Landlord Compliance Checklist 2026: Every Certificate and Deadline

Letting a home in England comes with a stack of legal duties, each on its own cycle, each with its own paperwork. Miss one and the consequences range from fines to being unable to serve a valid possession notice. Here is the full checklist for 2026, with how often each item recurs and what evidence you should be holding.

The core checklist

Gas safety record (CP12) — every 12 months

• Annual gas safety check by a Gas Safe registered engineer covering every gas appliance and flue
• Give a copy of the record to tenants within 28 days of the check (and to new tenants before they move in)
• Keep records for at least two years — in practice, keep them all
• Full detail in our CP12 guide

Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) — every 5 years

• A qualified electrician inspects the fixed electrical installation
• Any C1 or C2 defects (and FI items) must be remedied, with written confirmation
• Supply the report to tenants, and to the local authority if they ask

Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms — check at every tenancy start

• At least one smoke alarm on every storey used as living accommodation
• A carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance (boilers, gas fires, log burners — gas cookers excepted)
• Alarms must be shown working on the first day of each tenancy; repair or replace promptly when a fault is reported

Energy Performance Certificate — every 10 years, minimum standard rising

• A valid EPC, currently rated E or above, before marketing the property
• The minimum rises to EPC C by 1 October 2030 in England and Wales, with a £15,000 cost cap and registered exemptions — see our EPC C by 2030 guide
• Note the EPC format itself is being reformed (multiple metrics, second half of 2027)

Deposit protection — within 30 days of receipt

• Protect the deposit in a government-approved scheme
• Serve the prescribed information on the tenant within the same 30 days
• Penalties can reach one to three times the deposit, and an unprotected deposit blocks a Section 21 notice

Right to rent — before the tenancy starts

• Check every adult occupier's right to rent in England (documents or the online share-code service)
• Keep dated copies of the evidence for the tenancy plus 12 months

How to Rent guide — at the start of each tenancy

• Give tenants the current version of the government's How to Rent guide

Why the paperwork matters as much as the work

Two themes run through enforcement:

• Penalties are real. Depending on the breach, you face civil penalties running to thousands of pounds, deposit-related awards to tenants, unlimited fines for gas safety failures, and criminal liability in the worst cases.
• Compliance you can't prove doesn't count. If a tenant disputes whether they received the CP12 or the How to Rent guide, the landlord who can produce a dated record wins; the landlord who "definitely gave them one" often doesn't. Several documents are also preconditions for possession notices — missing paperwork can cost you the ability to recover your own property.

Build an evidence habit

A simple system beats a good memory:

• One folder (physical or digital) per property, with everything dated
• Photograph or scan every certificate the day it arrives — engineers' paper records fade and go missing
• Record service of documents to tenants: email with attachments is ideal because it timestamps itself; if you hand over paper, get a signature or send a follow-up email confirming it
• Diary the renewals: CP12 annually, EICR five-yearly, EPC ten-yearly, alarm checks each tenancy start, deposit and right-to-rent steps at each new let
• Keep old certificates even after renewal — they prove a continuous history of compliance, which matters in disputes and adds genuine value when you sell

Looking ahead

The direction of travel is more transparency, not less: EPC reform in 2027, the EPC C standard in 2030, and the wider home buying reforms pushing standardised digital property records. Landlords who keep organised, dated evidence now will find every one of those changes easier — and cheaper — than those who don't.

HomePassport for landlords tracks each property's CP12, EICR, EPC and alarm dates in one place and reminds you before anything lapses, with the certificates stored against the property.