Guide
Letting agent compliance checklist: gas safety, EICR, EPC and the Renters' Rights Act
4 August 2026 ยท 2 min read
Letting compliance in the UK isn't one rule, it's a stack of separate obligations with separate renewal cycles, and the agencies that manage it well tend to treat it as a tracked, recurring workflow rather than something remembered when a certificate happens to expire. Here's the core of what's actually required.
Gas safety certification (commonly called a CP12) has to be renewed every year for any property with gas appliances, carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and it's a criminal offence, not just a civil penalty, to let a property without a valid one. The tenant must be given a copy of the current certificate within 28 days, or before they move in if that's sooner.
“It's a filing problem dressed up as a legal one, and it's very solvable as long as it's tracked properly from day one.”
An Electrical Installation Condition Report is required every five years, and the installation has to receive a "satisfactory" result. An unsatisfactory EICR means remedial work has to be completed before the property can legally be let. As with gas safety, the tenant is entitled to a copy within 28 days of the inspection or before they move in.
An Energy Performance Certificate lasts ten years and, to let a property legally, currently needs to sit at band E or above. Worth watching, since there's active government consultation on raising that minimum to band C from 2028, which will affect a meaningful number of older properties currently sitting at D or E. The EPC has to be provided to the tenant free of charge at the start of the tenancy.
On top of the certificates, the Renters' Rights Act has changed how rent increases work for periodic tenancies: increases now have to go through a formal Section 13 notice giving at least two months' notice, capped at once every twelve months, and set at a genuine market rate. Any clause in a tenancy agreement that tries to bypass Section 13 simply isn't enforceable. New tenants also need to be given the Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet, which replaced the old "How to Rent" guide.
The financial consequences of getting any of this wrong are real, not theoretical: a missing EICR or an unlicensed HMO can carry fines running into five figures, and unprotected deposits can mean compensation of one to three times the deposit value on top of everything else. Given how easy it is for a renewal date to slip past a busy agent, the practical fix is the same as anywhere else in the business: put every certificate's expiry date against the property it belongs to, with automatic reminders well ahead of the deadline, rather than relying on someone remembering. It's a filing problem dressed up as a legal one, and it's very solvable as long as it's tracked properly from day one.