Maidstone has its own quirks for homeowners: hard water from the chalk, a river that has flooded the town centre more than once, 41 conservation areas, and a tip you have to book before you go. Not every ME postcode is in Maidstone borough either. This guide covers what's different about looking after a home here, with links to the council pages that matter and to vetted local trades when you need one.
Last reviewed October 2026. This guide is general information. Always check with your council for your own address.
| If you live in… | Your council is… |
|---|---|
| Maidstone town, including Allington, Penenden Heath, Shepway, Park Wood, Tovil and Bearsted, and villages such as Loose, Coxheath, Headcorn, Marden, Staplehurst, Lenham and Yalding | Maidstone Borough Council |
| Aylesford, Ditton, Larkfield, East Malling, West Malling, Kings Hill and Snodland | Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council |
| Walderslade and Lordswood | Medway Council, which runs all local services, including its own tips |
Not sure? Enter your postcode on GOV.UK's find your local council tool. The rest of this guide covers Maidstone Borough Council unless it says otherwise.
Live in Chatham, Gillingham or Rochester? See our Medway guide.
Maidstone's drinking water comes from South East Water, and Southern Water handles the sewers. South East Water says most of the water it supplies comes from underground chalk, so it's hard, and that this leads to limescale in kettles, boilers and hot water pipes.
That matters most for your boiler. Scale on a boiler's heat exchanger makes it work harder and can shorten its life, and combi boilers, which heat water on demand, are especially exposed. It also clogs showerheads, taps and the elements in kettles, washing machines and dishwashers.
What helps:
Most of Maidstone never floods, but homes near its rivers can. The town centre has flooded from the Medway several times, including in 1968, 2000 and at Christmas 2013. Kent County Council recorded 262 properties flooded across Maidstone borough in the Christmas and New Year floods of 2013 to 2014, 207 of them homes. Villages where rivers meet, such as Yalding and Collier Street, have a long history of flooding.
If you live near a river, three things are worth doing now, before the wet months:
Check your long-term flood risk for your address on GOV.UK's flood risk checker.
Sign up for free flood warnings by phone, text or email through GOV.UK's flood warnings service.
Make a simple flood plan: know where your gas, electricity and water shut-offs are, keep important documents somewhere safe and high up, and take photos of your home and belongings now, in case you need to claim.
Kent County Council: flood risk to communities in Maidstone (PDF) · The evidence a home insurance claim needs
Maidstone borough has 41 conservation areas. In the town they include the Town Centre, Holy Trinity Church, All Saints, Ashford Road, Chillington House and Rocky Hill. In the villages they include Loose Valley, Bearsted, Headcorn, Marden and Staplehurst. If your home is in one, you'll probably need planning permission for some work that would be “permitted development” elsewhere. You must also give the council six weeks' notice before pruning or felling most trees.
Some conservation areas go further. In the Holy Trinity Church conservation area, near the town centre, an Article 4 direction removes permitted development rights for most changes to the outside of a house. That covers everything from extensions and roof changes to porches, fences and even painting the outside. Parts of Headcorn, Lenham, Loose Valley and Eyhorne Street in Hollingbourne have Article 4 directions too. Check with the council before planning any change to the outside of your home.
Trees need care even outside conservation areas. The council has more than 1,000 tree preservation orders, so check before any tree work.
Many of the town's older terraces are built of yellow stock brick with slate or Kent peg tile roofs. You'll also see Kentish ragstone, quarried in the Loose valley for centuries, on churches, public buildings and some houses.
Maidstone Borough Council: conservation areas · Trees and tree preservation orders
Before any work on an older home:
Kent County Council runs the household waste recycling centres. Maidstone has two: Allington, on Laverstoke Road (ME16 0LE), and the Maidstone centre at Tovil. You must book a slot online before you visit. At Allington you can book on the day or up to two weeks ahead.
DIY waste is free up to an allowance: four visits in any four weeks, with up to two 50-litre bags or one large item each time. Over that, Kent charges per bag or item, and plasterboard costs more. It's card only. For a bigger project, budget for a skip or ask your builder to include waste removal in the quote. Vans need a vehicle voucher from the county council.
If you're in Tonbridge and Malling or Medway, check your own tip's rules.
Kent County Council: book a visit · Charges for DIY waste · Allington recycling centre
Clear gutters and gullies once the leaves are down, so rain runs away from the walls. See the October home maintenance checklist.
Get the boiler serviced before the cold weather, and ask about scale.
Find your stopcock and check it turns, and keep a few litres of bottled water in case the supply goes off.
If you're near a river, sign up for flood warnings and move valuables and documents up high.
Draught-proof doors, letterboxes and loft hatches. See our draught-proofing guide.
Maidstone Borough Council only licenses larger shared houses. A house in multiple occupation (HMO) with five or more people forming two or more households needs a mandatory licence, which costs £930, or £895 for accredited landlords. As of autumn 2026 there's no additional or selective licensing in the borough, so smaller shared houses and single-household lets don't need a council licence.
If you're planning to turn a house into an HMO, read the council's HMO planning guidance, adopted in July 2025, first. Every rental still needs the standard safety checks, and England's new landlord register opens region by region from 15 December 2026. In the South East, which includes Maidstone, landlords must register from 15 March 2027, with a deadline of 14 June 2027, subject to Parliament approving the regulations.
Maidstone Borough Council: HMO licences · HMO planning guidance · The checks every rental needs → · Landlord register dates →
Home+ is a free app that builds your home's maintenance schedule, reminds you before the boiler service or a safety check is due, and stores certificates, guarantees and receipts in one place, ready for when you sell.
Create your free Home+ account and get your home's maintenance schedule, with reminders before each check is due.