Landlord compliance checklist 2026

Have every gas appliance and flue in the let checked by a Gas Safe registered engineer once a year. Before a new tenancy starts, the check must have been done within the previous 12 months.

How often

Every 12 months. Before a new tenancy, the check must be under 12 months old.

Maximum fine

Criminal offence: a fine and, in serious cases, prison.

Give existing tenants a copy of the gas safety record within 28 days of the check, and give new tenants a copy before they move in. Keep your record and make sure the engineer is Gas Safe registered.

How often

Within 28 days of each check; before move-in for new tenants. Keep records at least 2 years.

Have the fixed electrical installation inspected and tested by a qualified person at least every 5 years, and get a written report (usually an EICR).

How often

At least every 5 years, or sooner if the report sets an earlier re-inspection date. Newly built or fully rewired homes can use an Electrical Installation Certificate for 5 years.

Maximum fine

Up to £40,000 civil penalty or prosecution.

Give the EICR to existing tenants within 28 days of the inspection and to new tenants before they move in. Give prospective tenants a copy within 28 days of a request, and the council a copy within 7 days of a request. Complete any remedial work within 28 days (or sooner if the report says).

How often

Tenants: within 28 days of the inspection, or before move-in. Council: within 7 days of a request. Repairs: within 28 days.

Maximum fine

Up to £40,000 civil penalty or prosecution.

Hold a valid Energy Performance Certificate for the home and give a copy free of charge to the person who ends up renting it.

How often

Before letting. An EPC lasts 10 years.

Maximum fine

£200 penalty notice.

Do not let or keep letting a home that has an EPC rating of F or G unless you have improved it to E or registered a valid exemption.

How often

Continuous. You never need to spend more than the £3,500 (including VAT) cost cap.

Maximum fine

Up to £5,000 per property.

Fit at least one smoke alarm on every storey used as living accommodation, and a carbon monoxide alarm in every room used as living accommodation that has a fixed combustion appliance (not gas cookers). Check each alarm works on the first day of every new tenancy, and repair or replace faulty ones once told.

How often

Check on day one of each new tenancy; fix or replace when you are told an alarm is faulty. Keep a record of the test.

Maximum fine

Up to £5,000 if you ignore a council notice to fix it.

Do a simple legionella risk assessment of the home's hot and cold water system and keep the risk low (flush before letting, lidded tanks, hot water stored at 60 degrees C). Review it if the system changes.

How often

Once, then review when anything changes. No set annual or two-yearly review in law.

If you supply upholstered furniture, beds, mattresses, cushions or pillows with the let, make sure each item meets the fire resistance rules and carries a permanent label. Do not supply non-compliant furniture; replace it.

How often

Check when furnishing a property and when adding items. Pre-1950 furniture is excluded.

Maximum fine

Criminal offence: a fine or up to 6 months in prison.

If you are the responsible person for a multi-occupied residential building (2 or more sets of domestic premises), give residents fire safety instructions and information on the importance of fire doors. In buildings with storeys over 11 metres, also check flat entrance doors annually and communal fire doors quarterly.

How often

Provide on an ongoing basis; annual and quarterly door checks above 11 metres.

Make sure the home has no Category 1 hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (for example serious damp and mould, excess cold, fire risks, falls). Fix hazards promptly and obey any council improvement notice.

How often

Continuous. Councils can inspect on a tenant complaint or their own survey.

Maximum fine

Up to £7,000 civil penalty (from 22 June 2026); up to £40,000 for ignoring an improvement notice.

Keep in repair the structure and exterior (including drains, gutters and external pipes), the water, gas, electricity and sanitation installations, and the space heating and hot water installations. Give at least 24 hours' notice to enter for inspections or repairs.

How often

Continuous; fix within a reasonable time of being told.

Maximum fine

No set fine, but tenants can take you to court.

Make sure the home, including common parts you control, is fit to live in at the start of and throughout the tenancy. Tenants can go to court if it is not.

How often

Throughout every tenancy.

Maximum fine

No set fine, but a court can order the work and compensation.

Advertise the property with one fixed asking rent (no range). Do not ask for, encourage or accept offers above it, and do not hint that other offers exist.

How often

On every advert and viewing, since 1 May 2026.

Maximum fine

Up to £7,000.

Do not advertise or act so as to put off people with children or on benefits (no 'No DSS' adverts, no blanket refusals). Apply the same income test to everyone and do not unreasonably refuse a type of income evidence. Normal affordability and referencing checks are still allowed.

How often

At every advert, viewing and application, since 1 May 2026.

Maximum fine

Up to £7,000, plus £7,000 more for each 28 days it continues.

Before a tenancy starts, check that every tenant aged 18 or over (and lodgers) has the right to rent in England, using original documents, a registered digital verification service, or a Home Office share code. Keep copies and repeat the check when permission to stay is time-limited.

How often

Before the tenancy starts (within 28 days before if the tenant has limited permission to stay). Follow-up check just before permission ends or 12 months after the last check, whichever is later. Keep copies for the tenancy plus 1 year.

Maximum fine

Up to £20,000 per tenant.

For any tenancy agreed on or after 1 May 2026, give the tenant the prescribed written information about the key terms before you sign or agree the tenancy (in the agreement or separately), even if the agreement is oral.

How often

Before signing or agreeing each new tenancy.

Maximum fine

Up to £7,000.

Do not ask for a tenancy deposit of more than 5 weeks' rent (6 weeks if the annual rent is £50,000 or more).

How often

At the time you take the deposit.

Maximum fine

Up to £5,000 for a first breach; up to £30,000 or prosecution for a repeat within 5 years.

If you take a holding deposit, take no more than 1 week's rent and only one per tenancy at a time. Refund it, or give written reasons for keeping it, within 7 days of the decision.

How often

Hold for 15 calendar days unless a different period is agreed in writing; refund or explain within 7 days.

Maximum fine

Up to £5,000 for a first breach; up to £30,000 or prosecution for a repeat within 5 years.

Put any tenancy deposit into a government-approved scheme (DPS, MyDeposits or TDS) within 30 days of receiving it, and give the tenant the prescribed information about the scheme within the same 30 days. Return the deposit within 10 days of agreeing what goes back.

How often

Within 30 days of receiving the deposit; return within 10 days of agreement at the end.

Maximum fine

The court orders you to pay the tenant 1 to 3 times the deposit, and most eviction grounds are blocked.

Only charge payments on the permitted list: rent, a refundable deposit, a refundable holding deposit, up to £50 (or evidenced reasonable cost) for a tenant-requested change, a payment when the tenant does not give the correct notice, utilities, council tax, communications, late rent fees and replacement keys. Anything else, such as check-in, referencing or cleaning fees, is banned.

How often

Every time you ask a tenant for money.

Maximum fine

Up to £5,000 for a first breach; up to £30,000 or prosecution for a repeat within 5 years. Banned fees must be repaid.

Do not ask for, accept or encourage rent before the tenancy agreement is signed. After signing and before the tenancy starts you may ask for at most 1 month's rent in advance (28 days if the rent period is shorter than a month).

How often

From 1 May 2026, for every new tenancy.

Maximum fine

Up to £5,000 (government guide to the Renters' Rights Act).

You can no longer use Section 21 to end a tenancy. All assured shorthold tenancies became assured periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026. Do not create fixed-term tenancies; evict only by court process on a Section 8 ground.

How often

Since 1 May 2026.

Maximum fine

Up to £7,000, or £40,000 for offences, depending on the breach.

For tenancies that began before 1 May 2026 with a written agreement, you had to give every named tenant the government's Information Sheet 2026 (the exact PDF, printed or attached to an email, not a link). For oral tenancies you had to give a written statement of key terms instead. If you gave a valid Section 8 or 21 notice before 1 May 2026, you must give the sheet within one month after the notice stops being valid or the court process ends.

How often

The deadline was 31 May 2026. Official guidance does not say what happens if you missed it, so get advice.

Maximum fine

Up to £7,000.

Raise rent only by serving form 4A (section 13 notice) at least 2 months before the new rent starts, no more than once a year, and not in the first year. Rent review clauses in the agreement no longer work. Email service is allowed only if the agreement permits it.

How often

At most once every 12 months, with at least 2 months' notice; also needed even if the tenant agrees.

If a tenant asks to keep a pet, reply in writing within 28 days. Do not refuse without a fair reason, and give the reason in writing.

How often

28 days from the request (extendable by up to 7 days after you ask for more information).

To regain possession, serve a Section 8 notice (form 3A) on a valid ground with the right notice, and prove your case to the court. For most grounds the deposit must have been protected with prescribed information given, and grounds 1 and 1A (move in or sell) cannot be used until the tenant has been in for 12 months.

How often

Per eviction.

Do not change locks, remove tenants or their belongings, cut off services or pressure the tenant to leave. You need a court order and bailiffs.

How often

Always.

Maximum fine

Criminal offence: up to £40,000 civil penalty or prosecution, and up to 2 years' rent repaid.

If the property is occupied by 5 or more people forming 2 or more households and they share facilities, apply to the council for an HMO licence before letting. Purpose-built blocks of 3 or more flats are not caught. Tell the council about changes.

How often

Licence needed before occupation; a licence runs for up to 5 years.

Maximum fine

Up to £40,000 civil penalty or prosecution, and up to 2 years' rent repaid.

Check your council's website. Some councils require licences for HMOs below the national 5-person threshold (for example 3 or 4 people) in designated areas. If your property falls in a scheme, apply for a licence.

How often

Depends on the council's designation; schemes run for up to 5 years.

Maximum fine

Up to £40,000 civil penalty or prosecution.

Meet the mandatory licence conditions: show the council a gas safety certificate under 12 months old each year, keep electrical appliances and furniture you supply safe, ensure electrical installations are safe and give a declaration on demand, install a smoke alarm on each storey and carbon monoxide alarms where needed, and give each occupier a written statement of terms.

How often

Gas certificate to council annually; others continuous and on demand.

Maximum fine

Up to £40,000 civil penalty or prosecution.

Do not use a room for sleeping unless it is at least 6.51 square metres for one adult or child over 10, 10.22 square metres for two people over 10, and 4.64 square metres for one child under 10. Rooms under 4.64 square metres must not be used for sleeping. Ceiling height under 1.5 metres does not count towards floor area.

How often

Applies to every licence; the council sets the maximum occupant numbers in each licence.

Maximum fine

Up to £40,000 civil penalty or prosecution.

Make your name, address and phone number available to every household and display them clearly in the HMO. Keep fire escape routes clear and in good repair, keep fire-fighting equipment and alarms working, and display escape route notices (not needed if the HMO has 4 or fewer occupiers). Take reasonable steps to protect occupiers from injury, including unsafe roofs, balconies and low windows.

How often

Continuous.

Maximum fine

Up to £40,000 per failure, or prosecution.

Keep the water supply and drainage clean and working (covered tanks, frost protection) and do not unreasonably interrupt water, gas or electricity. Send the council the latest gas appliance test certificate within 7 days of a written request.

How often

Continuous; 7 days to respond to a council request.

Maximum fine

Up to £40,000 per failure, or prosecution.

Keep common parts clean, safe and clear of obstruction, with working lighting, secure handrails and stair coverings. Keep each room clean at the start of a tenancy and its structure, fittings and windows in repair. Provide enough bins for each household and arrange refuse disposal.

How often

Continuous.

Maximum fine

Up to £40,000 per failure, or prosecution.

Have the fixed electrical installation tested by a qualified person at intervals of no more than 5 years, get a certificate, and send it to the council within 7 days of a written request.

How often

At least every 5 years; 7 days to respond to the council.

Maximum fine

Up to £40,000 civil penalty or prosecution.

As the 'responsible person' for shared areas, carry out and keep up to date a fire risk assessment of the common parts of the HMO, and act on it (alarms, fire doors, escape routes, emergency lighting where needed).

How often

Before letting, then review regularly and after any change.

Maximum fine

Up to £5,000 for minor breaches; an unlimited fine and up to 2 years in prison for serious ones.

Check with the council who is liable for council tax. In an HMO (or where each occupant has a separate tenancy or licence for part of the home), the owner is usually the person liable for the bill, not the tenants.

How often

Ongoing, billed annually.

Check whether the property is inside a council selective licensing area. If it is, almost every private let there needs a licence regardless of size.

How often

Depends on the council's designation; a designation can last up to 5 years.

Maximum fine

Up to £40,000 civil penalty or prosecution.

A dwellinghouse used as an HMO by up to six residents is Use Class C4. Changing between a family home (C3) and a small HMO is normally permitted development, unless the council has an Article 4 direction removing that right.

How often

Before starting HMO use or changing the number of residents.

Maximum fine

Council planning enforcement.

Ask the council whether an Article 4 direction removes permitted development rights for C3 to C4 changes in your street. If it does, you need full planning permission before using a home as a small HMO.

How often

Before converting or letting to 3 or more unrelated sharers.

Maximum fine

Council planning enforcement.

A shared house for more than six residents falls outside Class C4, so you normally need planning permission from the council for that use. Check before taking on or enlarging a 7-plus HMO.

How often

Before starting or expanding to 7 or more residents.

Maximum fine

Council planning enforcement.

If you do your own tenancy agreements, referencing or credit checks, you generally need to pay the ICO data protection fee each year. You may be exempt if a letting agent fully manages the let and you only get statements and rent.

How often

Annual fee, renewed each year.

Maximum fine

£400 to £4,000 on top of the fee.

If your taxable rental profit (or a property income above the £1,000 property allowance) needs a return, register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the tax year ends and file online by 31 January, paying any tax by the same date.

How often

Register by 5 October 2026 for 2025 to 2026; online return and payment by 31 January 2027; paper return by 31 October 2026.

Maximum fine

HMRC penalties for late filing and late payment.

If your gross rental and self-employment income is over the threshold, keep digital records and send quarterly updates through HMRC-approved software, plus a final declaration instead of the old return. HMRC writes to people it identifies but it is still your job to check.

How often

From 6 April 2026 if qualifying income was over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025; from 6 April 2027 if over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026; from 6 April 2028 if over £20,000 in 2026 to 2027.