HMO
How much does HMO management cost?
Last updated 4 July 2026 · Reviewed by Nick Thorpe, founder
The short answer
Livdin manages HMOs for 12% of monthly rent plus VAT, against 10% for a single let. Tenant find is £300 per tenant, referencing £30 per tenant, and deposit registration is included. On a five-room Huddersfield HMO letting within our current room range of £430 to £560, management works out at £258 to £336 a month plus VAT.
The headline number is simple: HMO management with Livdin is 12% of monthly rent plus VAT, published in full on our fees page. The more useful questions are what that percentage buys, why it is higher than the 10% we charge on a single let, and what it looks like in pounds on a real house. Here is the full picture.
What Livdin charges for HMO management
HMO management is 12% of the monthly rent plus VAT. Around it sit the setup and compliance fees from our published Landlord Schedules (April 2026). Everything below is plus VAT:
| Fee | HMO | Single let |
|---|---|---|
| Management (of monthly rent) | 12% | 10% |
| Find a tenant | £300 per tenant | £400 |
| Referencing | £30 per tenant | £35 per tenant |
| Inventory | £30 per room and communal area | £55 |
| Deposit registration | Included | £30 |
| Gas safety certificate | £75 | £80 (boiler only) |
Maintenance is charged at contractor cost with no markup, on HMOs and single lets alike. There are no hidden charges; the whole schedule is public.
The per-room economics
An HMO earns room by room, and the management fee follows the same logic. In Huddersfield, our current letting ranges, maintained by our lettings team, as of July 2026, put HD1 rooms at £430 to £560 a month and HD9 rooms at £460 to £590. These are working estimates from what we actually let, not formal valuations.
That per-room income is why the percentage lands on a bigger number than a single let. The same lettings ranges put an HD1 whole property at £595 to £850 a month. Five rooms at HD1 rates gross £2,150 to £2,800 a month, which is more than three times the single-let figure for the area.
A worked example: a five-room HMO in HD1
Take a five-room HMO letting within our current HD1 room range:
| Low end | High end | |
|---|---|---|
| Five rooms let (£430 to £560 each) | £2,150 a month | £2,800 a month |
| Management at 12% | £258 a month | £336 a month |
| Management over a full year | £3,096 | £4,032 |
All fees plus VAT. For comparison, an HD1 single let at £595 to £850 a month would cost £59.50 to £85 a month at 10%. The HMO fee is roughly four times bigger in cash terms, on rent that is more than three times higher, with considerably more than four times the moving parts.
If every room turned over at once, a full re-let would add £1,500 in tenant finding (£300 times five), £150 in referencing (£30 times five) and inventories at £30 per room and communal area. In practice rooms rarely all change at the same time, so those costs arrive in ones and twos.
Why HMO management costs more than a single let
Because there is more of everything. Three things drive it:
- Turnover. Rooms change hands more often than family houses, and every changeover is a small tenancy in its own right: advertising, viewings, referencing with right to rent checks, deposit registration, inventory and check-in. Our void target is 7 days from checkout to move-in, and hitting that on room after room takes real hours.
- Licensing and compliance. In England a licence is mandatory when five or more people from two or more households share, and some councils run additional schemes covering smaller HMOs. Licence conditions bring fire safety obligations, room standards and inspections. Kirklees runs mandatory licensing only, as of mid 2026; there is more in our guide to HMO licences in Huddersfield. Rules change, so we confirm the current requirements with the council on every HMO we take on.
- Communal areas. Kitchens, bathrooms and hallways that belong to everyone and therefore no one. We run a regular communal clean at £60 plus VAT every three weeks (£80 for the first), inspect the shared spaces, and referee the occasional dispute about whose milk that was.
What is not in the 12%
The percentage covers the day-to-day running: rent collection, tenant issues, arranging maintenance and the regular oversight of the house. Priced separately, all plus VAT: gas safety at £75, EPC at £125, EICR priced on application, rent and legal protection at £275 per room per year, and court or bailiff attendance at £50 an hour if a tenancy goes badly wrong. Maintenance itself is always at contractor cost with no markup.
Is paying an agent worth it on an HMO?
Honestly, not always. If you live near the property, know the licensing rules and have time for five tenants’ worth of messages, self-managing keeps the 12% in your pocket. An agent earns the fee when the sums above meet a landlord who values their evenings: one licensed, inspected, cleaned and fully let house, with the rent arriving as one line on a statement. That is what our HMO management service is built to do, and if you are still weighing up the model itself rather than the fee, start with our guide to HMO vs single let.