What property records should a letting agency keep?

When a tenant, a landlord or a local authority asks for a document, the difficulty is usually finding it rather than having had it in the first place. This checklist groups the records a letting agency should keep by the thing they belong to, which is also the simplest way to file them, then covers how long to keep each one and what to hand over when a landlord moves on.

Per property

• Every gas safety record, not just the latest. Each one must be kept until two further checks have been made, and the tenant given a copy within 28 days of the check.
• The current EICR, plus the written confirmation from the electrician when a report required remedial work. That work is due within 28 days of the inspection, or sooner if the report says so, and the confirmation and the report go to the tenant and the local council within 28 days of completing it. Keep the dates each copy was sent.
• The EPC, and any exemption registered against the property.
• Smoke and carbon monoxide alarm checks on the day each new tenancy began, and any repair or replacement after a tenant reported a fault.
• For an HMO, the licence and its conditions, and the fire risk assessment where one applies.
• The legionella risk assessment. HSE says it does not need to be an in-depth assessment and that no “legionella test certificate” is required; recording the findings is not a statutory duty for most landlords, but it is the only way to show it was done.
• Inspection reports, with the date and who carried each one out.

Per tenancy

• The signed tenancy agreement and any variations.
• Deposit protection certificate and the prescribed information, given within 30 days of receiving the deposit in England and Wales (the deadlines and what the information must contain).
• Inventory and check-in report, then the check-out report.
• Evidence of the information you gave the tenant at the start: the written statement of the tenancy terms (the “How to Rent” guide was withdrawn on 1 May 2026), plus evidence the gas, EICR and EPC copies were given, and when.
• Rent schedule and payment history; arrears correspondence.
• Notices served and received, with dates and how they were delivered.

Per repair job

A repair file is what a council officer, a tribunal or an unhappy landlord will ask for, and it is the record most often spread across three inboxes. For each job keep:

• The report as the tenant worded it, the date, and how urgent they said it was.
• When someone looked at it and what was decided.
• The landlord's approval, with the amount and date, where approval was needed.
• The contractor, the visit date, before and after photos, and the invoice.
• What the tenant was told at each step, and when the job was closed.

The maintenance workflow guide walks through how to collect all of this as the job happens rather than afterwards. The same dated file answers the question Awaab's Law asks about damp, mould and other hazards: when each was reported, investigated and fixed. The law is in force for social landlords and is extended to private renting on a date not yet set.

Per person

• Right to Rent check record for every tenant aged 18 and over (England): the date of the check and copies of the documents or the online check result. Where their permission to stay is time-limited, a follow-up check is due just before the later of the date it ends and 12 months after the previous check.
• Referencing outcome as recorded, with the date and who ran it.
• Contact details and the communication history, so a conversation is not reconstructed from three inboxes.

How long to keep each record

There is no single retention period. These are the ones set in law or official guidance:

• Gas safety records: until two further checks of the appliance have been made, or two years from the last check of an appliance that has been removed, under regulation 36(3)(c) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. With annual checks that is usually about two years, longer if a check was done early.
• EICR: until the later of the date the next inspection is due and the date it is actually carried out, under regulation 3(3)(ca) of the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations 2020.
• Right to Rent copies: for the time the tenants rent from you and for one year after, according to GOV.UK's right to rent guidance.
• Rental income and expense records: a landlord who files Self Assessment must keep them until the fifth anniversary of the 31 January after the tax year, because section 12B of the Taxes Management Act 1970 treats letting property as carrying on a trade. Your statements and invoices are part of those records.
• Tenancy files: no rule sets a period, but a claim on a contract can be brought up to six years after the cause of action arose, and on a deed up to twelve (Limitation Act 1980, section 5 and section 8). Six years after the tenancy ends is a defensible working rule; decide yours and write it down.

Personal data is the limit on the other side. The ICO's guidance on storage limitation says you must not keep personal data for longer than you need it, and that you need a policy setting standard retention periods wherever possible. A short written schedule built from the periods above is that policy. Apply it to records about applicants who never became tenants too, not just to tenancy files.

File it so it survives a staff change

Records almost always go missing in the handover between people. The engineer emails one person, the tenant copy is sent by another, and the renewal lands with a third. A few habits fix most of it:

• File everything against the property or tenancy it belongs to, never against the person who received it.
• Keep nothing that matters only in a personal inbox, a phone's photo roll or a desktop folder.
• When a certificate is renewed, keep the old one alongside the new; the retention rules above need the history.
• Record who did each thing, not just what was done, so the next person knows whom to ask.
• Record when copies were given to the tenant, because the date is what an enforcement officer asks for.

When a landlord leaves your management

Hand over a complete, dated set rather than a pile of attachments: the current gas safety record, EICR, EPC and any remedial confirmation, with the older records the retention periods still cover; alarm checks; the tenancy agreement and written statement; deposit details and scheme reference; inventory and inspection reports; Right to Rent records, with any follow-up check dates; notices served; and a list of open repair jobs with where each one stands. Agree in writing who takes over each dated obligation from the handover date, and tell the tenant who to report repairs to from then on. Then apply your own retention schedule to what the agency still holds.

The government's guidance on renting out a property covers the legal side in full, and it changes, so check it rather than this page for current requirements. The certificate checklist has the renewal frequencies, and the weekly compliance review keeps the dates moving.

Verixad keeps documents, tenancies, repair jobs, tasks and contacts attached to the property they belong to. A renewed certificate keeps the one it replaced on file, each job records who did what and when, the Right to Rent logbook records who checked what and when with any follow-up date, and a one-page owner report gives a landlord their portfolio's position to print or export. See properties and tenancies, or how it works for landlords.