Compliance in Chaos: Keeping Your Property on the Right Side of the Law

Being a landlord has never been completely paperwork-free, but rental compliance in 2026 can feel particularly difficult to keep on top of.

Gas certificates. Electrical inspections. EPCs. Smoke alarms. Pet requests. Changes in who is living at the property. New tenancy rules. Fire safety.

And just when you think everything is in order, something changes.

The challenge isn’t necessarily that landlords don’t care about compliance. In my experience, it is more often that they don’t realise something has expired, changed or become relevant to their particular property.

A rental home can be completely compliant at the start of a tenancy and gradually drift out of compliance if nobody is actively keeping an eye on it.

So, where should landlords be paying particular attention?

Start with the rental compliance basics

There are several checks and certificates that most experienced landlords will already recognise.

If your property has gas appliances supplied by you, they need to be maintained safely and an annual gas safety check carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

Electrical installations in rented properties also need to be professionally inspected and tested at least every five years, with an Electrical Installation Condition Report – usually referred to as an EICR – provided.

Then there is the Energy Performance Certificate.

Most privately rented homes that require an EPC must currently achieve at least an E rating unless a valid exemption applies.

None of those requirements are particularly new.

The problem is remembering when each one is due.

If you have one rental property, it might seem easy enough to keep track. But five years passes remarkably quickly, and certificates often expire at completely different points in the year.

Add multiple properties and it becomes very easy for something to slip through the net.

My advice is simple: don’t manage compliance from memory.

Create a record showing what each property requires, when certificates expire and when you need to start arranging renewals. Give yourself plenty of notice rather than discovering something needs renewing a few days before a new tenant is due to move in.

Don’t forget the things that aren’t certificates

Some of the most important areas of rental compliance don’t come with a convenient expiry date.

Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are a good example.

In England, rented homes generally require at least one smoke alarm on every storey where there is living accommodation. Carbon monoxide alarms are also required in rooms being used as living accommodation where there is a fixed combustion appliance, with gas cookers excluded from that particular requirement.

Required alarms should be checked to make sure they are working at the start of a new tenancy.

But your responsibility doesn’t necessarily disappear afterwards. If a tenant reports that a required alarm isn’t working and it is found to be faulty, it needs to be repaired or replaced.

Regular property inspections can therefore be an important part of compliance management as well as general property care.

They give you an opportunity to notice things that don’t appear on a certificate: damaged alarms, blocked ventilation, deteriorating fixtures, emerging damp problems or changes in how the property is being occupied.

Has the household changed?

This is an area landlords can easily overlook.

You might originally let a property to one person or a couple and assume nothing has changed several years later.

But people move in together. Relationships change. Adult children return home. Friends become longer-term occupiers.

That doesn’t automatically mean there is a compliance problem, but landlords should know who is living in their property.

One reason is that the number and relationship of the people occupying a property can affect whether it meets the definition of a House in Multiple Occupation, or HMO.

Broadly, a property can become an HMO where at least three people forming more than one household live there and share facilities such as a kitchen or bathroom. Larger HMOs occupied by five or more people forming more than one household normally require mandatory licensing, while councils can introduce additional licensing requirements covering other HMOs.

The important point isn’t that every extra occupier suddenly turns a normal tenancy into an HMO.

It’s that a landlord shouldn’t discover a significant change in occupancy by accident.

If you become aware that somebody else is living at the property, find out what has changed and check whether it affects the tenancy, insurance, licensing or any other legal requirements.

Pets need a process too

Pets are another area where the rules have changed.

Since the first phase of the Renters’ Rights Act came into force on 1 May 2026, tenants can make a written request to keep a pet and landlords cannot simply operate a blanket “no pets” policy without considering that request.

A request normally needs a response within 28 days and a refusal needs to be reasonable.

That doesn’t mean every property must accept every animal.

There may be genuine reasons why a particular pet isn’t suitable. A superior lease may restrict animals, for example, or there may be circumstances specific to the property that need to be considered.

What landlords do need is a process.

Keep the request. Consider it properly. Make any necessary enquiries. Reply within the required timeframe and keep a record of the decision.

Ignoring the email because you’re not sure what to say is no longer a sensible approach.

Fire safety can depend on the type of property

Fire safety is another good example of why generic landlord checklists only get you so far.

For a typical rented house, you need to think about alarms, safe electrical and gas installations, escape routes and any furniture or furnishings you provide.

But HMOs and properties within blocks of flats can have additional requirements.

Fire doors, communal areas, risk assessments and more extensive alarm systems may become relevant depending on the building and your role within it.

If you own a leasehold flat, don’t assume the freeholder or management company dealing with the communal areas means there is nothing for you to consider.

Understand where their responsibility ends and yours begins, and make sure your tenant receives any information they need about the building.

Compliance should always reflect the actual property rather than a generic checklist downloaded from the internet.

The Renters’ Rights Act has changed the bigger picture

The changes introduced on 1 May 2026 have already altered many everyday letting processes.

Most private tenancies have moved to assured periodic tenancies, Section 21 has ended, rules around rent increases have changed, rental bidding has been banned and landlords now have new responsibilities around pet requests.

But the reform programme isn’t finished.

The Government’s implementation plan also includes a new Private Rented Sector Database, with rollout expected to begin from late 2026.

The intention is that landlords will eventually register themselves and their properties, with information expected to include details relating to gas, electrical and energy performance compliance.

For landlords who already maintain good records, that should be much easier than trying to assemble everything when registration arrives.

It’s another reason why now is a very good time to review your compliance systems.

Don’t wait for something to go wrong

Good rental compliance isn’t about collecting paperwork for the sake of it.

It protects tenants.

It protects your property.

And it protects you.

If there is ever a disagreement, enforcement issue or need to demonstrate that you have acted correctly, good records are enormously valuable.

At Bright Star Lettings, we often talk about prevention over treatment.

That applies just as much to compliance as it does to property maintenance.

Finding an expired certificate, occupancy issue or missing document during a planned review is far easier to deal with than discovering it because you are already trying to solve another problem.

So perhaps the most useful question for landlords isn’t:

“Was my property compliant when the tenant moved in?”

It is:

“Can I confidently say it is compliant today?”

If you’re not certain, it may be time to check.

Want one less thing to worry about? Book a rental compliance audit with Bright Star Lettings and we’ll help you identify what is in place, what needs attention and what you need to keep an eye on next.