Management standards

Right to rent

As a landlord, you are responsible for checking that your tenants have the right to rent in the UK. 

You must check identify documents for all new and existing tenants. A wide range of documents can be used for the checks to cover circumstances where tenants may not have a passport. Gov.uk has an online checking tool to help landlords. You can use it to check on anyone who has an outstanding case with the home office.  

Deposits

If you take a deposit from your tenants, you must pay this into an approved government scheme. There are three schemes available:

• Deposit Protection Service
• My Deposits
• Tenancy Deposit Scheme

If you don't protect the tenants' deposits under one of these schemes, you could be liable to pay back three times the cost of the deposit.  A court may also decide that your tenant does not have to leave the property when the tenancy ends. Read more information about tenancy deposit schemes.

Ending a tenancy

To end a tenancy, you normally have to serve a written notice on your tenant. The type of notice depends on when the tenancy started and why you want them to leave.

If your tenant refuses to leave, you may need to get a possession order from the County Court. This depends on the type of tenancy agreement you have with your tenant. If your tenant still doesn't leave, you may have to go back to court to get a bailiff's warrant.

Remember - if you cannot evict your tenant yourself, you must follow the correct procedure. View the national eviction advice on the gov.uk website. 

We will investigate if we receive an allegation of an illegal eviction. If there is evidence that the landlord has breached the housing legislation, we will prosecute under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977.

Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

Before you can market your property, you need to use a local energy assessor to get an EPC. EPCs are valid for 10 years, although you might find it useful to get a new one if you make energy improvements.

If you don't provide an EPC to all tenants at the beginning of a tenancy, you won't be able to gain possession under s.21 applications for possession. If we ask to see a copy of your EPC and you don't provide it, you could be fined up to £2000.