Fire separation and escape routes
We upgrade walls, ceilings and doors to the fire resistance a protected escape route requires, and can fit fire doors and interlinked alarms as part of the same programme.
Kingston upon Thames, London KT2 6QW [email protected]
HMO compliance works in Richmond upon Thames
HMO compliance in Richmond upon Thames, London
Lian Construction brings London rental properties up to HMO licensing standard, covering fire separation, protected escape routes, room sizes and amenity requirements. We work with landlords and letting agents across the capital on both mandatory and additional licensing schemes, surveying the property first, then pricing and scheduling the works needed to meet the conditions your local authority will check on inspection. This covers everything from a single fire door replacement to a full room-by-room reconfiguration of a converted house.
Richmond upon Thames overview
HMO compliance in Richmond upon Thames
Neighbouring Kingston, with a similar stock of period and riverside properties suited to full refurbishment and roof replacement work. Richmond upon Thames falls well within the South West London ground Lian Construction covers on a regular basis. For hmo compliance work in Richmond upon Thames, that local knowledge means fewer surprises once work is on site and a team that already understands the borough's typical property stock.
Richmond upon Thames sits alongside Kingston and shares a similar mix of period and riverside properties. Expect a good number of Victorian and Edwardian terraces and villas, along with detached and semi-detached houses from the interwar years, many with later extensions and loft conversions added over time. Riverside stretches bring their own building types, older properties close to the water that were built before modern damp-proofing standards, along with some larger detached houses on wider plots. As with much of outer London, roofs on this older stock tend to be slate or clay tile, often original or close to it, with the valleys, flashings, and chimneys typically the first parts to need attention. Loft space is often tight in these properties, which makes roofline work and extensions a common route for adding usable space rather than moving house. This combination of age, riverside exposure, and a general preference among owners to extend and upgrade rather than relocate is what tends to drive demand for full refurbishment and roof replacement work in this part of south west London.
Given the age and type of housing stock, roof replacement and full refurbishment work tend to be steady sources of demand in Richmond upon Thames, much as they are in neighbouring Kingston. Owners of period and riverside properties are often dealing with roofs and structural elements that are decades past their original install, so replacement or significant repair becomes a practical necessity rather than a cosmetic choice. Riverside proximity can also mean a closer eye needed on damp and moisture-related issues, which often surface alongside roofing problems and get picked up during a wider refurbishment. Because this is an area where owners tend to invest in upgrading rather than moving, full refurbishment projects, spanning roofing, structural work, and internal modernisation, are a natural fit for the type of property found here. For a homeowner or landlord, this generally means budgeting for work that addresses the building as a whole rather than a single room, and choosing a contractor comfortable working on older properties where standard modern assumptions about structure, insulation, or roof pitch may not apply. Landlords with older buy-to-let stock in particular tend to prioritise roof condition, since it affects both letting standards and long-term maintenance costs.
With period property forming a significant part of the housing stock in this part of south west London, conservation area status and, in some cases, listed building designation are worth checking before starting work. Many outer London boroughs have conservation areas covering older residential streets, and these can affect what materials and roof profiles are acceptable, along with rules around extensions, dormers, and changes to the front of a property. Riverside locations sometimes carry additional planning considerations too. None of this means work cannot go ahead, but it usually means a bit more upfront checking with the local council before committing to a design or materials choice. As a general rule, it is worth confirming conservation area or listed status early, since it shapes what a roof replacement or extension can look like and how long approval might take.
Room sizes and amenity provision
Under the mandatory HMO licensing conditions that apply nationally, a bedroom occupied by one person aged 10 or over needs a minimum floor area of 6.51 sqm, two adults sharing a room need 10.22 sqm, and a room used by a single child under 10 needs at least 4.64 sqm. These are the baseline figures under the mandatory conditions of licence regulations, but they are a floor, not a target. Boroughs such as Newham, Croydon and Waltham Forest run additional or selective licensing schemes covering far more of their private rented stock, and some apply amenity standards on top of the mandatory conditions, so we treat the specific scheme covering the property as the reference document rather than assuming the national minimum is the final word. Where an existing room falls short, the fix depends on what's next to it. A boxroom or deep alcove next door can sometimes be absorbed by removing a stud partition and rebuilding the wall in a new position, which is usually the cheapest route if the structure allows it. Where there's no room to borrow space from, we look at whether a smaller room could be repurposed as a bathroom or second kitchen instead of a bedroom, which changes the room count the licence is assessed against. Amenity ratios get checked with the same scrutiny. Most councils expect one kitchen for up to five sharing tenants and one bathroom or WC for every four to five, with a minimum number of cooking rings, an oven, a sink and adequate worktop space scaled to occupancy. Inspectors count fittings, not intentions, so a landing with a kettle and microwave won't be accepted as a second kitchen. We've fitted second kitchens and shower rooms into understairs voids and former coal stores, converted boxrooms into ensuites, and split oversized double rooms into two compliant singles with a new stud wall, skirting and door set to match. Getting the room count, sizes and amenity ratio agreed against the correct licensing scheme before work starts is what stops a landlord paying twice for partition changes once an inspecting officer measures the finished rooms. Ceiling height matters too, and it's the detail people miss most often. Where a room has a sloped ceiling, typically a loft conversion or an attic bedroom in a Victorian terrace, only the area with a ceiling height of at least 1.5 metres usually counts toward the minimum floor area, so a room that looks large on paper can measure short once the sloped sections are excluded. We check this with a laser measure against the actual usable footprint rather than the overall room dimensions on a floor plan. Storage and refuse provision come up less often but do get raised at some inspections, particularly where a conversion has removed a garden shed or coal store that tenants previously used, and we can build in a lockable external store or internal cupboard space as part of the same programme where the council's scheme expects it.
Signs to look for
Do you need hmo compliance in Richmond upon Thames?
- Property is a converted Victorian terrace with three or more storeys sharing a single staircase and no fire-rated bedroom doors.
- Bedrooms measure close to or under 6.51 square metres, which may fail the minimum room size check at licensing inspection.
- Smoke alarms are battery-only rather than mains-wired and interlinked, which most councils flag as a fail at inspection.
- Kitchen or bathroom is shared by more tenants than the borough's amenity ratio allows for that number of occupants.
How the work is handled in Richmond upon Thames
- Step 1Review borough HMO standards
- Step 2Survey the property against them
- Step 3Price and complete the required works
- Step 4Provide documentation for licensing
Questions
HMO compliance questions in Richmond upon Thames
How quickly can Lian start hmo compliance work in Richmond upon Thames?
Richmond upon Thames is part of our regular South West London coverage, so once we've surveyed the property we can usually confirm a start date quickly. Send the address and scope and we'll arrange the next step.
Do you cover all of Richmond upon Thames?
Yes. Richmond upon Thames falls within the area Lian Construction serves across Greater London.
What's the minimum bedroom size for an HMO in London?
Under the national mandatory conditions, a room used as a bedroom by one person aged 10 or over needs at least 6.51 sqm, two adults sharing a room need 10.22 sqm, and a room for a single child under 10 needs at least 4.64 sqm. These are the baseline figures set out in the mandatory licensing conditions, but they're not always the final word. A number of boroughs running additional or selective licensing schemes apply their own room size standards on top of the national minimums, occasionally higher, and some also set rules around ceiling height reducing the usable floor area if a room has sloped ceilings in a loft conversion. We always check the specific scheme covering the property's borough before treating any figure as fixed, then measure the existing rooms against it and flag any that fall short before pricing partition or reconfiguration work.
Do we need building regulations approval as well as an HMO licence?
Often yes, and it's worth understanding these are two separate processes that need to line up. Fire doors, partition changes, new bathrooms or kitchens, and any alterations affecting escape routes typically fall under Building Regulations, particularly Part B for fire safety, which is separate from the HMO licensing process run by the council's housing team. Licensing conditions set out what the council wants to see in the finished property; Building Regulations govern how the work itself has to be done, inspected and signed off, sometimes by building control and sometimes under a competent person scheme depending on the trade. We build both requirements into the same specification from the outset so the finished work satisfies the licence conditions an inspecting officer will check and has the correct building control sign-off or completion certificate, rather than treating them as two separate jobs that risk ending up in conflict with each other.
Do you handle the HMO licence application itself?
No, the licence application itself goes to the council and is normally handled directly by the landlord or their letting agent, since it involves personal declarations, fit and proper person checks, and financial details we're not party to. What we do is carry out the building work the licence conditions require, whether that's fire doors and alarms or a full reconfiguration, and we can provide photos, product certificates for fire doors and alarm systems, and a written specification of the completed works, which landlords typically need to submit alongside the application form or show an inspecting officer at the first licence visit. If a council asks a specific technical question about how a fire door or partition was constructed, we're happy to put that in writing directly.
Does converting a house into an HMO need planning permission?
It depends on the borough and the size of the HMO you're creating. Many parts of London sit within an Article 4 direction that removes permitted development rights for small HMOs housing up to six unrelated occupants, which means full planning permission is needed even for a fairly modest conversion that wouldn't otherwise need it. Larger HMOs housing seven or more occupants need planning permission everywhere in London regardless of Article 4 status, since that size falls outside permitted development entirely. Article 4 coverage varies block by block in some boroughs rather than applying borough-wide, so we can't confirm the position for a specific address without checking the local planning register. We'd recommend checking this before committing to a conversion, and we can flag anything relevant as part of our initial survey before any building work is priced.
Talk to Lian Construction about Richmond upon Thames
Send the site address in Richmond upon Thames, photos if available, and the hmo compliance work you need. We can review the scope and arrange the next step.