Let a building room by room, and keep HMO records

If you let each property as a whole, nothing changes for you. Your properties, tenancies, rent and price work exactly as before. The one thing you will see is your property's type under its address, with an Edit link, because you can now change the type after adding a property.

Letting room by room. When you add a property and choose HMO as its type, LetSorted asks one question: is it let on one agreement for the whole property, or on a separate agreement for each room? You can change the answer later. If you choose a separate agreement for each room, each bedroom on the property's room list becomes a room you let, with its own tenant, rent, deposit and tenant portal. The property page shows a tab for each room, and a tenant sees only their own rent.

A deposit deadline for each room. Each room's tenancy has its own deposit, and each deposit has its own deadline: protect it and give the prescribed information within 30 days beginning with the day that deposit was received (Housing Act 2004 s.213(3) and (6)). Each room shows its own "Protect by" date, and the property page names any room whose deposit you have not recorded as protected.

HMO records. Every property you mark as an HMO gets a records section, however it is let. Letting on one agreement does not change whether a property is an HMO; that turns on the tests in Housing Act 2004 s.254, not on the number of agreements. The section keeps:

• what your council told you about licensing, recorded as your answer, with a link to find your council's HMO licensing on GOV.UK;
• your licence document, with a reminder before it expires;
• dated checks for escape routes and fire equipment, the shared areas, water and drainage, waste, and the manager's details on display. Each check keeps its history, so recording a new date never overwrites an earlier one.

LetSorted does not tell you whether your property is an HMO or whether it needs a licence. It records what you tell it and reminds you when something is due.

Inspections. On a property let room by room, a room's move-in and move-out inspections cover that room. A separate record covers the shared areas, and periodic inspections cover the whole building.

Pricing. £2.99 a month per unit, and your earliest unit across all your properties is free. A property let as a whole is one unit, so if all your properties are let that way, your bill is unchanged. A property let room by room has one unit for each bedroom on its room list.

If anything is unclear, write to [email protected].