Compliance failures in lettings are rarely exotic. They are the same dozen obligations, missed for the same reason: each one has a different cycle, a different evidence requirement and a different penalty, and they are tracked in different places. This checklist puts all of them on one page — with the cycle and the proof you need for each.
England-specific; Wales and Scotland differ. Confirm details for your council and take advice for edge cases.
Safety certificates
1. Gas Safety (CP12) — every 12 months. Every gas appliance and flue, checked by a Gas Safe engineer. Record served to tenants within 28 days (and before occupation for new tenants). Evidence: the certificate, plus proof of service.
2. Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) — every 5 years. Qualified inspector; C1/C2 (and FI) findings remediated within 28 days, with written confirmation to the council if they asked. Evidence: report, remedial invoices, confirmation letters.
3. Smoke alarms — every storey; CO alarms — every room with a fixed combustion appliance. Working at the start of each tenancy, repaired or replaced when reported. Evidence: check-in inventory with alarm test, repair log.
4. Portable appliance safety. No fixed statutory cycle for supplied appliances, but you must ensure they are safe — periodic PAT testing is the accepted evidence.
Energy and property standards
5. EPC — minimum rating E to let (rating C requirements are on the horizon). Valid for 10 years, needed at marketing. The tightening to C for new tenancies later this decade means every D/E property in the book needs an improvement plan now, not at the deadline. Evidence: EPC certificate, improvement quotes if below C.
6. Housing Health and Safety (HHSRS) & Awaab's Law duties. Damp and mould complaints now carry fixed response timescales extended into the private sector under the Renters' Rights framework. Log every hazard report with dates: the clock is statutory. Evidence: complaint log, inspection notes, works orders.
Money and documents
7. Deposit protection — within 30 days. Authorised scheme (DPS/TDS/mydeposits), prescribed information served within the same 30 days. Get this wrong and you face 1–3× penalties and restrictions on possession. Evidence: scheme certificate, PI service proof.
8. Tenant Fees Act limits. Deposits capped (five weeks' rent under £50k annual rent), holding deposits at one week, and the permitted-payments list is short. Evidence: your fee schedule and ledgers.
9. How to Rent guide — current version at tenancy start (and on renewal of the guide). Evidence: dated proof of service. An out-of-date guide has procedural consequences for possession.
People and registrations
10. Right to Rent checks — before occupation, for every adult. Original documents, online share codes for eligible statuses, follow-up checks for time-limited rights. Evidence: dated copies with the "checked by" record.
11. Licensing — mandatory HMO, additional, selective. Establish which regime covers each property (see our HMO licensing guide) and track the licence like a certificate. Evidence: the licence and its conditions.
12. PRS Database registration + Ombudsman membership (Renters' Rights Act). Both are now baseline conditions of operating. Evidence: registration numbers on file, renewal dates diarised.
Running this as a system, not a memory
Three design rules separate compliant books from lucky ones:
- Every obligation is a dated record on the property — not a line in a spreadsheet tab someone owns.
- Chasing starts before expiry — 30 days out for booking, 7 days out for escalation. An expired certificate is a failure that started a month earlier.
- Evidence is filed at the moment of the event — the certificate on the property, the service proof on the tenancy, automatically archived when superseded.
That is the entire design brief of LintelCRM's compliance module: all twelve obligations per property, auto-chased at 30/7 days, with the evidence trail your landlords can see in their portal.
Frequently asked questions
What single failure causes the most damage? Deposit protection. It is cheap to get right, and getting it wrong poisons everything: penalties, and procedural blocks when you most need possession.
How should agents split duties with landlords? In writing, in the terms of business — per obligation. Ambiguity ("we assumed the landlord renewed the EICR") is how gaps happen; courts are unimpressed by assumptions on both sides.
Do these apply to existing tenancies or only new ones? Nearly all apply continuously. The exceptions with tenancy-start triggers (How to Rent, Right to Rent, deposit PI) re-trigger at specified events — treat each trigger as a checklist item in your workflow.