Landlord renting out a property such as a house, an apartment or a room must comply with legislations and local laws, for example be officially registered as a landlord where required.
There is list of a statutory requirements need to be done before a property is rented out.
Landlord Licensing
Landlord in Wales must register with Rent Smart Wales. and be licensed as a self-managing landlord or use agent. In Scotland alllandlords must register with with Landlord Registration central online system for Scotland.
Those who rent out a property to more than 3 unrelated tenant must be registered in HMO in Scotland and HMO in England.
Gas Safety certificate
Under the Gas Safety Regulations 1998, landlord must get Gas Safety Certificate every twelve months for all type of gas and fuel appliances installed in the premises. Valid Gas Safe Certificate should be provided the new tenant together with tenancy agreement and guide “How to rent”.
A copy of the gas safety record must be provided to an existing tenant within 28 days aftre the check being completed or to new tenant(s) before move in. Landlords must keep copies of the record for 2 years.
If landlord refused to provide Gas Safety Certificate, tenant may complain to HSE - Health and Safety Executive
Annual gas safety check and maintenance
All gas appliances and fuels in the rental property must be maintained properly and timely. This includes a regular check of the gas pipelines, appliances and flues in premises. Where it became necessary repairs work must be done. There are no strict rules in regards of keeping records of maintenance and repairing works and providing these records to the tenant(s). But landlords will need to be able to tell, if asked, when the maintenance or repairing work was done last time.
Smoke and Carbon monoxide alarm
In terms of The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 landlord must equip every living floor of rental property at least with one smoke alarm. Also monoxide detector must be installed in each premises where fuel-burning appliances such as hobs, ovens, gas boiler are used.
(i)a smoke alarm is equipped on each storey of the premises on which there is a room used wholly or partly as living accommodation;
(ii)a carbon monoxide alarm is equipped in any room of the premises which is used wholly or partly as living accommodation and contains a solid fuel burning combustion appliance; and
Apart of this, landlord must make regular check up that smoke alarms and monoxide detectors are in a proper working order.
EPC Certificate
In terms of The Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012 EPC certificate required to be performed for every house and apartment which is to be sold or rented out after 1 October 2015.
Since 1st April 2018 all private rented out property must have minimum EPC rating – E. It will affect all new lets and renewals of tenancies. Landlord who will fail to comply with this legislation will be imposed a penalty £4,000.
Exclisuon: EPC certificate is not required for bedsits and room being let out. Fail to provide EPC certificate for rental properties may cause the penalty £300 per each dwelling.
Tenancy deposit
Tenancy Deposit Protection Law is intended to protect tenants and his deposit from unfairly withheld at the end of a tenancy. In terms of this legislation all landlord must to register tenants deposit into one of three Tenancy Deposit Scheme within 30 days of receipt:
In Scotland there are another deposit protection scheme:
Tenancy deposit protection scheme in Ireland:
- Tenancy Deposit Scheme Northern Ireland (TDS)
- My Deposits Northern Ireland
- Letting Protection Service NI (LPSNI)
Landlord must provide within 30 days:
- a copy of the deposit scheme certificate. Usually a deposit protection service send a letter to a tenant to the rental property address within 1-2 week.
- since October 2015 - the Prescribed Information with infromation where and how the tenant’s deposit has been protected and how it will be dealt with when the tenant leaves
- scheme leaflet
Landlord must return agreed with tenant deposit within 10 days after moving out.
Fail to protect tenant's deposit may cause consequently order to pay to the tenant three times the deposit amount (plus court costs). Furthermore, fail to protect deposit or provide prescribed information will not let landlord to end tenancy using Section 21 notice.
Right to rent
One of the latest changes in rental legislation is obligation to carry out right to rent other words, landlord must to check that tenant is comply with immigration law and have right to rent in UK. To comply with this requirement landlord must ask tenants to provide passport and immigration documents such us visa, ILR or other. Also, landlord could send request to Home Office.
Guide “How to rent”
Since October 2015 landlords must to provide the guide “How to rent” to the all tenants at the beginning of new tenancies. This guide can be downloaded at local government web-site
Fire Safety for Furniture & Furnishings
Furniture and furnishing supplied by landlord must comply with Fire Safety Regulations. In other words, if landlord rent out property with furniture the or she must check that sofa, chairs and other upholstery furniture is fire resistance. Usually, brand new furniture carry a display Fire Resistant Flame Retardant labels.