What are a landlord’s legal responsibilities?
Read more to find out how to avoid fines of up to £30,000 for non-compliance
As a landlord, your main responsibility is to keep your rental property safe and free from health hazards.
This involves making sure that the property is in a safe and liveable condition in line with the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018.
You must carry out repairs promptly and make sure that any gas or electrical systems meet specified safety standards.
You can read more about how to rent a safe home in our article.
Local councils use the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) to assess whether properties in their area are safe for the people who live there.
It’s important to be aware that if you fail to maintain your property in a good enough condition, your local council could fine you up to £30,000 without having to take you to court! Find out more about landlord fines and how to avoid them in our blog.
Get an award winning landlord insurance quote online from Total Landlord today, or alternatively call the team on 0800 634 3880
Here are the specific landlord obligations that you must make sure you comply with in order to legally let your property to a tenant:
If you’re letting a property with gas appliances in it, you have three main legal responsibilities:
Having an annual gas safety check carried out on each appliance and flue by a Gas Safe registered engineer
Maintaining a record of Gas Safety certificates and providing your tenants with copies as required – including giving new tenants a copy of the current certificate before the tenancy begins
Carrying out the necessary maintenance and repairs to make sure the gas pipework, flues and appliances remain in a safe condition
If a tenant refuses to allow access for gas inspections, it’s important to bear in mind that this is their home and you can’t enter the property without their agreement. For guidance on what you should do if this happens, read our article, ‘How to gain access for a landlord gas safety inspection’.
Failure to comply with gas safety regulations means putting your tenants’ lives at risk and carries harsh penalties, so it’s vital you get this right.
Find out more in our ‘Ultimate guide to gas safety and landlord gas safety certificates’.
Landlords in England must make sure that the property’s electrical system and all electrical equipment supplied to tenants is safely installed and maintained throughout the tenancy.
The full electrical installation must be inspected and tested by a qualified and competent person, at least every five years – sooner if it was recommended in the previous report. As with the gas safety certificate, a copy of the current Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) must be given to new tenants before they move in.
You can find out more about electrical safety standards in the private rented sector and landlords’ responsibilities at GOV.UK. You can also read more in our guide, ‘Why you need a landlord electrical safety certificate' and find out about the regulations in other parts of the UK in our ‘Legislation for landlords’ guide.
As a landlord, you are legally obliged to provide suitable fire safe accommodation. So, before you let a property, you should carry out a fire risk assessment – a careful analysis of the property, looking at potential risks and considering issues such as access to escape routes should a fire break out.
It is then your legal responsibility to:
Fit and test smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms: one smoke alarm on each floor of the property and a CO alarm in any room with a solid fuel-burning appliance or a gas or oil-fired boiler
Make sure all furniture and furnishings supplied are fire safe and bear manufacturers’ labels confirming the relevant requirements have been met – usually these will be ‘match’ and ‘cigarette’ test labels
Although fire extinguishers are only obligatory in multi-occupancy buildings, you may wish to provide one regardless of your property type
There are then additional fire safety regulations for multi-occupied buildings, e.g. an HMO or a flat in a purpose-built block. For details, see the next section: ‘What do HMO landlords need to know when preparing their property to rent?’.
You can find out more in our ‘Ultimate guide to fire safety regulations for landlords’, which includes a downloadable fire risk assessment template.
Legionella bacteria can form where the water temperature is between 20 and 45 degrees celsius and certain nutrients are present. In homes, that could be in water storage units or any other man-made hot or cold water systems.
If the bacteria is inhaled, it can cause Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially very serious type of pneumonia which can be fatal, so it’s vital that you make sure your tenants aren’t exposed.
Although landlords have a duty to assess the risk of exposure to legionella, the Health and Safety Executive states that it doesn’t require an in-depth, detailed assessment.
If a property is occupied, the risk is low, as the hot and cold water are used regularly, which keeps the supply moving.
And if your rental has electric showers and a combination boiler, the risk is even lower, as water isn’t being stored.
Key steps you can take to minimise the risk of legionella bacteria forming:
Flush the system between lets
Have any redundant pipework removed
If you have a hot water cylinder, make sure the water is stored at 60°C.
Check the water temperature during property inspections
Under the Domestic Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard Regulations (MEES), all privately rented properties must achieve an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of E or above in order to be legally let. A copy of the EPC must be given to tenants before their tenancy begins.
Note that this minimum standard is scheduled to rise to C in 2028, so if your property is currently rated D or below, you need to start looking now at how you can improve its energy efficiency.
See our 'Ultimate guide to having an eco friendly property’ for more information and advice.
Before the start of a new tenancy, you must check all prospective tenants aged 18 or over can legally rent residential property if it’s in England, by carrying out Right to rent checks. This applies to anyone living in the property, even if they’re not named on the tenancy agreement, e.g. family members or carers.
It’s important to be aware that if you fail to make right to rent checks and someone is found to be living illegally in the country, you can be fined and, in the most serious cases, could even face a prison sentence.
See the government website for how to carry out the checks on both non-UK nationals and British and Irish applicants.
You can also find out about right to rent checks in our ultimate guide to right to rent checks.
If you’re preparing to rent out your house on an assured shorthold tenancy that started after 6 April 2007, you must protect your tenant’s deposit in a one of the government approved tenancy deposit protection schemes, such as mydeposits, which is part of the HFIS group. You can either:
Transfer the deposit monies to the scheme (custodial)
Keep hold of the deposit monies and take out insurance with the scheme (insured)
You (or your letting agent) must register your tenant’s deposit with a scheme within 30 days of getting it.
It’s mandatory for landlords to provide the latest version of the Government’s ‘How to rent’ checklist when a tenancy starts, and on renewal if there have been any updates.
The checklist is designed to help tenants and landlords understand their rights and responsibilities and offers advice on what to look out for before renting, living in a rented home, the process at the end of the tenancy and what to do if something goes wrong.
You can either email this to your tenant or provide a hard copy – but if you choose to give them a hard copy, make sure you download it directly from the government website so you can be sure it’s the latest version.
If you either don’t supply the checklist to your tenant or you give them an outdated version, any Section 21 eviction notice you subsequently serve could be declared invalid.
Landlords must make sure their rented homes are fit to live in at the start of a tenancy and remain in good condition for the duration of the let. To find out exactly what this means for you and your property, check out our guide, ‘Are you compliant with the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018?’.
When preparing to let your property, it’s important to make sure that it meets the required legal safety standards, which may mean you have to carry out repairs before you are able to rent it out. If this is the case, it’s well worth doing a thorough job while the property is empty, as making major repairs once tenants are in situ is far less convenient.
As a landlord you are responsible for:
Repairs to the property’s structure and exterior - including problems with the roof, chimneys, walls, guttering and drains.
Making sure the equipment for supplying water, gas and electricity is kept in safe working order
Maintaining basins, sinks, baths and other sanitary fittings in working order
Making sure there is adequate heating and hot water – find out more in our guide, ‘Boilers, heating and hot water: What are landlords’ legal responsibilities?’
Anything you damage through attempting repairs
Be aware that damp and mould are a particularly common cause of issues, both during and at the end of tenancies.
So, it’s important to take steps to prevent these problems occurring when preparing your property to rent, and to also help your tenants do all they can to prevent damp and mould.
See our separate guide, ‘Identify and prevent damp, mould and condensation in your property’, which includes a downloadable checklist to share with your tenants.
For more information on repairs, take a look at our ‘Guide to landlords’ and tenants’ property repair responsibilities’.
You can find a comprehensive round-up of all the legal requirements that landlords have to comply with, before and during a tenancy, in our guide: ‘Legislation for landlords: Everything you need to know’.
