When investigating people or businesses in the UK, property records are often among the most revealing assets. They can help locate individuals, identify valuable holdings, and uncover sources of income.
One of the most underused resources is the public registers for House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) and Selective Licences. Published by local councils, these records can reveal where someone lives, what they own, and how they might be profiting from rental activity. Yet many investigators overlook them or don’t know how to access them efficiently.
What Are HMO and Selective Licences?
There are two types of licences that can help investigators determine rental activity in the UK:
- HMO Licences: Required for properties rented to 3+ unrelated tenants sharing kitchen/bathroom facilities. It is estimated there are around 400k registered HMOs in the UK.
- Selective Licences: Apply to single-family or smaller rentals in designated council areas aimed at improving housing standards. Although only ~20% of councils run selective licensing schemes, many large councils, such as Birmingham, do, making these records valuable.
Typical Data Fields:
- Rental property address
- Licence holder’s name (individual or company)
- Landlord’s home address (in many cases)
- Licence issue/expiry dates
These licences are usually available through online public registers, although some smaller councils do not have online registers.
Why HMO and Selective Licence Records Matter in Investigations
Whether you’re investigating an individual, mapping a business network, or tracing assets, both datasets can help:
- Determine a subject’s home address
- Uncover additional rental properties linked to a landlord
- Highlight undeclared income or portfolio scale
- Spot individuals operating behind company names
- Reveal financial inconsistencies or hidden assets
For fraud investigators, it can highlight undeclared income. For law enforcement or private investigators, it can help place a subject at a location. And for journalists or researchers, it can add transparency to opaque property networks.
Where to Access Rental Data
- Council websites (check borough-by-borough)
- Public Insights — Cradle and Canvas offer consolidated, searchable HMO and selective licences across the UK
Companies vs Individuals
A common challenge is that some rental licences are registered under a company name, while others are under the personal name of a director. That means you must always search both the company name and the directors’ names to get full coverage.
Public Insights allows you to search by name for both entities, showing all associated licensed properties nationally, helping to overcome the fragmented nature of council registers that often only allow you to search by property address.
Limitations and Tips
- Each council uses a different portal or spreadsheet, and search options vary. Some councils provide Excel spreadsheets, while others list licences in PDFs or web tables.
- You usually can’t search by landlord name, only by address in council registers. This is why many investigators use Cradle, which reverses the process to let you search by a person or business name.
- Some properties may not appear, as licensing varies by area, and enforcement is inconsistent.
Red Flags to Look For
- Multiple licensed properties under one person
- Discrepancies between rental footprint and income
- Missing licences where planning indicates shared occupancy
- Directors of property companies with personal HMO licences
Advanced Technique: Portfolio Mapping
Licensed HMOs are often just part of someone’s rental activity. Combine HMO licence data with:
- Planning application data (look for loft conversions or multi-occupancy extensions)
- Business registrations (letting agencies or shell companies)
- Director and PSC data from Companies House
- Electoral roll entries
This helps to build a map of all addresses connected to a subject, whether rented out, owned, or lived in. This is especially useful when searching for property assets in insolvency or legal proceedings, estimating the scale of rental income, or finding unlicensed HMOs.
Sometimes, individuals convert properties into HMOs without applying for a licence. If you find a planning application for a loft conversion or interior reconfiguration that indicates shared occupancy and suspect it's being rented as a shared house, check whether a licence exists.
A lack of a licence is often a sign of an unlicensed HMO, which could be a breach of regulations. This is particularly useful when identifying undeclared income or highlighting non-compliance in a rental portfolio.
Advanced Technique: Lifestyle and Wealth Mapping
HMO licences can hint at a subject’s financial situation and network influence:
- Multiple licences = multiple revenue streams
- Cross-region ownership = possible letting agency role or a professional landlord
- Expensive or commercial properties = signs of wealth
Used alongside insolvency filings, professional registers, and planning records, this helps build a picture of how well-connected, influential, or high-risk someone may be.
Investigative Workflow
Let’s say you find a licence held by a company. Now look deeper:
- Who are the directors and PSCs?
- Are any of them listed as licence holders personally?
- What other companies are they connected to?
- Are there minority shareholders listed in confirmation statements that aren’t on the public company page?
You may find individuals hiding behind layers of companies, but appearing directly in licence records. These connections help establish true beneficial ownership of properties.
Finding the Value in Rental Licences
Rental licence data from HMO and Selective schemes is one of the most underused investigative tools in the UK. It offers a window into lifestyle, income, and location, helping you expose undeclared assets, trace rental portfolios, and find the true links between people and properties.
If you regularly investigate UK-based individuals or businesses, these datasets deserve a place in your workflow.
Explore how Public Insights can support your OSINT investigations with a trial at cradle.publicinsights.uk.