Do I Need To Provide a TV and TV Licence in my HMO?
A question that comes up a lot with regard to furnishing HMOs for professional tenants is whether or not to include a TV?
Yes, this is a basic request by many tenants, and you should consider providing the best tenant experience you can afford for your house
We feel that providing a TV for the lounge is necessary, it's expected by tenants, and competition in many towns and cities is really strong, so you have to compete by offering not only the basics but the best tenant experience and facilities possible.
There is always a market for cheap accommodation with no frills, but whether you have a HMO in Liverpool or a HMO in Bradford, you don't want to compete at the lower end of the market as that can cause issues with a high turnover of tenants, anti-social behaviour and missed payments.
There is no guarantee that providing a TV is going to get you the best tenants, but it is a basic facility, like providing other items like communal washing machines.
If you are debating whether to provide a TV, and your competition is not only providing a TV but also free access to Netflix, Disney+, Sky Sports, for example, then all things being equal, which do you think tenants will pick?
Competing on monthly rental price is a race to the bottom, so compete instead by optimising every aspect of your house for tenants to stay as long-term lets.
Article updated: September 2025
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by Robert Jones, Founder of Property Investments UK
With two decades in UK property, Rob has been investing in buy-to-let since 2005, and uses property data to develop tools for property market analysis.
Providing TVs for the Bedrooms
This is a little different than providing a communal tv for the lounge.
Although we would typically recommend providing a television for the lounge we don't provide them for the bedrooms. This is common for tenants to provide their own if they wish to have one and not all tenants do require a personal TV.
There are a couple of reasons for this:
Cost
The first is cost. Now, a TV might not cost very much but if you've got a few rooms to provide for then the cost overall is certainly going to start adding up.
Also, a TV in the room is not something that you're going to get back in the room rates. What I mean here is that providing a television isn't necessarily going to add value to the room in a way that will translate into rental income.
Also, any electrical item will need an annual PAT test and will also need replacing when it gets old, dated or no longer works.
These costs will go against you if you consider selling your HMO in the future, as any incoming buyer will look at the running costs and rental yields, so you need to reduce unnecessary costs where possible throughout the house.
Not Needed
The second reason we don't include TVs in the bedrooms is that our professional tenants don't tend to require them.
This is because most tenants already own a device to watch TV or streaming services on. Like a laptop, tablet or even phone and they might even have their own TV, so it can be a wasted expense and even get in the way if the tenant doesn't want it in the room and you have to store it elsewhere.
Providing a TV for the Communal Lounge
As I said earlier on we do provide television for communal areas and lounges in your HMO. We find that works, predominantly because it brings people together and encourages our tenants to not just stay in their respective rooms, which brings more community to the house and helps encourage longer-term stays.
Another reason is that if you don't provide a TV in the communal room then what can happen is that a tenant will put their own TV in that space and when they leave the house, taking the TV with them, that can cause friction in the house with housemates as they then require someone else to provide it.
So, providing a TV for the lounge just helps bring the house together and can help avoid friction among the tenants. The more you can do to make the house comfortable for your tenants, the more you will be protecting your bottom line. After all, happy tenants will stay in your properties for longer.
There are some items like providing en-suites that can add signficiant value to both the asset and your monthly rental income, but TV's are more like basic furnishings.
Do HMOs Require a TV Licence?
Yes if you are providing a TV in the property, you will need to get a TV licence, as this is still currently a requirement by the TV licensing agency.
If the tenants have their own TV, and are on separate tenancies in your HMO, then they will also need to get and pay for their own TV licence.
You can share with them the TV licensing link for shared accommodation. This may be different when investing in student HMOs, if all the tenants are on a shared tenancy, then one TV licence may be suitable for the house. As you don't pay per viewer, but instead per separate tenancy.
So do consider each situation specifically. It is common when investing in professional HMOs to have tenants on their own ASTs, so this is why they may need to have their own TV licence each if they have their own TV.