work in.
Materials we work with
- FD30S fire doors with intumescent strips, cold-smoke seals and controlled self-closers
- Fire-rated plasterboard systems for 30 and 60 minute wall and ceiling compartmentation
- Fire-stopping collars, sleeves, batts and intumescent mastic at every service penetration
- Mains-wired interlinked smoke, heat and carbon monoxide detection with battery backup
- Maintained and non-maintained emergency lighting on escape routes
- Acoustic mineral wool and resilient bar systems for room-to-room sound insulation
- Thumb-turn escape locks and hardwearing ironmongery rated for multi-occupancy use
- Additional consumer unit capacity and RCBO circuits per room where loads require it
- Compact en-suite pods, low-profile trays, tanking membranes and pumped waste where gravity falls are unavailable
- Contract-grade kitchen cabinetry, worktops and multiple cooking and food-storage points
Methods & standards
- Room floor areas set out and recorded against local licensing minimums before partitions are built
- Continuous compartmentation lines maintained through voids, not just at visible wall faces
- Notifiable electrics installed to BS 7671 and Part P certified via NICEIC-registered partners
- Gas Safe registered engineer for any boiler upgrade, relocation or gas works
- Fire alarm cabling inspected at first fix, then commissioned and documented at handover
- Hot-water and heating demand recalculated for the occupied room count, then rebalanced
- Building control and planning applications submitted and managed where the scheme requires them
- Written change control on every variation, priced and signed off before it is carried out
Variations of this service
3-4 bed single-let to small HMO
Reception or dining room converted to a lettable bedroom, shared kitchen upgraded, fire doors and alarm system installed. Typically 6-9 weeks on site.
5-6 bed licensable HMO
Full layout rework, en-suites to several rooms, larger shared kitchen, full compartmentation and Grade-appropriate alarm. Typically 10-14 weeks.
En-suite upgrade programme
Adding shower rooms to existing bedrooms in a working HMO, usually phased room by room to keep the rest of the house let.
Loft or rear extension for an extra room
Where the footprint is tight, an additional lettable room via loft conversion or rear extension, delivered under the same contract.
Compliance remediation
Bringing an existing HMO up to standard after an improvement notice, doors, alarms, fire-stopping and amenity ratios corrected and re-certified.
Student and professional-let finishes
Hardwearing floors, contract-grade ironmongery and easy-clean surfaces specified for high turnover.
Property types & settings
We convert Victorian and Edwardian terraces, 1930s semis, larger interwar houses and purpose-built flats across North and West London, including mansion-block properties where leaseholder consents and access restrictions have to be built into the programme. Commercial conversions and mixed-use buildings are handled by the same team under our commercial fit-out service.
Every conversion is quoted on a fixed-price basis after a free survey, because the cost is driven by the amount of compartmentation, the number of en-suites and how much service capacity has to be added. A three-bedroom single-let with light works is a very different job to a six-bed en-suite conversion, so we never quote from photos. You get an itemised written quote back inside the same week.
A small conversion of 3-4 lettable rooms is typically 6-9 weeks on site. A 5-6 bed licensable HMO with en-suites usually runs 10-14 weeks. The programme is agreed in writing before we start and updated weekly so you can plan tenancy start dates around it.
It depends on the borough and the size. Some conversions fall under permitted development, while boroughs with an Article 4 direction require a planning application. Building control approval is separate and is usually needed for structural work, new bathrooms and fire safety works. We confirm which applies at survey stage and manage the applications as part of the job.
Yes, and they are priced inside the main quote rather than added later. We install FD30S fire doors with strips, seals and closers, fire-rated wall and ceiling compartmentation, fire-stopping at service penetrations, and a mains-wired interlinked alarm system commissioned and documented at handover.
That is the point of the build. We set room areas against local standards at design stage, install the fire strategy agreed in the quote, and hand over the electrical certificate, gas safety record and alarm commissioning paperwork together at completion. Licensing itself is granted by your council, we make sure the building side is ready for them.
Usually yes. Where a gravity fall to the existing stack is not achievable we use pumped waste, and where the stack itself is undersized for the added load we price a new or upgraded run. Both are established at the survey so there are no mid-build surprises.
Yes for phased works such as adding en-suites or upgrading doors room by room, with escape routes kept usable throughout. Full layout conversions are faster, cleaner and cheaper with the property empty.
Where the existing capacity will not serve the occupied room count, yes. Heating and hot-water demand is recalculated for the new layout, additional circuits and consumer unit capacity are added, and any gas work is carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer on our team.
Yes, £1,000,000 public and employer's liability insurance, Gas Safe registered, Constructionline Gold and CHAS accredited, with notifiable electrics certified through our NICEIC-registered partners.
Every conversion carries our 12-month workmanship guarantee in writing. If anything falls short of the agreed scope inside that period we come back and put it right at no cost to you.
North and West London, including St John's Wood, Paddington, Kensington, Bayswater, Regents Park, Hampstead, Hammersmith, Chiswick and Ealing Broadway. Local surveys are free.
Book your free survey
Ready to price your hmo conversions
the honest way?
One site visit. One fixed-price written quote back the same week. No pressure, no hard sell, just the number and the plan to deliver it.
- Free local survey
- Written quote the same week
- Fixed-price, staged payments
- 12-month workmanship guarantee
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