Landlord Software & Technology
Best HMO management software for UK landlords in 2026
Written by the August editorial team. Last reviewed: May 2026
Managing a House in Multiple Occupation is not the same as managing a standard buy-to-let. It is operationally closer to running a small business, multiple tenants under one roof, individual tenancy agreements for each room, room-level rent tracking, separate deposit records per occupant, utility cost allocation across shared spaces, fire safety obligations that go well beyond a standard rental, and a licensing regime that is simultaneously national, local, and constantly changing.
Standard landlord software is designed around the whole-property tenancy model. One property, one tenancy, one rent figure, one set of certificates. That model breaks the moment you have three unrelated tenants sharing a kitchen. Room-level billing cannot be approximated from property-level billing. Licensing reminders tied to property addresses rather than licence renewal dates miss the point entirely. And compliance checklists built for assured shorthold tenancies do not prompt the fire door inspection, the weekly alarm test log, or the annual licensing renewal that HMO landlords need to track as a matter of statutory duty.
This guide compares the leading HMO management software options available to UK landlords in 2026, assessed specifically on how well they handle the HMO-specific requirements that general platforms either do poorly or ignore entirely.
Who this guide is for: UK landlords managing between one and fifteen HMO properties, either as standalone HMOs or as part of a mixed portfolio including single-lets. Landlords managing larger professional portfolios with dedicated maintenance teams should also read the section on Arthur Online below.
Transparency note: This article is published by August, one of the platforms reviewed. We have aimed to assess each tool against HMO-specific criteria accurately. We did not receive payment from any provider featured here.
Why HMO management software is different
The complexity of HMO management software stems directly from the complexity of HMO compliance. UK HMOs operate under three overlapping licensing regimes, mandatory, additional, and selective, each administered at local authority level with different thresholds, fees, conditions, and renewal dates. Mandatory licensing under the Housing Act 2004 applies nationally to any property occupied by five or more persons from two or more households sharing facilities. Additional licensing extends this to smaller three- and four-person HMOs in areas where a council has introduced its own scheme and as of early 2026, the number of councils doing so is accelerating following the removal of the requirement for Secretary of State approval for schemes in December 2024. Selective licensing applies to all private rented properties in designated areas, HMO or otherwise, adding a further layer of licence tracking obligations.
For a full breakdown of how these three regimes interact and which applies to your specific properties, see our complete guide to landlord licensing across England and Wales and our selective licensing guide. To check whether a specific postcode falls within an active selective licensing scheme, use our selective licensing checker tool.
Beyond licensing, HMO landlords face fire safety obligations that do not apply to standard lets. Fire doors with self-closing mechanisms on all habitable rooms, interlinked fire detection on every storey, fire extinguishers in communal areas, and in larger properties, emergency lighting and thumb-turn locks on escape routes. These are not one-time tasks. Fire detection systems require weekly testing by the landlord with a written log, and fire door inspections should be carried out quarterly. Software that cannot prompt and record these tasks is not fit for purpose in an HMO context.
What to look for in HMO management software
Before reviewing individual platforms, here are the six criteria that separate adequate HMO software from genuinely useful HMO software.
Room-level tenancy management. Can the platform hold individual tenant records, tenancy agreements, rent schedules, and deposit records for each room within a single property address? This is the foundational requirement. If a platform can only model one tenancy per property, it cannot manage an HMO properly.
Licence tracking per property. Does the software track HMO licence details, licence number, issuing authority, expiry date, licence conditions, and remind you of renewal deadlines with sufficient notice? A licence renewal typically requires a full application resubmission to the council, which takes time. A reminder that fires at thirty days is too late.
Fire safety compliance prompts. Does the checklist include weekly fire alarm test logging, quarterly fire door inspections, annual fire risk assessment reminders, and emergency lighting checks? These are conditions of the HMO licence, not optional extras.
Multi-deposit management. Can the platform hold separate deposit protection records for each tenant in the same property, each with their own scheme reference, protection date, and prescribed information record? Deposit protection failures for even one tenant in a five-room HMO can prevent service of a valid possession notice for that tenancy.
Room-level rent tracking. Are arrears visible per room rather than per property? In a five-room HMO, a net payment figure that matches the expected total tells you nothing about which tenant is in arrears and by how much.
Void management. Can you mark individual rooms as vacant and track void periods separately from occupied rooms? HMO yield analysis depends on room-level occupancy data, not property-level figures.
How the platforms compare
August
Best for: Self-managing landlords with light to mid-complexity HMOs, between three and ten rooms, who want compliance, rent tracking, and licensing reminders in a single platform alongside their single-let portfolio.
August supports HMO tenancies with individual tenant records, room-level rent tracking, and separate deposit records per occupant. Each room is set up as a distinct tenancy within the property, with its own rent schedule, payment history, and compliance checklist. The compliance journey is structured at landlord, property, and tenancy level, which maps directly to how HMO obligations work in practice. Licensing obligations sit at property level alongside the gas safety record, EICR, EPC, and insurance. Individual tenancy obligations, deposit protection, prescribed information, Right to Rent checks, move-in alarm checks, sit at tenancy level for each occupant.
Smart suggested reminders fire from document dates rather than manual calendar entries. When you upload the HMO licence, August reads the document, proposes the expiry date, and sets a renewal reminder well in advance. The same logic applies to gas safety certificates, EICRs, and insurance renewals. For fire safety tasks that do not have a document date, weekly alarm tests, quarterly fire door inspections, reminders can be set on recurring schedules with a log of each completed check.
The open banking rent tracking connection, powered by Plaid, imports transactions automatically and matches them to individual room tenancies. Partial payments and split transfers are handled within the room-level ledger. The arrears view shows every room's payment status across the portfolio in a single screen.
August's selective licensing checker helps you identify whether any of your properties fall within an active licensing zone. For landlords who are unsure whether a property qualifies as an HMO in the first place, see our guide to whether your property is actually an HMO, the definition catches more landlords than most expect.
Limitations: August is designed for self-managing landlords with up to around thirty units. For larger or more operationally complex HMOs with a maintenance team, contractor workflows, and multi-user access requirements, Arthur Online's depth is more appropriate. August is built for England and Wales; landlords with Scottish or Northern Irish properties should verify coverage of local licensing requirements.
Pricing: Free for up to two properties. See current pricing for paid plan details.
Arthur Online
Best for: Professional HMO operators and portfolio landlords with larger, more complex properties, typically ten or more rooms, where maintenance team coordination, contractor management, and multi-user workflows are required.
Arthur Online is the most established HMO-specific platform in the UK market. It was designed with multi-occupancy properties in mind from the outset and offers genuine room-level management across its full feature set. Each room has its own tenant record, tenancy agreement, rent schedule, and deposit record. Maintenance works orders can be raised at room level and assigned to contractors directly from the platform. Multi-user access allows different team members to have different permission levels, useful for HMOs where a maintenance coordinator manages repairs but the landlord retains financial oversight.
Compliance reminders cover HMO licensing, gas safety, EICRs, and EPCs. Arthur integrates with Xero for financial reporting and with Rightmove and Zoopla for void room advertising. For landlords managing portfolios where the operational complexity genuinely warrants agency-grade tools, Arthur's depth is the strongest available for HMO-specific use cases.
Limitations: Arthur Online is significantly more complex to set up and operate than self-managing landlord tools. Onboarding requires meaningful time investment, and the feature set is overkill for landlords managing two or three HMOs without a team. Pricing increases with portfolio size and additional module requirements. For a direct comparison with August's feature set, see our August vs Arthur page.
Pricing: From approximately £1 per unit per month, verify current pricing on the Arthur website.
Landlord Vision
Best for: HMO landlords who prioritise accounting depth alongside compliance, and who want detailed financial reporting across a mixed single-let and HMO portfolio.
Landlord Vision supports multi-unit properties with room-level rent tracking and document storage. Its accounting suite is the most comprehensive of any dedicated landlord platform, over fifty accountant-approved reports, full double-entry bookkeeping, and confirmed MTD compatibility on the GOV.UK recognised software list. For landlords whose accountants require SA105-ready output and who want compliance reminders alongside their financial reporting, Landlord Vision offers a functional HMO toolkit within a broader accounting-first platform.
HMO licence tracking is available as part of the document and reminder system. The compliance functionality is reminder-based rather than guided checklist-based, which means it alerts you when a deadline approaches but does not walk you through what the licence conditions require.
Limitations: The interface is desktop-first and less suited to landlords who manage primarily on mobile. No AI-assisted document reading, so licence and certificate dates require manual entry. For a direct comparison see our August vs Landlord Vision page.
Pricing: From £19.99 per month, tiered by portfolio size.
Landlord Studio
Best for: HMO landlords who want mobile-first rent tracking and expense management, and whose accountant uses Xero.
Landlord Studio supports multi-tenant properties with room-level income tracking and its mobile app's receipt scanning and mileage tracking are best in class. For HMO landlords who primarily manage on their phone and want clean financial records for their accountant without a desktop-heavy platform, Landlord Studio's mobile experience is the strongest in the comparison.
Limitations: HMO compliance features are limited. There is no guided compliance checklist, no HMO licence tracking as a distinct feature, and fire safety task prompts are not built in. For landlords where compliance is the primary concern, which for most HMO operators it should be, Landlord Studio requires a separate compliance system. For a direct comparison see our August vs Landlord Studio page.
Pricing: Per unit, check current rates on the Landlord Studio website.
HMO compliance in 2026: what your software must track
The compliance burden of an HMO in 2026 is substantially heavier than it was five years ago. The Renters' Rights Act, which came into force on 1 May 2026, abolished section 21 no-fault evictions. For HMO landlords, this means that recovering possession of an individual room now requires a section 8 notice supported by documented evidence. In a shared property with five or more tenants, the standard of record-keeping required to pursue a legitimate possession claim, payment history by room, communication logs with individual tenants, maintenance response records, compliance certificate dates, demands a system rather than a folder.
The licensing compliance picture has also shifted. Over sixty local authorities in England now operate active selective licensing schemes following the December 2024 removal of the central government approval requirement. Many of these councils are also running additional HMO licensing schemes that capture three- and four-person properties previously below the mandatory threshold. Landlords who have not reviewed their licensing position since 2023 may be operating unlicensed without knowing it.
Operating an unlicensed HMO is a criminal offence. Civil penalties of up to £30,000 per offence apply. Councils can also issue rent repayment orders requiring landlords to repay up to twelve months of rent to tenants or the local authority. For a current picture of which local authorities have introduced new licensing schemes in 2026, see our landlord licensing in 2026 article.
The fire safety obligations that apply as licence conditions are non-negotiable and regularly inspected by local authority housing officers. Every HMO licence requires annual submission of a gas safety certificate, maintenance of electrical appliances in a safe condition, smoke alarms on every storey, and from October 2022, carbon monoxide alarms in every room with a fixed combustion appliance. For a full breakdown of alarm requirements, see our guide to carbon monoxide alarm regulations for landlords.
HMO management software and Making Tax Digital
For HMO landlords above the income threshold, the shift to Making Tax Digital from April 2026 adds a further requirement to the software selection decision. MTD requires digital records of rental income at property level, which for an HMO means per-room income recorded accurately throughout the year, not reconstructed at quarter-end. A software platform that tracks rent per room and exports clean figures by property and period is well-positioned for MTD. One that aggregates income at property level without room-level granularity creates additional reconciliation work every quarter.
For a full explanation of MTD requirements, income thresholds, and the April 2027 extension to the £30,000 threshold, see our complete guide to Making Tax Digital for landlords. If you are considering a limited company structure for your HMO portfolio, a common approach given Section 24 mortgage interest restrictions, see our guide to how rental income is taxed in the UK for the relevant comparison.
Which HMO management software is right for you
For self-managing landlords with between one and ten rooms across one to five HMO properties, August provides the strongest combination of room-level rent tracking, HMO compliance prompts, licensing reminders, and open banking integration in a platform designed specifically for the self-managing market. The free tier covers up to two properties, making it accessible for landlords testing whether dedicated software improves their workflow before committing to a paid plan.
For larger professional portfolios with maintenance teams, contractor workflows, and multi-user requirements, Arthur Online's depth justifies its setup complexity and higher cost. It is the most capable HMO-specific platform in the UK market for complex operations.
For landlords whose primary concern is accounting depth and MTD compliance alongside HMO rent tracking, Landlord Vision's reporting suite is the most comprehensive available.
For a broader comparison of these platforms across rent tracking, compliance, expenses, and general property management, beyond HMO-specific features, see our best property management software for UK landlords guide. For a complete overview of the HMO market, investment yields, and the evolution of the sector in 2026, see our article on the next HMO evolution for UK landlords.
About this review
Written by the August editorial team, who work with self-managing UK landlords and property professionals across England and Wales to produce practical, accurate guidance on HMO compliance, licensing, and property management software. August is one of the platforms reviewed in this article. Where we discuss our own product alongside alternatives, we have aimed to be accurate about what each tool does and for whom it is best suited. Last reviewed: May 2026. About August.
Disclaimer: This article is a guide and not intended to be relied upon as legal or professional advice, or as a substitute for it. August does not accept any liability for any errors, omissions or misstatements contained in this article. Always speak to a suitably qualified professional if you require specific advice or information.
Author
August Team
The August editorial team lives and breathes rental property. They work closely with a panel of experienced landlords and industry partners across the UK, turning real-world portfolio and tenancy experience into clear, practical guidance for small landlords.
