Oadby & Wigston Selective Licensing 2025 – Key Facts
- Starts: 10 November 2025
- Fee: £850 (discounts may reduce this to £600)
- Late Application Fee: £1,150 after 10 Nov
- Non-Compliance Penalties: Fines up to £30,000
- Rent Repayment Orders: Up to 2 years’ rent
- Download: Free O&W Selective Licensing Checklist
A Google search into Dulwich paints a lovely scene
…”an affluent, village-like neighbourhood with a row of indie boutiques and smart restaurants at its heart. Broad paths wind through the area’s elegant namesake park, which has a winter garden, sports pitches, and a boating lake with pedalos”.
It sounds rather lovely. I guess it must be if a decent – if unexceptional – four-bedroom detached house there can let for £3,200 per month.
Selective Licensing deals with “the misery of poor standards of housing”
Southwark Council, the responsible local authority, state that their Selective Licensing scheme aims to tackle renters’ biggest concerns: “neglected repairs, unresponsive landlords, and damp and mould“…which the council “wants to see eliminated from rental properties“.
Quite right.
So the £3,200 paid for what was until recently the family home of Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer of this fair land, must be for a property that exposes her tenants to the kinds of deprivation that the council shudders about, because her property requires such a Selective License. Mustn’t it?
Is Selective Licensing very…selective?
Now I don’t know how the Reeves family live, but I’d hazard a guess they didn’t actually reside in a house of such “misery”. And given that they engaged a local agent (of whom more later), I’d also hazard they didn’t expect to fall into the category of landlords Southward Council describe as leaving tenants with “nowhere to turn if their landlord didn’t get problems sorted”.
But, merely because Ms Reeves’ house is somewhere adjacent to an area where there are some poor standards of housing (of all tenures mind, not just private rented), she is legally required to pay £945 and to supply the various certifications required to prove it is up to standard.
It literally doesn’t matter a jot if the house far exceeds the minimum requirements, the mere proximity to others that do not renders this landlord liable to pay.
It’s like never having speeded…but being fined regardless
The analogy is that if some people are fined for speeding in an area of town, every single other person who ever drives there must be fined too.
Can you hear the lunacy in that?
Clearly Rachel Reeves can’t: she has posted vigorously, enthusiastically, for Selective Licensing in her own constituency in Leeds. Three posts on X stated she was right behind the need for it, landlords, it seems, being scourges to be reined in.
So it’s kind of hilarious (but also mystifying) that she didn’t ensure that she had secured a Selective License herself… apparently her agency failed to apply. That omission exposes her to risks of up to £30,000 in fines for a clear breach of Section 80 Housing Act 2004 – unlikely to be levied for an admitted oversight, not least because Southwark Council is Labour controlled – but also a twelve month Rent Repayment Order – potentially far more likely, as there seems little protection in her case.
And the relevance to Wigston landlords?
There is a point.
Oadby & Wigston Borough Council has just announced an expansion of their Selective Licensing scheme. If you own a rental property in the borough, you may now fall into the designated area – it depends on the exact street your property is on.
The council should contact every landlord of rentals in the appropriate streets, but as an affected landlord myself I can confirm that nothing has landed in my inbox. And that’s the first real risk: many landlords will simply have no idea this applies to them.
Which is why we are publicising the new Oadby & Wigston Selective Licensing rules widely – to keep landlords on the right side of the law.
Here’s the map and the list of streets in the expanded area for O&WBC’s Selective Licensing area, 2025.
Vital Oadby & Wigston Selective Licensing Information
The new Oadby & Wigston Selective Licensing scheme starts on 10 November 2025. Once secured, a licence lasts for five years.
The standard total cost is £850:
€¢ £450 application fee
€¢ £400 subsistence fee
(Nope, I have no idea what a “subsistence fee” is either…)
🤔 We looked…but we didn’t find
- A public explanatory note or breakdown of what the €œsubsistence fee€ covers in everyday language.
- For example: terms like €œsubsistence fee covers ongoing compliance monitoring, enforcement and renewal administration€ (which appear in some other councils’ webpages) are not clearly presented on the O&WBC site.
- So, the Council doesn’t publicly spell out what the £400 subsistence fee covers €” we interpret it as ongoing compliance monitoring, etc
- A thought: if a publicly accountable body is going to charge a lot of money, it would be nice (i.e. absolutely fundamental to expected norms) to say what the charge is for…
There are, however, some discounts for O&W Selective Licensing
- Early application discount – only available until 10 November
- Landlord accreditation discount: £100
- Multiple properties: £50 per additional licence
- Re-licensing (returning from prior scheme): £50
The €œbest case€ scenario:
Accredited landlords who are also renewing any previous licence will pay £600.
For the early application discount – only available until 10th November – we have direct access to the O&WBC team and can advise you urgently so talk to Gosia Prazeniak, our director and compliance lead, at Northwood Leicester asap.
Don’t Delay – fines are in play
Enforcement begins 10 November 2025. Any application made after that date attracts a late application fee – pushing the cost to £1,150 (£750 application + £400 subsistence).
Still not quite Leicester City Council’s eye-watering £1,290 late fee (one of the highest in the country), but hardly trivial.
This is just the start: an unlicensed property can be subject to civil enforcement penalties, totaling £30,000. Remember, civil penalties are monies that the council can keep, so they have a strong incentive to crack down hard.
While a council may show discretion for a genuine oversight that is immediately corrected, it is the next consequence that should make every landlord sit up.
Could you afford to pay back every penny of the rent for two years?
Arguably the most serious penalty facing a landlord who fails to secure his or her Selective License is the right of a tenant to seek a Rent Repayment Order.
Because failing to licence is a criminal offence, the First Tier Tribunal can order repayment of rent from the moment the property was first let without the licence in place.
So, at least in theory, if not applied for by 10th November 2025, Wigston landlords are laying themselves open to a tenant (or the council) applying for the RRO to the First Tier Tribunal.
Under the new Renters Rights Act, passed into law on 28 October, the maximum RRO has increased from 12 months to two years’ rent.
Let’s put that into perspective:
If your Wigston rental produces £950 per month, the exposure is £22,800.
For a £1,250 per month property, it’s £30,000.
💡 Did you know?
A tenant does not need your permission to apply for a Rent Repayment Order – and the council can apply even if the tenant doesn’t.
You can see why Selective Licensing is not something to €œget around to at some point€.
There’s help available
There may not be much good news surrounding the illogicality of Selective Licensing, but you don’t have to navigate this alone.
Use our free Wigston Selective Licensing Checklist to go through the application process. Set aside a few hours to gather together your documents, to create a Fire Safety Risk Assessment with a floorplan, and to go through the online application process with the payment requirements.
👉 Get your free O&W Selective Licensing Checklist now
As an indication, my own full application took me an hour, but I have every document to hand in our digital pack, and a recently completed Fire Safety Risk Assessment. If your compliance paperwork isn’t quite as orderly, you may find our Application Service a relief.
How to apply for a Selective Licence in Oadby & Wigston
The documents you will need to provide are:
- Proof of ID
- Proof of Address
- Copy of current gas safety certificate (if applicable)
- Satisfactory Electrical installation condition report
- Proof of a buy to let mortgage
- Fire safety risk assessment. Fire Safety Risk Assessment (Word Document, 50 Kb) Guidance: Fire Safety Risk Assessment Guidance (Word Document, 15.4 Kb)
- Copy of any tenancy agreements (for current tenants)
- Energy performance certificate (EPC)
- Information about any person(s) with interest in the property
You’ll also need to do a Fit and Proper Person check. Proof of membership of your accredited landlord body will also be necessary.
Use Northwood Leicester’s Selective Licensing Sherpas
Gosia and her team have been dealing with Selective Licensing for years. No agent in the region has the depth of practical experience we do – and our relationships with the relevant council officers put us in a strong position when dealing with applications, queries, and inspections.
We attend the property inspections that some councils demand, and we know what the inspectors are focusing on.
In short, rely on us if you choose to take the full Selective Licensing Application Service with Northwood Leicester. Get all the details here.
Which brings us back to the failure of the agent that Rachel Reeves chose in Dulwich: they simply let the processing of the application slip through the net, exposing one of the highest officers in the land to both huge potential sanctions (a Rent Repayment Order of £38,400 for instance) and, it has to be said, a lot of national news front-page ridicule.
Choose an agent who knows what they’re doing and ensures you know where you stand.
When we start any new tenancy, we create a full digital compliance bundle – every document a landlord needs to evidence that the tenant received all legally required paperwork. If you ever need to claim on Rent Guarantee insurance or bring a possession claim in court, that bundle is gold dust.
And of course your bundle is always updated as new docs become relevant…including your Selective Licence. So for landlords needing to secure the Oadby & Wigston Selective License for the first time, we check all your documents for compliance and then add your new licence to your digital bundle once secured.
We know how to provide peace of mind, and we know the importance of ensuring you have what every landlord needs, compliance confidence.
If you ever intend to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, you’ll probably want to have that buttoned down.
Enjoyed this? You may also find our Leicester Selective Licensing blogs helpful.
PS
If you’d rather not deal with the paperwork, we can take care of the entire Selective Licensing process for you €” Gosia and the team make it painless. Just WhatsApp on 07594 476403 for a quick chat about what you need
