Terms & Conditions

Last updated: 7 May 2026 · Version: 1.0

Notice to publisher: These terms have been drafted by reference to the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, the Open Government Licence v3.0, the CAP Code on affiliate marketing, and the CMA's guidance on online consumer protection. They are comprehensive but are not legal advice. Have them reviewed by a UK solicitor before publishing. Update placeholders marked [ ].

1. About these terms

These Terms & Conditions ("Terms") govern your use of the Article 4 HMO Checker (the "Tool") provided at article4checker.com, related domains (article4checker.com) and the Article 4 master spreadsheet (the "Spreadsheet"). By using the Tool you agree to these Terms.

The Tool is operated by [Registered company name] ("PIA", "we", "us", "our"), registered in England and Wales (Company No. [number]) with registered office at [address].

2. Acceptance and changes

Using the Tool indicates you accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy. We may change these Terms by posting an updated version with a new "Last updated" date. Material changes affecting subscribers will be notified by email. Continued use after a change means you accept the change.

3. The Tool — what it is and isn't

3.1 What it does

The Tool returns information about a UK postcode you enter, including:

• Whether an Article 4 HMO direction is in force at that location;
• Recent sold prices in the postcode (or postcode sector) sourced from HM Land Registry;
• A computed price-impact comparison around the Article 4 effective date;
• HMO licensing fees, contacts and amenity standards for the local planning authority.

3.2 General guidance only — not professional advice

The Tool provides general guidance only. It is not:

• Legal advice (regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority);
• Planning advice (regulated by the Royal Town Planning Institute);
• Financial advice (regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority);
• Tax advice;
• Surveying or valuation advice (regulated by RICS).

Before making any property decision you must verify Article 4 status, planning history, licensing requirements and price assumptions directly with the relevant local planning authority and a suitably qualified professional.

3.3 Coverage

The Tool covers England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved planning systems and different licensing rules.

4. Data sources, attribution and licensing

4.1 HM Land Registry — Open Government Licence

Sold-price data displayed by the Tool is sourced from the HM Land Registry Price Paid Data SPARQL endpoint and is used under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Required attribution:

Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

4.2 planning.data.gov.uk

Article 4 boundary data is sourced from planning.data.gov.uk (Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities) under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

4.3 postcodes.io

Postcode geometry is sourced from postcodes.io (Ideal Postcodes Ltd), used under their MIT-licensed terms. Postcode data within postcodes.io is itself derived from ONS / Royal Mail under the OS OpenData licence.

4.4 Council websites

HMO licensing fees, amenity standards summaries, and contact details are compiled from individual council websites and accurate as of the "last verified" date shown on each council card. Councils typically refresh fees annually around April. We make no warranty that fees remain current.

4.5 Article 4 fallback dataset

The bundled fallback list of 190 Article 4 directions was originally compiled with reference to planninggeek.co.uk and council direction documents. It is updated periodically. The last data update date is shown in the page footer.

5. Affiliate disclosure (CMA / CAP Code compliance)

In line with the CAP Code on affiliate marketing and the Competition and Markets Authority's guidance on online consumer protection:

• Propsee (propsee.co.uk) — operated by the same investor behind the Tool. Clicks on the "Try Propsee Free" CTA are tracked via the ?ref=article4checker parameter. We may earn a commission if you sign up to a paid Propsee plan after clicking through.
• Property Investor App (App Store / Google Play badges) — first-party promotion of our own app; not a third-party affiliate relationship but disclosed for transparency.
• DSS Move (dssmove.co.uk) — partner site. We may receive consideration for referrals.

You pay nothing extra by using these links, and our recommendation is independent of the commercial relationship. We've labelled each affiliate CTA with a clear disclosure inline.

6. The Article 4 master spreadsheet — licence to use

If you submit your email and we send you the Spreadsheet, you receive a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use it for your own personal or professional research. You may not:

• Republish the Spreadsheet, in whole or in substantial part, on a public website, paywall, course, app or product;
• Resell or sub-licence the Spreadsheet;
• Remove our branding or attribution;
• Strip out the Read Me / source attribution sheets;
• Pass it off as your own work.

You may quote summary statistics (e.g. "190 directions across 134 LPAs as of May 2026") with a link back to article4checker.com. The underlying Article 4 data is itself licensed under OGL v3.0 — those rights are unaffected.

7. Acceptable use

You agree to use the Tool only for lawful purposes and in line with these Terms. You must not:

• Scrape or systematically harvest data from the Tool by automated means;
• Attempt to overload the downstream APIs (postcodes.io, Land Registry, planning.data.gov.uk) — they have their own rate limits which apply to you;
• Reverse-engineer, decompile or disassemble the Tool;
• Introduce malware, viruses, or harmful code;
• Use the Tool to harass, defame, or stalk any person;
• Misrepresent affiliation with us or imply endorsement;
• Use the Tool in a way that would breach UK data protection law if you were the controller of the data.

8. Intellectual property

The Tool's source code, design, brand assets, copy, and the Spreadsheet's structure and editorial selection are owned by us or licensed to us. The underlying public datasets (HM Land Registry, planning.data.gov.uk, postcodes.io) are owned by their respective providers under the licences identified in section 4. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership to you.

9. Third-party links

The Tool links to external sites (council websites, app stores, Propsee, DSS Move, YouTube, the ICO, etc.). We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content, availability, terms or privacy practices.

10. Disclaimer of warranties

The Tool is provided "as is" and "as available". Subject to section 11 below, we make no warranty that:

• The Tool will be uninterrupted, error-free or available at any particular time;
• The data displayed is accurate, complete, current, or fit for any particular purpose;
• Article 4 status returned is definitive — councils can amend or revoke directions, and the live API and our fallback dataset can lag behind;
• Sold prices reflect current market value — Land Registry data is historic and includes only completed registered transactions;
• Council fees and amenity standards are current — councils typically update these annually.

11. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for:

• Death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
• Fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
• Any liability that cannot be excluded under English law (including under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977);
• Breach of statutory rights as a consumer;
• Breach of UK data protection law where we are the controller.

Subject to the above:

• We will not be liable for indirect, special or consequential losses, loss of profit, loss of contract, loss of opportunity, or loss of data;
• Our total aggregate liability to any one user in any 12-month period is limited to £100.

You acknowledge that the Tool is provided free of charge and that it would be unreasonable to hold us to a higher standard of liability than this in those circumstances.

12. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify us against any third-party claims arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the Tool, or your unauthorised re-publication of the Spreadsheet.

13. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Tool if you breach these Terms or if continuing to provide access becomes commercially or legally unviable. We will give reasonable notice except where suspension is necessary to protect the Tool, other users, or third parties.

14. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or in connection with them are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Disputes will be heard in the courts of England and Wales. If you are a consumer resident in another part of the UK, this does not deprive you of any mandatory protections of the law of your jurisdiction.

15. Consumer alternative dispute resolution

If you are a consumer and a dispute cannot be resolved directly with us, the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution platform is no longer available to UK residents post-Brexit. You may instead refer to the Citizens Advice consumer service (citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer) or pursue a claim in the small claims track if eligible.

16. General

• Severability: if any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remainder continues in force.
• Waiver: our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of the right to do so later.
• Entire agreement: these Terms (with the Privacy Policy) are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Tool.
• Third-party rights: a person who is not a party to these Terms has no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce them.
• Assignment: we may assign or transfer these Terms in connection with a sale, merger or restructuring of our business.

17. Contact

For any question about these Terms or the Tool: [email protected] or write to our registered address in section 1.

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