The landlord compliance checklist: every certificate you need

England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own regimes with different deadlines and penalties.

The whole list, on one screen

Obligation	How often	Give the tenant a copy	Maximum penalty
Gas safety record (CP12)	Every 12 months, by a Gas Safe engineer	Within 28 days; before a new tenant moves in	Unlimited fine, and imprisonment in serious cases
EICR	At least every 5 years	Within 28 days; before a new tenant moves in; to the council within 7 days on request	£30,000
Smoke alarms	One per storey with living accommodation; tested on day one	Not required — but record the test	£5,000
Carbon monoxide alarms	Every room with a fixed combustion appliance, excluding gas cookers	Not required — but record the test	£5,000
EPC, minimum rating E	Valid for 10 years	Before the tenancy starts	£5,000 per property
Deposit protection	Within 30 days of receipt	Prescribed information within 30 days	1–3× the deposit
Right to rent check	Before occupation; follow-ups if time-limited	Keep the evidence for the tenancy plus a year	£10,000 per occupier
Written statement of terms	Every tenancy granted from 1 May 2026	At the start of the tenancy	Civil penalty
Information sheet	One-off, for tenancies existing on 1 May 2026	Deadline was 31 May 2026	£7,000 per breach
Licence, if required	Before letting; renewals vary by council	Not applicable	£30,000 civil penalty or prosecution, plus a rent repayment order of up to 2 years’ rent
Legionella risk assessment	No fixed interval; review on change	Not required	Enforced under health and safety law

What has to be in the tenant’s hands before day one

Four documents, and the order matters less than the fact that all four are done before the tenancy begins rather than in the first busy fortnight afterwards.

1. The gas safety record, if there is any gas appliance in the property.
2. The EICR.
3. The EPC.
4. The written statement of terms, which for most landlords is the tenancy agreement itself.

Then, within 30 days of receiving it, the deposit goes into a scheme and the prescribed information goes to the tenant. And before any of that, the right to rent check on every adult who will live there.

What non-compliance actually costs now

The enforcement picture changed materially with the Renters’ Rights Act, and not in the direction most landlords assume.

Civil penalties, not prosecutions. Councils increasingly issue financial penalties directly rather than going to court. They are quicker, they do not need a criminal standard of proof, and the money stays with the local authority — which is why enforcement activity has risen.

Rent repayment orders now reach two years. Previously capped at twelve months’ rent, an RRO can now require repayment of up to two years of rent for a qualifying offence, and the range of offences has been widened. For an unlicensed property at £1,200 a month that is a £28,800 exposure, and the tenant can apply, not only the council.

The section 21 gateway is gone, but that is not a relief. Compliance failures used to bite mainly by invalidating a section 21 notice. Section 21 no longer exists, so that consequence has disappeared — and been replaced by direct financial penalties that do not depend on you wanting possession at all. You can now be penalised for a compliance failure in a tenancy that is going perfectly well.

The ones people miss

• The carbon monoxide alarm rule changed in 2022 and now covers any room with a fixed combustion appliance, not just solid fuel. A gas boiler in a kitchen cupboard counts. A gas cooker does not.
• Alarms have to be tested on the first day of the tenancy, not merely installed. Have the tenant sign the inventory confirming it.
• The EICR runs from the inspection date, not the tenancy date, and remedial work coded C1 or C2 must be done within 28 days, or sooner if the report says so.
• A gas check can be done up to two months early without losing the original expiry date, so there is no reason to let one lapse over an access problem.
• Selective licensing is local. Whether you need a licence depends on the street, not the property type, and schemes come and go. Check your council’s current designation rather than what you remember from last time.
• Keeping records is part of compliance. Gas records for two years, right to rent evidence for the tenancy plus one year, and a dated copy of everything you served.

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