OccupID: Housing Data For Local Authorities
Enforcement teams have the powers. What they usually lack is the address list.
OccupID is a data service built from what renters tell us. It helps councils find unlicensed HMOs, empty properties, overcrowding and single person Council Tax discount fraud, by pointing enforcement at specific addresses rather than at a ward.
What it finds
- Unlicensed HMOs. A review tells us how many people lived at an address, how many households they came from, and which facilities were shared. Cross-referenced against your licensing register, that identifies properties that should be licensed and are not.
- Empty properties. Long-term voids are visible in patterns of occupancy data that a council does not otherwise hold.
- Overcrowding. Occupancy against property size, at address level.
- Single person discount fraud. Where the occupancy renters report does not match the discount claimed.
Why the data is different
Most housing intelligence a council can buy is derived from other administrative datasets, which means it repeats what the council already knows.
Ours comes from the people who lived in the property. They know how many bedrooms were actually in use, whether the loft had been converted, how many households were sharing the kitchen and what condition the place was in, because they were there.
That is a different kind of signal, and it reaches properties that no register lists.
What it is worth
Beyond compliance, enforcement pays for itself in a way councils frequently underestimate.
- Civil penalties for licensing offences
- Recovered Council Tax where a discount was wrongly claimed
- Additional Council Tax on long-term empty properties
- Rent repayment orders, which councils can pursue in their own right
Our own analysis of tribunal decisions found rent repayment orders are used far less than they could be. What the data shows.
What is coming
The Renters' Rights Act gives councils new investigatory powers and civil penalties, and the Private Rented Sector Database begins rolling out from late 2026, with registration compulsory for all private landlords in England.
The database will tell you who has registered. It will not tell you who has not, or which unregistered address has eight people in it. That gap is where this data is useful.
How it works in practice
We provide address-level intelligence for your area, refreshed as new reviews come in, in a format your enforcement team can work from directly. There is no integration project and no procurement epic.
We have worked this way with councils in Southwark and Lambeth, supported by Impact on Urban Health, and with the Co-operative Councils' Innovation Network. Our partners.
Talk to us
The quickest way to see whether this is useful is to look at what we already hold for your area. That takes one conversation.
Get in touch, or read more about how we are structured and why we exist.