Landlord compliance checklist for England, by stage of the tenancy

A private landlord in England has a core set of legal duties, and they arrive in a fixed order: some before the property can be marketed, some before the tenant moves in, some that recur through the tenancy, and a few at the end. This checklist puts the core ones in that order, one paragraph each, with the official source for every one; a particular property, licence or tenancy can add more. It is written for a landlord managing their own properties and for the agent doing it on their behalf; the duties are the same, only the person doing the work changes. The certificates with expiry dates have a checklist of their own, and every penalty figure is on one page. The GOV.UK summary of landlord responsibilities is the starting point for all of it.

Before the property is marketed

1. Energy Performance Certificate. Order it before marketing, and the property must be rated E or better (or have a registered exemption) to be let at all. Valid for ten years, and needed again when the property is next marketed or let without a valid one. EPC rules for rented properties.
2. Licensing. A property let to three or more people forming more than one household who share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet is an HMO. An HMO occupied by five or more people needs a mandatory licence, valid for up to five years, and letting one without it carries an unlimited fine. Councils can extend licensing to other HMOs and some run schemes that cover ordinary lets, so check the council for each property rather than assuming.
3. Mortgage consent and insurance. If the property is mortgaged, the lender's permission to let is a condition of most mortgages; a buy-to-let or consent-to-let letter is the record to keep. Not a statutory duty, but the one that unravels everything else if it is missing.
4. PRS Database registration (coming, not yet in force). Under the Renters' Rights Act, landlords of assured and regulated tenancies will have to register themselves and each property that is let. The duty starts in the West Midlands on 15 December 2026 and region by region after that, with the last deadline on 14 November 2027, at £65 a year per property. Registering an empty property before marketing it, and putting registration numbers on adverts, come later under future legislation; what is confirmed and what to prepare.

Before the tenant moves in

5. Right to Rent check. Every occupier aged 18 or over must be checked before the tenancy starts, whether or not they are named on the agreement. Three ways: original documents with the person present, a registered Digital Verification Service, or the Home Office online service with a share code. Keep the record for the whole tenancy and a year after. GOV.UK, check a tenant's right to rent. Recording who checked what, and when, is the duty; nothing on this site decides the outcome for you.
6. Gas safety record. A current record from a Gas Safe registered engineer, given to the new tenant before they move in. Annual thereafter. Gas Safety Certificate requirements and renewal dates.
7. Electrical installation report. A satisfactory EICR no more than five years old, given to the new tenant before they occupy. EICR requirements for landlords.
8. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. A smoke alarm on every storey with living accommodation and a carbon monoxide alarm in every room used as living accommodation with a fixed combustion appliance (gas cookers excepted), each shown to be working on the first day of a new tenancy. Some tenancies, such as lodgers sharing with the landlord, are excluded. The regulations prescribe no certificate, so the dated record of the test is the evidence. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarm rules.
9. Deposit: protect it and give the information within 30 days. The deposit is capped at five weeks' rent (six weeks' where the annual rent is £50,000 or more), goes into one of three approved schemes within 30 days of receipt, and the tenant gets the prescribed information in the same window. Tenancy deposit protection deadlines.
10. Written information about the tenancy. Since 1 May 2026 every assured tenancy is periodic. For a new tenancy, the tenant must be given the government's specified written information about its key terms before the tenancy is agreed; it can sit in a written agreement or be given separately. Tenancies that already existed had a one-off step by 31 May 2026: tenants with a written agreement were due the government's information sheet, and tenants on a wholly verbal tenancy were due the written information itself. Rent in advance is limited to one month once the agreement is signed. The GOV.UK guidance on written information has the list, and the GOV.UK guide to the Renters' Rights Act covers the wider changes. What the annual rhythm now looks like is in tenancy renewals after 1 May 2026, and what the information sheet replaced is in the How to Rent guide, withdrawn on 1 May 2026.
11. Inventory and check-in. Not a statutory duty, but the deposit scheme's adjudicator will decide any end-of-tenancy dispute on it. Dated, photographed, signed by both sides.

During the tenancy

12. Repairs. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 makes the landlord responsible for the structure and exterior (including drains, gutters and external pipes), the installations for water, gas, electricity and sanitation, and for space heating and hot water, whatever the agreement says. The council can inspect for hazards and serve notices the landlord must act on. Section 11 and GOV.UK on repairs. A repair that is reported and not recorded is the one that turns into a complaint; a simple maintenance workflow is the fix.
13. Access for inspections and checks. The same section gives the landlord the right to enter to view the condition and state of repair at reasonable times of day, on 24 hours' written notice to the occupier. That is the basis for the annual gas visit, the five-yearly electrical test and any routine inspection; it is not a right to force entry, and the record of notices given is what shows reasonable steps if a tenant refuses.
14. The recurring certificates. Gas every 12 months (with the two-month early-renewal rule). The EICR every five years or sooner if the report says so; where it calls for remedial or investigative work, that is done within 28 days or any shorter period the report sets, and within 28 days of finishing, the tenant and the council both get the report and the electrician's written confirmation. The EPC whenever the property is next marketed or let without a valid one. Alarms repaired once a fault is reported. These are the dates a portfolio actually loses track of, and the expiry checker works each one out from the certificate date.
15. Right to Rent follow-up checks. Where a tenant's permission to stay is time-limited, a follow-up check is due before the later of the permission's end date or twelve months after the last check, and a failed follow-up must be reported to the Home Office.
16. Rent increases and notices. Rent can rise once a year by section 13 notice with at least two months' notice; a tenant leaves on two months' notice; possession runs on the Act's grounds with their own notice periods. Every notice served or received is a dated record.
17. Pets. A request to keep a pet cannot be unreasonably refused. Record the request, the answer and the reason.

At the end of the tenancy

18. Check-out and deposit return. Check-out report against the inventory, then the deposit returned within ten days of agreeing the amount, or the scheme's dispute service if there is no agreement.
19. Records. Gas records until two further checks have been made, the EICR until the next one, Right to Rent evidence for a year after the tenancy, and the tenancy file for as long as a claim could arise. What property records to keep.

Two things that are not on the list

Income tax on the rent and the ombudsman scheme. Tax is a duty, but not a compliance record a tenant or council will ask for. The landlord ombudsman is in the Renters' Rights Act and expected in 2028; until membership is required it is not a checklist item, and the PRS guide above tracks it.

In Verixad each of these duties is either a document with an expiry date on the property, a dated record on the tenancy (deposit, Right to Rent check, notices, the inventory), or a task with a due date, and the dashboard shows what is missing or expiring across the portfolio, whether that portfolio is your own homes or ones you manage for landlords. See how it works, or run the free compliance audit on your own spreadsheet for a quick date check of the Gas Safety, EICR and EPC columns (and fire risk assessments for HMOs). This page is general information, not legal advice; the sources linked beside each duty are the ones to check for your situation.