Free tool
HouseFile’s licensing checker, for AI assistants
The address to add
https://www.housefile.app/mcp
There’s no account to make and no key to paste. It’s free.
Add it to Claude
- Open Customize, then Connectors.
- Press + Add, then Add custom connector.
- Name it HouseFile licensing, paste the address above, and press Add.
Every Claude plan can add custom connectors, and the free plan can add one. On a Team or Enterprise plan an owner adds it for everyone, under Organization settings, then Connectors. Anthropic’s own guide is Get started with custom connectors.
In Claude Code, one command adds it:
claude mcp add --transport http housefile-licensing https://www.housefile.app/mcp
ChatGPT and other assistants
OpenAI’s help page lists custom MCP servers for ChatGPT Business, Enterprise and Edu workspaces. An admin adds one from Plugins, with the plus button and Add custom MCP server, and pastes the address above.
Any other assistant or app that connects to MCP servers over Streamable HTTP can use the same address.
What to ask
- Does 12 Mare Street, E8 1DY need a selective licence?
- I’m letting a house in Croydon to five students from three households. Which licences apply?
- What licensing schemes does Manchester run, and what do they cost?
- Which councils are bringing in licensing in the next six months?
Behind those questions the assistant has four tools:
- check_property_licensing
- Takes a postcode, and who lives there if you say, and returns each scheme in force there with its dates, fee, council source and the date our records were checked.
- list_council_schemes
- Lists one council’s schemes: in force, starting soon, proposed, and ended in the last year.
- upcoming_licensing_changes
- Shows schemes proposed or about to start, and recent changes, for one council or all of them.
- licensing_coverage
- Lists the councils our records cover, so the assistant can tell you when yours isn’t one of them.
Councils our records cover
- Bracknell Forest checked 28 Aug 2026, no scheme
- Brent 3 in force
- Brighton & Hove 2 in force
- Croydon 2 in force
- Ealing 2 in force
- Enfield 2 in force
- Hackney 2 in force
- Harrow 6 in force
- Leeds 1 in force
- Liverpool 1 in force
- Manchester 14 in force
- Newham 2 in force
- Nottingham 2 in force
- Reading 1 in force
- Slough 0 in force
- Southwark 3 in force
- Tower Hamlets 1 in force
- Waltham Forest 2 in force
- West Berkshire checked 28 Aug 2026, no scheme
- Windsor and Maidenhead checked 28 Aug 2026, no scheme
- Wokingham checked 28 Aug 2026, no scheme
For any other council the assistant says our records don’t hold its schemes yet, and points to the council’s own website. It never takes a missing record to mean there’s no scheme.
What it can’t tell you
Our records place a postcode at its centre point, so near the edge of a scheme an address with that postcode can fall on the other side. The answer says when a postcode is near an edge, and links to the council’s map.
Mandatory HMO licensing depends on who lives in the property, so the assistant asks how many people and households there are. Our records cover councils in England, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own systems.
The same records are on the licensing checker, if you’d rather look up a postcode yourself.
This checker reflects HouseFile’s records of council licensing designations, not the councils’ live registers. Our records indicate the position at the verification date shown on each result. Schemes are designated, renewed and revoked throughout the year, and postcode-level lookups are approximate near scheme boundaries. Always confirm with the council before letting or buying a property, using the source link on each card. This is general information, not legal advice.