What Are My Legal Obligations as a Landlord in London?

If you are letting a property in London, the question of what you are legally required to do can feel surprisingly large. The rules sit across several different areas of law, they have changed significantly in recent years, and the consequences of missing one can be costly. The good news is that the core obligations are well defined and, once you know them, perfectly manageable. This guide walks through the main duties a private landlord carries, in plain terms, so you can see what is expected before a tenancy begins and what you must keep on top of while it runs.

Safety certificates: the non-negotiable trio

Three safety obligations sit at the heart of every compliant let, and none of them are optional. You need a valid gas safety check, an electrical condition report and working alarms in the right places. These are the documents an enforcement officer will ask for first, and the ones most likely to cause problems at the end of a tenancy if they are missing.

Gas comes first. If your property has any gas appliances, you must arrange an annual Gas Safety Record from a Gas Safe registered engineer and give a copy to your tenant. Our explainer on the annual gas safety certificate sets out exactly what is checked and when. Electrical safety runs on a longer cycle: an Electrical Installation Condition Report, or EICR, is required at least every five years, and you can read more about when an EICR is needed and what the inspection covers. Finally, you must fit a smoke alarm on every storey of the property and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance.

Energy efficiency and the EPC

Before you can market a property, you need a valid Energy Performance Certificate. An EPC lasts ten years and the current minimum rating you can legally let at is E. The certificate has to be in place to advertise the property, not simply secured later, so it is worth checking the date on any existing certificate well before a tenancy ends. Our guide to the EPC and what it means when letting in London explains the ratings and how to improve a poor score.

Energy standards in the private rented sector are an area of ongoing change, so it is sensible to keep an eye on where the minimum threshold sits over the life of a long ownership. If you are unsure whether your property meets the current requirement, an assessor can confirm it quickly.

Deposits and the rules on taking money

If you take a deposit, the amount you can hold is capped. Where the annual rent is under £50,000 the cap is five weeks' rent, and where the annual rent is £50,000 or more it rises to six weeks' rent. The deposit must then be protected in a government-approved scheme within 30 days, and the tenant given the prescribed information that goes with it. The approved schemes are the Deposit Protection Service, MyDeposits and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme.

There are also firm limits on what else you can charge. Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, landlords and agents cannot charge tenants for things like referencing or admin, and a holding deposit is capped at one week's rent. The amount of rent you can collect before a tenancy begins is also restricted, broadly limiting it to no more than one month's rent before the tenancy starts.

What the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changed

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 came into force on 1 May 2026 and reshaped a number of long-standing practices. Section 21 'no-fault' evictions have been abolished, so possession is now only available through Section 8 grounds, for example where you are selling, where you or a close family member intend to move in, or in cases of serious rent arrears or anti-social behaviour. Fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies have been replaced by periodic tenancies that roll month to month.

Rent increases are now limited to once a year and must be made through a Section 13 notice giving at least two months' written notice. A tenant can challenge the proposed figure at the First-tier Tribunal, which importantly cannot set a rent higher than the one you proposed. The Act also requires landlords to join a government-approved redress scheme and to register on the new Private Rented Sector Database. Our fuller summary of the Renters' Rights Act for London landlords goes through these in more detail.

Fair treatment, pets and property condition

The law now sets clear expectations on how tenants are treated. Discrimination against families with children or against tenants receiving benefits is prohibited, and rental bidding wars are banned: you must advertise an asking rent and you cannot invite or accept offers above it. A tenant may also request to keep a pet, and you must not unreasonably refuse, although you may require pet insurance as a condition.

On condition, the Decent Homes Standard and Awaab's Law-style timescales for dealing with hazards are being extended to the private rented sector. In practice this means keeping the property in good repair and responding to serious hazards within set periods rather than at your own pace. Treating every applicant on the same lawful, consistent basis is both the right approach and the safest one.

Checking who can rent and handling client money

Before letting, you or your agent must carry out a Right to Rent check on your tenant's immigration status, using either a share code or the relevant documents. This applies to every tenancy, and the check needs to happen before the tenant moves in.

If you use a letting agent who holds client money on your behalf, that agent must have Client Money Protection and be a member of a redress scheme such as The Property Ombudsman. It is reasonable to ask any agent to show you their CMP and redress membership before you instruct them.

A note for overseas landlords

If you usually live outside the UK for six months or more, you are treated as a non-resident landlord. In that case the agent, or the tenant where there is no agent, must deduct basic-rate tax from the rent unless HMRC has approved you to receive it gross, which is done through form NRL1. You remain responsible for your UK tax through Self Assessment in any event. This is general information rather than tax advice, and a qualified accountant should confirm how it applies to your circumstances.

Bringing it all together

Set out as a list, the obligations are long, but most of them are one-off setup tasks followed by a handful of annual or five-yearly renewals. The areas where landlords most often come unstuck are lapsed certificates, late deposit protection and adverts that no longer match the new fair-treatment rules. If you would rather not track all of this yourself, our complete guide to letting a property in London shows how the pieces fit together across a tenancy.

Every property and every let is a little different, and this guide is a general overview rather than advice on your specific situation. If you would like a calm, honest review of where your property stands against your current obligations, we are happy to talk it through with no pressure either way.