The compliance checklist for letting a property in England

Before a tenant moves into a property in England, ten things have to be in place, plus an eleventh if you are letting it furnished or part-furnished, and six more if you are letting it room by room. This is that list, in the order it appears on Tenarize's own compliance checklist, with what each one is actually for. It is the product's core requirement list, published in full — there is nothing here you need an account to read.

Two of them are worth reading even if you think you know the list, because they are the two most often ticked off wrongly: the alarms, and the deposit.

The certificates

Gas Safety Certificate (CP12)

Required annually where the property has gas appliances, and only a Gas Safe registered engineer can carry out the check — you can check an engineer's registration before letting them near the boiler. Letting without a valid certificate is a criminal offence, and unlike most of this list it is one where the underlying risk is to someone's life rather than to your paperwork. The HSE sets out what a landlord's gas safety duties actually are.

Annual means annual. It is the shortest cycle on this list, which makes it the one most likely to lapse in the middle of a long tenancy — and since May 2026 there is no renewal date to catch it (see what the Renters' Rights Act changed).

Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)

Required at least every five years. A missing or failed check can mean fines of up to £40,000 under the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations 2020 — the largest single penalty on this list by some distance. GOV.UK publishes a guide for landlords on electrical safety standards, including the deadlines for supplying the report to a tenant or the council.

A "failed" EICR is not a passive outcome. If the report comes back with C1 or C2 codes, the remedial work is the point of the report, and the certificate does not do its job until that work is done and evidenced. The landlord EICR goes through the 28-day clock and who has to be told.

Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

Required, valid for ten years, with a minimum rating of E. Letting a property rated F or G without a registered exemption is unlawful under the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards, and can mean fines of up to £5,000. You can look up any property's existing certificate free on GOV.UK, and the landlord guidance on the minimum standard covers the exemptions and the cost cap.

This is the one where the answer to "what do I do about it" is sometimes expensive, and it is worth knowing early rather than a fortnight before a tenant is due to move in. If you have a property sitting at F or G, that is worth reading about on its own. The minimum is due to rise to C for every tenancy by 1 October 2030 — EPC rules for landlords covers what is confirmed and what still needs legislation.

The alarms, and the mistake everyone makes

Smoke alarms

At least one smoke alarm fitted on every storey used as living accommodation. Non-compliance can mean a fine of up to £5,000.

Carbon monoxide alarms

Required in any room with a fixed combustion appliance — a boiler, a wood burner, an open fire — other than a gas cooker. Same £5,000 exposure.

Here is the mistake, and it is a genuinely easy one to make. Both of those items confirm the alarms are fitted. There is a separate legal duty to check each alarm is working on the day the tenancy begins — best done with the tenant there. Fitting them does not discharge it, and it is the one that gets skipped. It is spelled out in GOV.UK's explanatory booklet on the smoke and carbon monoxide alarm regulations, which is written as a Q&A and worth ten minutes. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms covers both duties, and the third one, about faults a tenant reports.

On Tenarize the two are deliberately separate items on two different checklists — fitted on the compliance checklist, tested on the move-in day checklist — because a single combined tick is a tick that can be honestly given for the wrong thing.

The paperwork the tenant has to receive

Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet

The government's Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet 2026, given to the tenant before the tenancy is agreed. It is free to download from GOV.UK in standard, large-print and easy-read formats. It replaced the How to Rent guide, which was withdrawn on 1 May 2026 — if your move-in pack still references How to Rent, it is serving a document that no longer exists.

Deposit protection certificate

This item confirms you have the scheme's information ready to give the tenant. And this is the second trap on the list, so it is worth being blunt about it:

Ticking this is not the same as protecting the deposit. Protecting the deposit is a separate act that happens after you receive the money, and you have 30 days from receiving it to protect it with a government-approved scheme and give the tenant the prescribed information — GOV.UK lists the three approved schemes and exactly what has to be told to the tenant. It is entirely possible to have this checklist item ticked, the tenancy running, and the 30-day deadline missed — which is the scenario the deposit protection deadline answer exists to prevent.

The deposit itself is capped at five weeks' rent, or six where the annual rent is £50,000 or more.

Tenancy agreement

An agreement, drafted and ready for the tenant. Tenarize generates one against the current England regime, including the post-Renters'-Rights-Act periodic structure, and sends it for e-signature — and it is not solicitor-reviewed, which the document says on its own face. If your circumstances are unusual, that is a reason to have a solicitor look at it, and we would rather say so here than have you find out from the small print.

The two that are not certificates

Legionella risk assessment

A check of the property's water systems for Legionella risk, following HSE guidance (ACOP L8 / HSG274). It does not usually produce a formal certificate and can be self-assessed for an ordinary domestic let — the HSE says so itself on its page about Legionella and landlords' responsibilities, which is also the best short read on what the assessment involves. Record when you last assessed it, because "we did it at some point" is not a record.

Landlord insurance

Not a legal requirement. It is on the list anyway for two practical reasons: a standard home insurance policy typically does not cover a let property at all, and most mortgage lenders require landlord cover as a condition of the mortgage. A landlord who lets a former home without switching the policy is usually uninsured rather than under-insured.

The eleventh item, if the property is furnished

Furniture fire safety

Required for furnished and part-furnished lets under the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988. Soft furnishings supplied with the property — sofas, mattresses, cushions, upholstered chairs — must carry permanent fire-resistance labels.

This one catches accidental landlords in particular. Furniture you bought for yourself years ago, and are now leaving in the property because it is easier than clearing it, is furniture you are supplying as a landlord. If the label has gone, so has your evidence.

Six more, if you are letting room by room

Letting a property room by room is how a house in multiple occupation is created: once three or more people from two or more households live there sharing a kitchen, bathroom or toilet, it is an HMO, and an HMO carries a body of duty that a single let simply does not have. These six sit on top of the list above, not instead of it, and Tenarize adds them as soon as you set the letting type — before the rooms fill, because the duties have to be planned for rather than discovered.

HMO licence in force

A property occupied by five or more people forming two or more households, sharing a kitchen, bathroom or toilet, needs a mandatory licence. Note the test counts households, not strangers: a family of four plus one lodger is five people in two households, and licensable. Many councils additionally run additional licensing for smaller HMOs, or selective licensing covering every private rental in a designated area, so the only reliable answer is your own council's. Start at check whether you need an HMO licence.

Operating unlicensed where a licence is required is a criminal offence under Part 2 of the Housing Act 2004, carrying an unlimited fine and a rent repayment order of up to twelve months' rent. It is the single most expensive thing on this page to get wrong.

Fire risk assessment

The common parts of an HMO are regulated premises under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and since 1 October 2023 the assessment must be recorded in writing whatever the size of the premises. It covers escape routes, fire doors, alarms and emergency lighting — the risks that shared occupation creates and a single let does not.

The four management duties

The Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006 place a set of duties on whoever manages the property, and breach of each is a criminal offence in its own right, separately from the licensing offence:

• Regulation 3 — the manager's name, address and telephone number must be given to every occupier *and* displayed in a prominent position in the property.
• Regulation 4 — escape routes kept clear and in good order, and all fire precautions maintained in working order.
• Regulations 5 and 7 — water supply and drainage in proper working order, and the common parts and shared installations kept in repair and clean.
• Regulation 9 — enough bins for the number of occupiers, with disposal arranged to fit the council's collection. Unglamorous, and the most common source of HMO enforcement complaints.

Room sizes

Where a mandatory licence applies, the Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Mandatory Conditions of Licences) (England) Regulations 2018 set minimum sleeping-room floor areas: 6.51 m² for one person over 10, 10.22 m² for two, and 4.64 m² for a child under 10. Floor area under 1.5 m of head height does not count towards it. Letting a room below the minimum breaches a licence condition.

One thing that works the other way

Council tax. Where the occupiers each have a tenancy of only *part* of the property — which is what a room-by-room let is — the property is an HMO for council tax purposes and the owner is liable, not the occupiers, under the Local Government Finance Act 1992 and the Council Tax (Liability for Owners) Regulations 1992. A room-only agreement that tells the tenant to open a council tax account is asking them to do something they cannot do.

Where to check this yourself

Every item above comes from a published rule, and all of it is free to read. If you bookmark one set of links as a landlord, make it this one:

• Landlords' responsibility for gas safety — HSE, and Gas Safe Register to check an engineer
• Guide for landlords: electrical safety standards in the private rented sector — GOV.UK
• Domestic private rented property: minimum energy efficiency standard — GOV.UK, and find an energy certificate
• Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms: explanatory booklet for landlords — GOV.UK
• The Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 — GOV.UK
• Legionella and landlords' responsibilities — HSE
• Deposit protection schemes and landlords — GOV.UK
• Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 — legislation.gov.uk
• Check whether you need an HMO licence — GOV.UK, though your own council sets the detail
• Shelter and Citizens Advice — free, independent advice on a specific situation

What happens after move-in day

Getting this list complete gets you to the start of the tenancy, not through it. Most of these expire: the gas certificate annually, the EICR every five years, the EPC every ten. Since tenancies became periodic from the outset, nothing about the tenancy itself will prompt you to look.

Whatever you use to track it — a spreadsheet, a wall calendar, or software — the thing to record is the expiry date of each document, not the date you did the tenancy paperwork. They are different dates, and only one of them tells you when you are next at risk.

Tenarize does this by holding each document with its expiry date and sending a reminder before it lapses, alongside the checklist itself. It is £15 a month for one to five properties, with the first month free. The full list of answers is free to read regardless.