What Are My Repair and Maintenance Obligations as a London Landlord?

If you let a home in London, repairs and maintenance are not an optional extra you turn to when something breaks. They are a core legal responsibility, and they sit at the heart of a good relationship with your tenant. Most landlords understand this in principle, yet the questions still come thick and fast in practice. Who fixes the boiler? What counts as fair wear and tear? How quickly do I have to act once a tenant reports damp? This guide sets out, in plain terms, where your obligations begin and end, and how a measured approach to maintenance protects both your property and your income.

The repairs the law puts on the landlord

For almost every residential tenancy, the law makes the landlord responsible for keeping the structure and exterior of the property in repair. That means the roof, walls, windows, external doors, drains, gutters and pipes. It also covers the installations that supply the essentials of daily life: the heating and hot water systems, the gas and electrical wiring, and the sanitary fittings such as basins, sinks, baths and the toilet.

You cannot contract out of these duties by writing a clause into the tenancy that pushes them onto the tenant. The responsibility follows the role, not the paperwork. A tenant is generally expected to use the property in a 'tenant-like' way, which means simple things such as changing a lightbulb, keeping the home reasonably ventilated and not blocking the drains, but the major repairing burden stays with you.

Safety obligations you must keep current

Beyond general repair, there are specific safety duties that carry hard deadlines and real consequences if missed. A Gas Safety Record, often called a CP12, must be carried out every year by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and a copy given to the tenant. The fixed electrical installation must be inspected and tested at least every five years, with the resulting EICR shared with the tenant.

You also need a working smoke alarm on every storey of the property, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance such as a gas boiler or a wood burner. And because you cannot legally market or let a home without one, an Energy Performance Certificate must be in place, currently meeting at least an E rating, valid for ten years. These are not paperwork formalities; they are the floor beneath every safe tenancy. If you would like the wider picture of how these duties fit together, our guide on what a letting agent actually does in London walks through how a good agent keeps all of this on schedule.

What the Renters' Rights Act changes

The Renters' Rights Act 2025, in force from 1 May 2026, sharpens the focus on the condition of rented homes. The Decent Homes Standard and Awaab's Law-style hazard timescales, long applied in the social sector, are being extended to the private rented sector. In practice this means landlords are expected to investigate and address serious hazards, particularly damp and mould, within set timeframes rather than letting them drift.

This is a meaningful shift in tone as much as in law. A slow response to a report of damp is no longer simply poor service; it moves you closer to falling short of your legal duties. The sensible reading is to treat genuine health and safety hazards as urgent and to keep a clear written record of when a problem was reported and what you did about it. Our overview of how the Renters' Rights Act 2025 affects London landlords sets out the broader reforms alongside these condition standards.

Repair versus wear and tear, and where the deposit fits

A common source of friction is the line between a repair you must fund and ordinary wear that comes with living in a home. Carpets thin, paintwork dulls and hinges loosen over time, and none of that is the tenant's liability. Deductions from a deposit must reflect genuine damage beyond fair wear and tear, and never amount to betterment, where you end up with something newer or better than you started with at the tenant's expense.

This is exactly why the documents you create at the start and end of a tenancy matter so much. A thorough check-in inventory records the true condition of the property when the tenant moves in, and a careful check-out report is compared against it at the end. Where the two parties disagree, the deposit scheme's free adjudication service decides, and it leans heavily on this evidence. Without it, you are unlikely to recover the cost of real damage.

Handling repair requests well

The everyday reality of being a landlord is not the big set-piece renewal but the steady flow of small requests: a dripping tap, a temperamental radiator, a window that has stopped closing properly. How you handle these shapes the whole tenancy. Tenants who feel heard and see prompt action are far more likely to look after the home and to stay, which is worth a great deal when you consider the cost of a void period and re-letting.

A simple, reliable process makes all the difference. When a request comes in, it helps to acknowledge it quickly, assess urgency honestly and keep the tenant informed about what happens next.

• Treat anything affecting safety, heating, hot water or security as a priority
• Keep a dated written record of every report and every action taken
• Use trusted, qualified contractors and keep their certificates on file

We go into this in more depth in our practical guide on how to handle maintenance requests in London, which covers triage, contractors and communication in one place.

Access, notice and the tenant's responsibilities

Responsibility runs in both directions. To carry out repairs you usually need to give the tenant reasonable written notice and arrange a convenient time, except in a genuine emergency such as a gas leak or a serious leak threatening the property. Turning up unannounced, however well intentioned, undermines trust and can sour an otherwise good relationship.

For their part, tenants are expected to report problems promptly, to allow access for repairs and inspections, and to avoid causing damage through neglect or misuse. A tenant who hides a small leak until it has rotted a floor has not behaved tenant-like, and that distinction matters when responsibilities are weighed. Clear expectations from the outset, set when you choose and onboard your tenant, prevent most of these problems before they start. Our notes on how to find good tenants in London cover the groundwork that makes maintenance far smoother later.

A planned approach beats a reactive one

The landlords who find repairs least stressful are rarely the ones who spend the most. They are the ones who plan. A servicing schedule for the boiler, periodic checks of gutters and seals before winter, and a small budget set aside for the inevitable means that problems are caught early, while they are cheap, rather than after they have caused real damage.

A well-maintained home also lets more easily, holds its value and tends to attract tenants who treat it with care. Maintenance, viewed this way, is not a drain on your return but one of the most reliable protections of it. If you are weighing up how much of this to take on yourself and how much to delegate, our complete guide to letting a property in London sets out the options end to end.

Repair and maintenance obligations can feel daunting written down in one place, but in day-to-day practice they come down to a simple discipline: keep the essentials safe and certified, respond to problems promptly and fairly, and write everything down. Do that consistently and most disputes never arise. If you would value a steady pair of hands to keep the certificates current and the requests moving, the team at JSLA looks after this for many London landlords and is always happy to talk it through. This article is general information and not legal or tax advice; for your own circumstances, please consult a qualified professional.