Landlord rules and regulations

Rules and regulations. Landlord responsibilities Fire safety. What is tenant law? Health and safety inspections. Financial responsibilities.

If you have a mortgage on the property you want to rent out, you must get permission from. As a landlord , you must: have a gas safety check done every months by a Gas Safe registered engineer make sure any furniture you provide meets safety standards ensure electrical equipment you provide meets safety standards, see more NLA guidance on PAT testing here. It is a legal requirement for landlords to protect deposits in government-backed schemes within days of receiving the deposit, and to provide tenants with the tenancy deposit protection certificate and specified information about the scheme within days in England and (and currently) Wales, or working days in Scotland. If in doubt call the Members Helpline.

More than councils in England operate ‘additional’ or ‘selective’ schemes. If you do not know who your landlord is, write to the person or company you pay rent to. Your landlord can be fined If.

The regulations will help letting agents to identify and assess risks of money laundering and customer due diligence checks will be required for all new tenants and landlords. From , all letting agencies that meet the requirements will have months to register with the HMRC. Read more about how they could affect you.

These Regulations impose duties on private landlords of residential premises in England in respect of electrical safety standards. The duties do not apply to landlords of social housing. For example, how much notice they have to give you before they increase the rent and when they can give you notice. The Regulations require local housing authorities to enforce the duties, and include a power to arrange remedial action.

You and your landlord may have made arrangements about the tenancy, and these will be part of the tenancy agreement as long as they do not conflict with law. Both you and your landlord have rights and responsibilities given by law. The regulations require landlords to ensure any electrical equipment and products supplied with the rental property are in safe working order. There is currently no mandatory legal requirement for any inspections for electrical appliances for landlords in England or Wales, but they should still be tested and checked to ensure they are working as they should be.

The Regulations apply to all tenancies, apart from those listed as excluded tenancies which are social housing, shared accommodation with a landlord or landlord ’s family, long leases, student halls of residence, hostels and refuges, care homes, hospitals, and hospices. An inspection of all gas appliances that is provided with in the property (e.g. cooker, hob etc) by the landlord must be inspected annually by a Gas Safe Registered Engineer. This area of law is under further review by the Scottish Government and further changes are likely. For the very latest on the rules around being a landlord , make sure you check Unlock The Law regularly, or to our newsletter.

If you are a private landlord you probably feel a bit overwhelmed with all the new laws and regulations coming into force - not to mention the existing laws , which are numerous and often complex. Failure to comply can often prove expensive and may even result in a criminal record – so you need a reliable support service. These regulations cover fire safety in shared communal areas, for example in a block of flats.

These rules set out the requirements for landlords to ensure that there are warning systems within the property to alert the tenant in case of fire. You do not need to replace any existing leases, but you must make sure that any new or renewed leases comply with the law. They vary between the different.

Preparing a new lease. Many landlords use a copy of the standard tenancy agreement (lease) in the dwelling-houses regulations.