Landlord Responsibilities: A Checklist of What to Do and When

You've just bought a rental, or you're about to let one. As a landlord in England, you're responsible for three things: keeping the home safe and in good repair, looking after the tenant's deposit properly, and running the tenancy by the rules. That means a gas safety check every year and an electrical inspection at least every five years. Working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. A valid energy certificate, a protected deposit and right to rent checks. And repairs to the structure, heating, hot water and plumbing.

Most of it is paperwork with a date on it. Miss a date and the fines can run to thousands of pounds. So when does each job fall due?

Article published: September 2026

This covers the ordinary private tenancy in England. Some rules differ for lodgers, long leases, social housing and tenancies that started before 1989, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own systems. Where I share my own experience, it's just that. Everybody's is different, and none of this is legal or tax advice.

Before the tenant moves in: what a landlord must provide by law

A lot of the work comes before the keys change hands. Get this stage right and much of the rest is dates in a diary.

1. Your mortgage lender's permission. If there's a mortgage on the property, you need the lender's permission before you rent it out.
2. A licence, if the property needs one. An HMO (house in multiple occupation) is a home where at least three people from more than one household share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet. The mandatory licensing rules kick in once five or more people live in one. It then needs an HMO licence, unless it's a purpose-built flat in a block of three or more self-contained flats. Councils can license other HMOs too. Some councils also run selective licensing, which covers ordinary rented homes in part or all of their area. The power to do that is in the Housing Act 2004. Each council lists its schemes on its own website.
3. An energy performance certificate (EPC) rated E or above. You have to order an EPC before you advertise the property, and it lasts 10 years. A home rated F or G can't be let until it's improved to E or an exemption is registered under the minimum energy standard. The government wants to raise that to the equivalent of a C by 1 October 2030. It set this out in January 2026, and Parliament still has to approve it. Our guide to the energy performance certificate target explains what the C standard asks of a landlord.
4. A gas safety check. Every gas appliance and flue you provide needs a gas safety check by a Gas Safe registered engineer. Usually that's in the 12 months before the tenancy starts. For a newly fitted appliance or flue, the first check is due within 12 months of it going in. The new tenant gets a copy of the record before they move in.
5. An electrical inspection. A qualified person has to inspect and test the electrics before the tenancy starts, and the new tenant gets a copy of the electrical report before moving in.
6. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. You need a smoke alarm on every storey with a room people live in (bathrooms and toilets included), and a carbon monoxide alarm in any of those rooms with a fixed appliance that burns fuel, such as a boiler or wood burner. Gas cookers don't count.
7. Fire safety in flats. Purpose-built blocks, and houses converted into flats, come with their own fire safety rules on top of the alarms.
8. A legionella risk assessment. Legionella is a type of bacteria that can grow in water systems. HSE (the Health and Safety Executive) says landlords have a duty to assess the risk. It doesn't need to be detailed, most landlords can do it themselves, and there's no legionella test certificate to get.
9. Right to rent checks. Before a new tenancy starts, every adult who'll live there needs a right to rent check, named on the agreement or not. Checking only the people you think aren't British is against the law.
10. The tenancy terms in writing. For a tenancy created from 1 May 2026, the tenant gets the key terms in writing before you sign or agree it. Miss it and the fine can reach £7,000.
11. One rent in the advert, and no bidding. A written advert has to show one rent, not a range. You can't ask for, encourage or accept offers above it. That's the rental bidding ban.
12. Deposits and rent in advance within the limits. A holding deposit is capped at one week's rent. The tenancy deposit is capped at five weeks' rent where the rent is under £50,000 a year, and six weeks' at £50,000 or more. For agreements signed from 1 May 2026, no rent can be taken before signing. Between signing and the start of the tenancy, the most you can take is one month's rent, or 28 days' if rent isn't paid monthly. A few council-arranged lets are the exception.
13. No turning people away for children or benefits. Refusing a tenant because they have children or claim benefits is now illegal. So is refusing them a viewing, or telling them the home is taken when it isn't. The exceptions are narrow, such as a home that would be overcrowded or genuinely unsuitable for children.

On move-in day and in the first 30 days

Two deadlines come right at the start.

Day one. Every alarm has to be checked and working on the day a new tenancy begins. Fitting them isn't enough.

Within 30 days of taking the deposit. The deposit goes into a government-approved protection scheme, and the tenant gets the "prescribed information": where it's held and how to get it back. Section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 gives you 30 days to do both. The three approved schemes are the Deposit Protection Service, mydeposits and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, and gov.uk lists what the information must include.

Get this wrong and the tenant can go to court. Under section 214, the court then has to order you to pay them between one and three times the deposit.

Landlord responsibilities for repairs

This is where the day-to-day work comes from. On a normal tenancy (anything under seven years), section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 says you have to keep these in repair:

• the structure and outside of the home, including drains, gutters and outside pipes
• the water, gas and electricity supply, and the basins, sinks, baths and toilets
• the heating and hot water

A clause in the tenancy agreement can't pass those jobs to the tenant.

The home also has to be fit to live in when the tenancy starts, and stay that way. And the council can inspect it for hazards. If it finds a serious one, it can serve an improvement notice, or do the work itself and send you the bill.

To check on the condition of the place, the same law lets you in at reasonable times of day, with 24 hours' notice in writing.

What is the tenant responsible for?

You don't have to fix things that come down to the tenant looking after the place day to day, or anything the tenant brought in and can take away. You also don't have to rebuild after a fire, flood or storm. That's all in the same section.

Tenants pay for damage they cause, including damage caused by their family and friends. And they only carry out repairs themselves if the tenancy agreement allows it, according to gov.uk's guide for renters.

How long does a landlord have to fix problems?

Within a reasonable time of being told, and what's reasonable depends on the problem. Citizens Advice puts it simply: a broken boiler should be fixed sooner than a leaky tap. The law doesn't set a fixed deadline for everyday repairs.

A few jobs do come with a clock:

• A faulty alarm, once reported, has to be repaired or replaced as soon as you reasonably can.
• If the electrical report says work is required, it has to be done within 28 days of the inspection, or sooner if the report says so. If it only recommends work, that part's optional.
• More deadlines are on the way. The government plans to bring Awaab's Law to private renting, which will set time limits for fixing serious hazards such as damp and mould. It hasn't set a date yet.

If repairs aren't done, the tenant can take you to court or ask the council to inspect. If the council finds a serious hazard, it must act.

Recurring landlord checks and how often they come round

Some checks come round on a fixed cycle. Others are triggered by a date, like a tenant's visa or a licence running out. These are the ones to put in a calendar.

Each gas record has to be kept until two more checks have been done. The electrical report is kept until the next inspection, and if the council asks for a copy, you have seven days to send it. Break the electrical rules and the council can fine you up to £40,000.

There was a stretch when I did every job on my properties myself, from finding the deals to acting as the letting agent. It wore me out and it capped what I could do.

If someone else does the checks, it helps if they're nearby. In my experience letting agents, managers and maintenance teams tend to work locally, so homes spread across the country are much harder to look after than a few that sit close together.

When the tenancy ends

Under the rules that came in on 1 May 2026, a landlord needs a legal reason, called a possession ground, to end a tenancy. Selling the property, moving in yourself, and the tenant breaking the terms are three of them, and the government's possession guide sets out each one. No-fault evictions have ended, so you can't give a new section 21 notice. Section 21 court cases already under way can still carry on.

A tenant who wants to leave usually gives at least two months' notice, ending on a rent day or the day before. It can be shorter if you both agree it in writing.

The deposit goes back within 10 days of you and the tenant agreeing how much they get. If you can't agree, it stays in the deposit scheme until the dispute is settled.

Buying a property with a tenant already in it

Any tenanted property for sale comes with its tenancy, and you take that on as it stands, duties and all. Here's what comes with it, and what doesn't.

• The tenancy. A sale doesn't end it. The tenant can stay until they end it or the landlord gets a court possession order. The rent increase rules stop the rent going up until at least a year after the last increase.
• The deposit. The seller passes it over using the deposit scheme's own transfer process, and the tenant gets fresh prescribed information from the new landlord. The Tenancy Deposit Scheme sets out how it works for its own schemes.
• The safety duties. Ask for the latest gas safety record, electrical report and EPC. Once you're the landlord, the yearly gas check deadline carries over to you, whoever arranged the last one.
• Not the licence. An HMO licence or selective licence can't be transferred to a new owner. If the property needs one, the new owner applies for their own, and the council can say what's needed.
• Telling the tenant who you are. Section 3 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 says a new landlord has to tell the tenant about the sale in writing, with their name and address. The deadline is the next rent day, or two months after the sale if that's later. Missing it without a good reason is a criminal offence. The section 3 notice is the letter that does this.

That's the general shape. Your conveyancer checks the details for the property you're actually buying.

Every investment property in the UK comes with a list like this. In England it's the one above, and keeping up with it is one of the costs of being a landlord, in time as well as money. Cheaper homes can come with more to fix, too. Some below market value properties need work before they meet the safety and energy rules above, and that work is part of the cost of getting them ready to let.

What changed for landlords on 1 May 2026

The first part of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 started on 1 May 2026. The government's landlord guide lists the changes:

• Section 21 "no fault" evictions ended, and existing assured shorthold tenancies became rolling assured periodic tenancies. Possession claims already under way could carry on.
• Rent can go up once a year at most, and not in the first year of the tenancy, using the section 13 notice process: Form 4A, given at least two months before the new rent starts.
• Rental bidding was banned.
• Rent in advance was capped for agreements signed from 1 May 2026: nothing before signing, then at most a month's rent before the tenancy starts, or 28 days' if rent isn't paid monthly.
• Refusing tenants because they have children or claim benefits became illegal, with narrow exceptions.
• A tenant can ask in writing to keep a pet. You have 28 days to reply in writing, and you can't refuse without a fair reason.
• Tenants on existing written agreements usually had to be given the Information Sheet by 31 May 2026. If an old eviction notice or court case delayed the change, you have one month from the date the tenancy converts.
• In most cases you no longer need to give tenants the How to Rent guide.

More is on the way. Landlord registration opens region by region from 15 December 2026, starting in the West Midlands, at £65 a property each year. Our guide to the new landlord register covers the regional deadlines. A landlord ombudsman follows once the register is running.

Further out, the decent homes standard is being extended to private renting, and the new standard is set to apply from 2035.

Tax and insurance

Rental income can be taxable, and gov.uk explains when to report it. For your own tax position, that's a job for an accountant.

Insurance isn't on the government's list of landlord duties.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

The rules above are England's. The other three nations run their own systems:

• Wales changed how all landlords rent their homes under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, from 1 December 2022. Landlords there register with Rent Smart Wales, which handles registration and licensing.
• Scotland requires landlords to register before renting out a property, unless they're exempt, and to renew every three years.
• Northern Ireland requires every private landlord to join the Landlord Registration Scheme.

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