By A landlord called us last month in a panic. Great tenant, tenancy signed, moving day booked, and then he realised the gas safety certificate had lapsed three weeks earlier. There are five things that have to be in place before that key changes hands, and getting even one wrong can cost you up to thirty thousand pounds.
None of these five things are optional, and none of them can be sorted out after the tenant has already moved in. Get them right upfront and you remove the single biggest source of risk in the entire tenancy.
The five essentials
- Gas safety certificate – renewed every twelve months by a Gas Safe registered engineer. Missing one is a criminal offence and can mean a fine of up to six thousand pounds.
- Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) – renewed every five years, with unsatisfactory items remedied before the tenancy starts. This carries the heaviest penalty of all, up to thirty thousand pounds.
- Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) – must show at least an E rating. The government is consulting on raising this to a C rating from 2030.
- Mandatory tenancy information – new tenants must be given certain key terms in writing before they sign, usually built straight into the tenancy agreement rather than a separate document. This replaced the old How to Rent guide.
- Right to Rent check – completed before the tenant moves in, with dated evidence kept on file. Failures here can cost twenty thousand pounds per tenant.
The one landlords most often get wrong
Deposit protection. It's not enough to just take the deposit, it has to be registered with an approved scheme, DPS, MyDeposits, or TDS, within thirty days, and the tenant must be served the prescribed information within that same window. Miss the deadline and a tenant can claim between one and three times the deposit back from you in compensation, on top of still owing you nothing.
The bottom line
None of these five things are difficult on their own, they just need doing on time, every time, with proof kept on file. That's exactly the process we run for every property we manage.