Planning permission and Article 4 applications (we check the position, we don't submit the application). Architect's drawings, building regulations drawings and building control fees. Principal Designer duties under CDM. The HMO licence application and council fees. The fire risk assessment. The JCT contract form and an asbestos survey. We can point you to people who do these.

Make your design choices before Schedule of Works V2 is issued. Changes after that are priced as variations. Administer the build contract, or appoint someone to, and issue payment notices from our templates. Commission the asbestos survey. Take on your duties under CDM and the Building Regulations. Our onboarding letter explains them and recommends your builder as principal designer and principal contractor. Release boarding in writing once we've measured every room at stud stage.

For HMO investors across the UK, on bridging or development finance

HMO conversions: every room measured, every stage checked

A short room is just the tip of the iceberg. Delays add interest, builders can be paid ahead of the work, wrong work costs money to fix, and once tenants move in, faults can mean rent reductions or compensation. We write the schedule of works every builder prices, check every room on your architect's drawings, and our instructed surveyor checks the work on site at 4 stages before you sign it off. You choose and hire your own builder, and they build to our plan.

The whole package is £6,000 inc VAT (£5,000 + VAT). Or start with Layout only (your room layouts, checked against the council's room-size rules): £714 inc VAT (£595 + VAT).

Book a 20-minute call

14+ years in property · 79 projects · £37.8M combined end value (GDV) of projects we've been involved in

Tahirah Sampson, Project Coordinator, Cooper Construction

20 minutes with Tahirah, free and with no obligation: your property, your finance, your timescale, and whether the package or one piece fits.

Can't wait? Call Tahirah now on 01733 971 200.

We prepare the paperwork. The lending decision is your lender's.

Get You On Site in 54 seconds: pages from real Cooper Construction documents with client and property details removed, from the schedule of works and layout plans to the stud-stage room check — **54 seconds: the pages your lender and builder get.**

Take the free 2-minute check.Five quick questions, then Tahirah calls you back.

Adam Cooper, Director, Cooper Construction

14+ years in property · 79 projects · £37.8M combined end value (GDV) of projects we've been involved in.
Find out more about Adam

Adam also has 101 lettable units of his own (some with business partners), and his lettings business, Freedom Homes, manages 700+ units.

Professional indemnity insurance £2m · public liability insurance £5m.

Schedule of works priced line by line
Article 4, licensing and room sizes checked first
Furniture drawn to real sizes on your architect's drawings, so it fits the room, not just the plan, with sockets and switches placed around it.
Every room measured at stud stage
The work checked against your schedule of works at each site visit
Keep your own builder

Everyone on your build has a job. None of them is checking it for you.

It's easy to assume someone is looking out for you. Look at who each person answers to.

Your builder prices and builds. Their quote is their version of the job, not yours.
Your lender's surveyor reports to your lender. They check that the money released matches the work done, not that your rooms will pass licensing.
Your architect draws the rooms for planning and building regs. Someone still has to check they're built that size.

Our job

You pay us to be an extra pair of expert eyes on your build. We check the price, the room sizes and the build, and every report comes to you, the client. We never act for your lender, and we never certify to your builder.

Four ways an HMO conversion loses money, and how we stop each one early

Each one starts in the paperwork, months before it shows on site. By then, you're paying for it.

1. Your lender sends the schedule back

A builder's lump sum ("Kitchen £10,000") tells your lender nothing about what the money is for. Lenders look for detail. A thin schedule can mean more questions, a smaller loan or a later drawdown (the next part of your loan being released), and the interest runs while you wait.

How we stop it: we write an itemised schedule of works, a cost for each room and an appraisal (your costs and finance set out together), so your lender can read it line by line. That's Loan Ready: £1,500 inc VAT (£1,250 + VAT).

Our 5-day promise

Your Loan Ready pack, prepared for your lender, in 5 working days or your £1,500 back.

The promise covers our delivery time, not your lender's decision.

Full terms

Result: an itemised schedule your lender can read line by line.

2. Three quotes, three different jobs

Builders price their idea of your HMO, not yours. One prices chrome sockets and mid-range tiles. Another prices basic white sockets and the cheapest tiles.

The cheapest quote is often the one that leaves the most out, and you find out when the extras arrive.

A build is hundreds of small choices: socket finishes, tiles, flooring, door handles, worktops, paint colours in every room. Each one has to be written into the schedule of works before builders price it. If it isn't, you pay for it later as a variation (a change priced after you've signed).

How we stop it: we write every choice into one schedule of works, so every builder prices the same job. Then we put the quotes side by side and flag what each one leaves out. That's Build Ready: £3,540 inc VAT (£2,950 + VAT).

Result: quotes you can compare line for line, so gaps show before you sign, not as extras later.

3. You pay for work that isn't done, or isn't right

Most builders want a deposit, then a payment as each stage is done.

Your lender works the other way round. It pays in arrears: it releases the next part of your loan only after its surveyor has valued the work done. Every lender sets its own stages.

So if you've paid your builder ahead of what the lender's surveyor values, you can be out of pocket and short of cash for the next stage.

And the lender's surveyor reports to the lender. They don't check room sizes, socket positions or snagging for you.

How we stop it: a qualified surveyor we instruct checks the build at 4 site visits, so what's covered up, finished and handed over is checked for you before you sign it off. That's Site Checks: £2,700 inc VAT (£2,250 + VAT).

Result: you sign off work that's been checked for you, not work you've only been told is done.

4. A short room turns up in a finished house

If nobody measures at stud stage (wall frames up, plasterboard not on yet), a short room is found after it's boarded. This means alterations with the wiring and pipework already in the walls. Meanwhile you're paying interest on a fully drawn loan, and many lenders won't refinance until every room meets the regs.

Adam Cooper on what a short room costs an HMO conversion — **Adam on what a short room really costs.**

"I've paid £5,000 for a one-month loan extension. Twice, on one project. Mine was a sale that dragged. A short room found at the end can do the same: you're waiting on your lender, and the interest keeps running."

Adam Cooper

How we stop it: we measure every room at stud stage, before boarding. That's part of Site Checks.

Result: a short room found and fixed at stud stage is usually a few hours of stud work, before the plasterboard goes on.

What does a month's delay cost on your HMO conversion?

A delay doesn't just cost interest. The rooms aren't let, and the house still has bills. Put in your own numbers and see what one month really costs you.

Nothing is stored or sent: the sums happen in your browser.

These figures are an example. Change each one to your own.

Number of lettable roomsThe bedrooms or studios you plan to let.

Expected rent per room (£ a month)Your own estimate, before bills. Use an average if rooms differ.

Monthly interest or finance cost (£ a month)What your bridge or development loan costs you each month. Your broker or lender's offer will show it.

Bills that still run on an empty house (£ a month)

Council tax, energy standing charges and insurance still run while the house is empty. We've filled in average figures to start you off. Change them to yours.

Council tax (£ a month)Average council tax per dwelling in England, 2026-27: £1,868 a year, about £156 a month (gov.uk, "Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027"). Empty-home or second-home premiums can make yours higher.

Energy standing charges (£ a month)Energy price cap standing charges, 1 October to 31 December 2026, direct debit, Great Britain average: electricity 54.83p and gas 29.68p a day, about £26 a month (Ofgem). Yours depend on your region and tariff.

Insurance (£ a month)Cover for an empty or renovation property varies too much to give a typical figure. Add your monthly premium, or your yearly premium divided by 12.

Anything else (£ a month)

These are estimates to start you off. Change each one to match your own bills.

One month's delay costs you

–

Rent you don't collect: –
Interest: –
Bills on the empty house: –

Insurance isn't included. Add your premium for the full figure.

Type your own figures to see your monthly cost.

And that's only the money. A stalled build also takes your time: chasing builders, calls with your lender, evenings on spreadsheets. Every month spent chasing this project is a month you're not on your next one.

Book a 20-minute call

or take the free 2-minute checkFive quick questions, then Tahirah calls you back.

What you get with the whole package (£6,000 inc VAT), page by page

The paperwork your lender usually asks for and everything your builder needs to build it right first time, on your own architect's drawings. Pages from real jobs (client and property details removed), or clearly marked samples. Tap a page to see it full size.

Our optimised HMO layout, on the architect's plan

Your architect's plan shows where the walls go. Ours shows where the bed, desk and wardrobe go, and that the door still opens. This is our layout for a real 7-bed HMO conversion (client and property details removed): every bed, desk, wardrobe, socket and switch placed room by room.

It's designed to help rooms let faster and stay let longer, and to stand out from badly laid-out HMOs nearby. It's what a tenant notices at a viewing: room to move, a desk that fits, a door that opens past the bed.

Colours and finishes go on a separate plan in the pack: the decoration plan.

We'll help you get the most from every room. How fast rooms let will always depend on your market, your agent and your management.

Cooper Construction optimised layout, all three floors of a real 7-bed conversion: every room's furniture and sockets tagged, with a legend for each room, on the architect's base plan — Our optimised furniture layout, drawn on the architect's plans (client and property details removed).

First-fix positions, with socket and switch heights

Every socket, switch, light and radiator placed on the plan, with socket and switch heights in the room legend, so the trades price and fit to one plan and nothing moves after boarding.

More about HMO layouts

Cooper Construction first-fix services plan from a real HMO job (client and property details removed): a ground-floor studio with sockets, switches, lights, radiators and extractor fans placed around the bed, desk and kitchenette, with a lettered legend — Our first-fix services plan from a real job (client and property details removed): every socket, switch, light and radiator placed around the furniture, on a 1:50 plan.

Adam Cooper explains why an HMO makes or loses money in the layout — **Adam on the layout: it's all in the layout.**

A finished HMO studio on a job we project-managed: kitchenette, wardrobe, desk and double bed by a bay window, each with its own space — A finished studio on a job we project-managed: kitchenette, wardrobe, desk and bed, each with its own space.

An itemised HMO schedule of works, prepared for your lender

See the full 20-page schedule of works, with generic client details (PDF)

Not "Kitchen £10,000", but every job as a numbered, priceable line: strip-out, structure, first fix, plastering, kitchens, bathrooms, fire doors, decoration.

Your lender can see what the money is for.
Every builder prices the same lines, so gaps show before you sign, not as extras later.
You check the build against it at every visit.

More about the HMO schedule of works · from £834 inc VAT (£695 + VAT) on its own, or in the Loan Ready pack.

Page of a Cooper Construction HMO schedule of works from a real job, client and address replaced with generic details: numbered, priceable lines by trade

A real Cooper Construction schedule of works, with the client and address replaced by generic details.

Your design choices, in the builder's pack

A mood board and design guide in one, filled in before the build. Choose your look from rooms on previous projects we've worked on, or bring your own. Every finish is named and linked, you sign it off once, and your builder orders exactly what you chose.

Your choices then go onto the decoration plan in the builder's pack, so it's clear which wall is which colour and which finish goes where.

Sample design pack pages: the optimised room layouts, then the communal areas and the rooms, with inspiration photos from previous Cooper Construction projects beside each named finish and a colour palette

Sample design pack page: communal kitchen and hallway, with inspiration photos from a previous Cooper Construction project beside each named finish and a colour palette

Sample design pack page: bedroom, en-suite and studio kitchenette, with inspiration photos from a previous Cooper Construction project beside each named finish

A sample design pack. The photos are inspiration from rooms on previous projects we've worked on, not your house. Yours carries your own choices.

HMO room size checks before boarding

The room area check flags short rooms before boarding, while they can still be fixed. See the four visits.

Cooper Construction plan dimension check at stud stage, the whole sheet from a real job: the three floor plans with every taped dimension, the room areas table, the queries to close and the client decision on each short room — Our stud-stage dimension check from a real job (client and property details removed): every room taped before boarding and marked up on the architect's plan. Rooms that came up short were flagged for a decision before the plasterboard went on.

The HMO fire alarm zone plan, ready for your licence application

Councils commonly ask for a plan showing the fire alarm system with an HMO licence application, and a zoned alarm panel needs a zone plan beside it. At the end of the job your electrician gives us the zones and we mark them on your layout drawing, so you and your builder don't have to produce it.

We don't design, supply or certify fire systems: your electrician and fire-alarm installer do.

Cooper Construction fire alarm zone plan from a real job (client, property and contractor details removed): three floors coloured by alarm zone, with a zone key listing the rooms in each zone — A real fire alarm zone plan from one of our jobs (client and property details removed): your electrician's zones, marked on your layout drawing at the end of the build.

Book a 20-minute call

We'll talk you through what these pages would cover for your house.

How it works, from first call to HMO licence

Call. 20 minutes with Tahirah. Free, no obligation.
Proposal. In your inbox within 24 hours of your call.
Book. You only pay half the package fee to book.
Loan Ready. Your Loan Ready pack, prepared for your lender, with our 5-day promise.
Build Ready. Layout, your design choices and the final schedule of works; builders' quotes compared. The second half is due when this pack is issued, before site.
Site checks. 4 visits, from stud work to sign-off. Every room measured before boarding.
Completion. Completion and licensing checklist and your fire alarm zone plan, ready for your HMO licence application.

Where we work: our desk work (Loan Ready, schedules of works and layouts) covers property anywhere in the UK. Site checks are by a qualified surveyor we instruct, and we'll confirm cover for your area on the call. We check your rooms against your own council's rules.

The Get You On Site package: three stages, one set price

We plan it. We help you price it. The builder builds it. We check it.

Your builder builds to one plan. We check that they did.

You don't have to buy the lot. Each of the three stages is sold on its own, and so is a schedule of works, a layout or a single site visit. We call these pieces. You can move up to the package later: see how upgrades work.

What's in each stage (each stage is also sold on its own)

Stage 1 · Loan Ready · £1,500 inc VAT (£1,250 + VAT) on its own

Stops: a schedule your lender sends back.

Desktop Schedule of Works V1, for your loan application
Article 4, licensing and room-size check
Cost per room benchmark
Cost and finance appraisal

Our 5-day promise

Your Loan Ready pack, prepared for your lender, in 5 working days or your £1,500 back.

The promise covers our delivery time, not your lender's decision.

Full terms

The price: one package, less than buying the pieces

Bought as three separate stages: £7,740 inc VAT (£6,450 + VAT).

As one package: ~~£7,740~~ £6,000 inc VAT (£5,000 + VAT). You save £1,740 inc VAT (£1,450 + VAT).

One set price for the whole package.

On a £200,000 build, that's 3% of the build cost (2.5% before VAT).

How you pay: only half to book, the rest when your Build Ready pack is issued, before site.

Our 5-day promise

Your Loan Ready pack, prepared for your lender, in 5 working days or your £1,500 back.

The promise covers our delivery time, not your lender's decision.

Full terms

Book a call this week. Proposal within 24 hours. There's nothing to pay unless you go ahead.

Book a 20-minute call

or take the free 2-minute checkFive quick questions, then Tahirah calls you back.

20 minutes with Tahirah, free and with no obligation: your property, your finance, your timescale, and whether the package or one piece fits.

Want us to run the build? That's full project management

If you want more than the package, the next step up is our full project management: £21,000 inc VAT (£17,500 + VAT) on a build of about £200,000. Deals are tighter now, and not every build can carry that. The package gives you the plans, the prices and the checks without it, for £6,000 inc VAT (£5,000 + VAT).

See full project management

First 10 clients

What do the first 10 get that client number 11 doesn't?

What you get	First 10 clients	From client 11
Same package, same price £6,000 inc VAT (£5,000 + VAT)	✓	✓
Your schedule of works	Adam writes it himself	Our team prepares it and Adam signs it off
Your final schedule of works (V2)	Within 10 working days of your deposit and full drawings	Timing set out in your proposal
Site checks by a qualified surveyor we instruct, every report reviewed by us	✓	✓
In return	A short case study once you're on site, with your written consent	—

Desk work (the paperwork and drawings we do from our office) is UK-wide. If your property is outside the areas covered by the surveyors we instruct, we'll confirm site-check timing on the call before you book.

When 10 places are taken, this offer closes.

Not ready for the package? Start with Layout only.

£714 inc VAT (£595 + VAT): the optimised layout, the furniture plan, the first-fix plan (first fix: wiring and pipes before boarding) and the decoration plan, on your architect's drawings, with every room checked against the council's HMO room-size rules. We need your architect's proper drawings, not a sketch.

It's a low-risk way to get to know us. See the quality of our work on your own house, for £714 inc VAT (£595 + VAT). If you like it, you'll have a good idea of the quality of the rest of the package.

When your build starts, a qualified surveyor we instruct can check it too: 4 site visits, from measuring every room before boarding to sign-off. That's Site Checks (£2,700 inc VAT, £2,250 + VAT) or the whole package (£6,000 inc VAT, £5,000 + VAT).

Layout only isn't credited against Build Ready or the package.

More about Layout only

HMO site checks: 4 visits, from studwork, before boarding, to sign-off

Each visit is timed to catch problems while they're still cheap to fix: before they're covered up, finished or handed over. We flag them; your builder fixes them.

1 · Before boarding

At first fix, with the stud walls up and the plasterboard not yet on, we measure every room against the plan (a bedroom under 6.51 m² can't be let as a bedroom for one adult in a licensed HMO in England; councils can set higher). Studios and en-suite rooms near the limit are where it goes wrong: a short room is a few hours of studwork now, not a wall moved later.
2 · After skimming

Once the walls are skimmed, we check the rooms are still the right size, and that every socket, switch, radiator and point is where the optimised plan puts it, with sockets and switches at the heights in the room legend. Your tenants live with these positions for years: a socket by the bed, a switch by the door, and no radiator hidden behind the wardrobe.
3 · Snagging

We walk the house room by room and list everything that isn't finished or isn't right, so your builder has one clear list to work through before handover.
4 · Completion and sign-off

Final check of all the works against the schedule and the snagging list, with the completion and licensing checklist: a list of the certificates you'll need for the HMO licence and the final drawdown. You also get your fire alarm zone plan: your electrician's zones, marked on your layout drawing. You get a clear list of anything still outstanding before you sign it off.

See what each visit checks

At every visit you get photos tagged to Schedule of Works lines and our recommendation to you, the client. We never take on the lender's monitoring role and never certify to your builder.

Need a visit to value the work before a payment, or at a drawdown? Extra visits from £474 inc VAT (£395 + VAT), up to 8 rooms. Prices by size

Site Checks £2,700 inc VAT (£2,250 + VAT), or included in the £6,000 package.

Book a 20-minute call

or take the free 2-minute checkFive quick questions, then Tahirah calls you back.

Who you'll speak to

Adam Cooper, Director, Cooper Construction, on site — **Adam Cooper**
Director. He's seen HMOs from four sides: as an investor, through his lettings business Freedom Homes (700+ units managed), as a former main contractor and now as a consultant. He writes the Schedules of Works for our first 10 clients himself. Why Adam leads Get You On Site

FAQs

I'm already on site. Is it too late?

You can still book Site Checks. On the call we'll tell you which visits are still possible, and your proposal is priced for those.

I've been let down by a builder before. How does this help?

We don't pick your builder and we never certify their work. What changes is what they're held to: one schedule of works every builder prices, so it's harder for the cheapest quote to hide what it leaves out; contractor checks (insurances, Companies House, credit report and references) in Build Ready; every change priced and agreed in the variation log before it's built; and 4 site visits by a qualified surveyor we instruct, with every report coming to you.

Is £6,000 worth it?

Bought one by one, the three stages cost £7,740 inc VAT (£6,450 + VAT), so the package saves you £1,740 inc VAT (£1,450 + VAT).

The better comparison is a month's delay: rent you don't collect, interest you still pay and bills on an empty house. Put your own numbers into the calculator.

If you'd rather start small, Layout only is £714 inc VAT (£595 + VAT).

I've done conversions before. Do I need this?

Experience helps you spot a bad deal. It doesn't show you a room built 10 cm short: that looks the same as one built right until someone measures it. Experienced investors can use Get You On Site to compare quotes like-for-like and to save the evenings they'd spend writing lender paperwork.

My builder will write a schedule of works for free. Why pay for one?

A builder's schedule of works prices the job they plan to do, and may leave out what you want and what your lender needs to see. Ours is written for you, and every builder prices the same lines.

Doesn't my lender's surveyor already check the build?

Their checks are very narrow by comparison. The lender's surveyor checks that the money released matches the work done, for the lender. They don't check room sizes, first-fix positions or whether the house will pass licensing. Our site checks are recommendations to you. We never replace your lender's surveyor, and we never take on the lender's monitoring role.

Do you arrange finance, or promise my lender will accept the pack?

No. We prepare the paperwork for your lender. Your broker arranges the finance. The lending decision is your lender's.

Do I keep my own builder?

Yes. We write the schedule every builder prices against and check each stage for you.

What is the 5-day promise?

Our 5-day promise: your Loan Ready pack, prepared for your lender, in 5 working days or your £1,500 back. The clock starts the working day after we confirm by email that we have your payment and everything on our information list (we confirm, or tell you what's missing, within 1 working day). Working days are Monday to Friday, not bank holidays in England. If we're late, we refund the full £1,500 within 5 working days, to the account you paid from. You don't need to ask, and you keep the pack. The promise covers our delivery time, not your lender's decision, valuation or loan terms.

Our information list. Needed to start the clock:

The property address.
The agent's particulars or listing, with photos and a floor plan if there is one.
The architect's existing and proposed plans, ideally the building regs plans.
The purchase price.
The rent you expect for each room or unit.

If you have them (they don't hold up the clock):

Your expected GDV: what the property will be worth once converted. If you don't have one, we estimate it from the rent and a typical yield, and label it as our estimate.
Your lender's or broker's terms: the loan-to-value for the bridge and the refinance, and the interest rate. If you don't have them yet, we use a typical rate and say so.

We can't work from a sketch. We need the architect's existing and proposed plans, ideally the building regs plans. The schedule is written in two stages. Stage 1: we write it from the existing and proposed plans, so you can apply for lending. Stage 2: we update it when the building regs plans arrive. One Stage 2 update is included in the price.

Do you have any related interests?

Yes. Freedom Homes, Cooper Designs and our own full project management service. Ask us on the call and we'll set out anything that applies to your job.

Take the 2-minute check

Five quick questions. Tahirah will call you back and tell you where she'd start: the package, or one piece. Or book a call and pick a time yourself.

Where are you with the property?

Where is the property? (town or postcode area)For example, Leicester or LE2. Still looking? Put the area you're searching in.

Name

Phone

How we use your details: privacy notice.

Tahirah calls you back. There's nothing to pay unless you go ahead.

Every month you wait is a month you pay for.

Book 20 minutes with Tahirah. Proposal within 24 hours. Nothing to pay unless you go ahead.

Book a 20-minute call

Can't wait? Call Tahirah now on 01733 971 200.

HMO conversions: every room measured, every stage checked

Everyone on your build has a job. None of them is checking it for you.

Our job

Four ways an HMO conversion loses money, and how we stop each one early

1. Your lender sends the schedule back

Our 5-day promise

2. Three quotes, three different jobs

3. You pay for work that isn't done, or isn't right

4. A short room turns up in a finished house

What does a month's delay cost on your HMO conversion?

What you get with the whole package (£6,000 inc VAT), page by page

Our optimised HMO layout, on the architect's plan

First-fix positions, with socket and switch heights

An itemised HMO schedule of works, prepared for your lender

Your design choices, in the builder's pack

HMO room size checks before boarding

The HMO fire alarm zone plan, ready for your licence application

How it works, from first call to HMO licence

The Get You On Site package: three stages, one set price

What's in each stage (each stage is also sold on its own)

Our 5-day promise

The price: one package, less than buying the pieces

Our 5-day promise

Want us to run the build? That's full project management

First 10 clients

Not ready for the package? Start with Layout only.

HMO site checks: 4 visits, from studwork, before boarding, to sign-off

1 · Before boarding

2 · After skimming

3 · Snagging

4 · Completion and sign-off

Who you'll speak to

FAQs

Take the 2-minute check

Every month you wait is a month you pay for.