Landlord Guide

First impressions count. The front of the property is the first thing prospective tenants see, and a tired exterior puts a lot of people off before they have even stepped inside.

• Front garden, path and driveway clean, weed-free and clear of rubbish.
• Walls freshly painted or pressure-washed where needed, with no visible cracks.
• Hedges trimmed, lawn mown and any rear garden tidy.
• House number clearly visible from the street, and any garage cleared and usable.

Indoors, restraint pays. A quiet palette suits the broadest range of tenants and makes rooms read as larger and lighter than a bold colour ever will.

• Walls: white or a soft warm neutral, in matt emulsion. Feature walls date fast, so leave them out.
• Flooring: hard-wearing carpets, or wood or laminate in high-traffic areas, kitchens and bathrooms.
• Bathrooms: tenants ask for a decent shower far more often than they ask for a bath, and a bath-only suite narrows your market.
• Kitchens: clean, functional and with enough storage. Dated units can be refreshed with new doors or handles.

There are three ways to furnish a let. Demand for each shifts by area and property type across Norwich, so we will tell you which suits yours.

• Furnished: the norm for student houses and short lets. Beds, sofas, a dining table, white goods and window dressings.
• Part-furnished: usually white goods and curtains or blinds only. Common for family lettings.
• Unfurnished: the blank canvas, preferred by long-term tenants who own their own furniture.

Any furniture you supply must meet current fire safety regulations, see the furniture fire safety section below.

Every service should be live and working on the day the tenant collects the keys.

• Gas, electricity and water connected.
• Telephone line active and broadband available, even if the tenant chooses their own provider.
• If the property uses LPG or oil, check tanks are topped up and working.
• If there is a septic tank, have it emptied before the tenancy begins.

All central heating, hot water, plumbing and electrical systems must be safe, sound and in good working order before a tenancy starts.

Leave the manuals for the boiler, cooker and anything else in a kitchen drawer or folder, together with details of any maintenance contracts. People look after equipment they understand, and they call you out about it far less often.

Have the whole place professionally cleaned before handover. It sets the standard you expect it back in, and gives the inventory an honest starting point.

Pay particular attention to the oven, extractor fan, bathroom grouting and carpets, the areas most often disputed at check-out.

Where the property still carries a residential mortgage, your lender has to agree in writing before a tenant moves in. Letting without that consent puts you in breach of your mortgage terms.

Some lenders grant a formal consent to let for a defined period. Others require you to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage product, which typically has a different rate structure and fees.

If the property is leasehold, which applies to most flats and some houses, check the terms of your lease carefully before letting.

A great many leases oblige you to get written consent from the freeholder or managing agent before sub-letting. Others forbid it outright, limit how many years you may let for, or want an administration fee every time a new tenancy starts.

Tell your insurer the property is being let. An ordinary home policy will not cover a tenanted property, so you need landlord cover for the building, for any contents you supply, and for public liability.

Failure to tell your insurer you are letting can invalidate your cover entirely, including for claims unrelated to the tenancy.

Do the sums before you commit. The advertised rent is not what lands in your account.

• Mortgage payments, remembering buy-to-let rates may differ from residential.
• Whatever the property needs spending on to reach a lettable standard.
• Letting agent or management fees, and landlord insurance.
• A contingency fund for ad-hoc maintenance, and void periods between tenancies.

Rent you receive is taxable and has to be declared to HMRC. Nothing is deducted at source, so registering and paying what is owed rests with you.

Talk to an accountant who works with property income specifically. Interest relief, allowable expenses and the property allowance have all shifted in recent years, and the detail matters more than most people expect.

If the property was your own home, set up a Royal Mail redirection before the tenancy starts. Your tenants should not be sorting your post, and bank letters sitting in someone else's hallway is a risk you do not need.

All gas appliances, pipework and flues must be checked annually by a Gas Safe registered engineer. The tenant must be handed a copy of the Gas Safety Certificate (CP12) before moving in, and you must retain the records for at least two years.

Since July 2020 every rented property in England has needed its electrical installation inspected and tested by a qualified electrician at least once every five years.

Tenants must be given the resulting Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) before they move in. Any C1 or C2 coded defects must be remedied before the property is let, and all appliances supplied must be safe and in good working order.

Any upholstered furniture, mattresses, pillows, cushions or sofa-beds supplied must comply with the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) Regulations.

• Check each item for its permanent compliance label.
• Anything unlabelled that you cannot otherwise prove is compliant has to come out before the let.
• Antique furniture made before 1950 is exempt, but use common sense as very old upholstery may still need to go.

Since October 2022 the requirements have covered every tenancy rather than only new ones, and alarms must be working when each tenancy begins.

• Smoke alarms: one on each storey, as a minimum.
• Carbon monoxide alarms: one in any room containing a fixed combustion appliance.
• Testing: every alarm checked and confirmed working on the first day of each new tenancy.

A valid EPC has to be in place before the property is advertised and available to anyone enquiring. Each one lasts 10 years and grades the property from A, the most efficient, down to G.

Since April 2020 it has been unlawful to let any property with an EPC rating below E, unless a valid exemption is registered. That floor is expected to rise again under the 2025 Act.

Any deposit taken must be protected in a government-approved tenancy deposit scheme within 30 days of receipt, and the tenant must be given the scheme's prescribed information.

Failure to comply can result in penalties of up to three times the deposit amount, on top of repaying the deposit itself. The three approved schemes are the Deposit Protection Service (DPS), MyDeposits and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS). We use the DPS.

The Immigration Act 2014 requires you to confirm that every tenant aged 18 or over holds a legal right to rent in England before the tenancy starts.

Acceptable evidence includes a UK or Irish passport, a settled or pre-settled status share code, or a biometric residence permit or visa. Keep that evidence for as long as the tenancy runs, and for a year beyond it.

You are expected to assess the risk of exposure to Legionella bacteria at the property. In an ordinary house or flat that risk is usually low, but the assessment still needs doing, writing down and revisiting from time to time.

Pay extra attention if the property has been empty for any length of time, or if it has an unusual water system such as a loft tank or large unused pipe run.

Let to three or more tenants who make up two or more households and share a kitchen or bathroom, the property counts as an HMO.

• Mandatory HMO licence: required for larger HMOs of five or more tenants from two or more households.
• Additional licensing: many councils operate extra licensing schemes for smaller HMOs, check your local council.
• Selective licensing: some councils require a licence for all private rentals in designated areas.

Running an HMO without the licence it needs carries fines of up to £30,000, and leaves you open to a rent repayment order on top.

The Equality Act took over from the old Disability Discrimination Act. Landlords must not discriminate against tenants or prospective tenants on the basis of disability, race, sex, religion or other protected characteristics.

A disabled tenant can ask for reasonable adjustments, and you are obliged to give that request proper consideration. Refusing without good reason is not open to you, and there are cases where you will have to meet part of the cost.

Local authorities use the HHSRS to assess potential hazards in residential properties across 29 categories, from damp and mould to excess cold, fire and electrical risk.

Where a Category 1 hazard is identified, the council can order improvements, serve an enforcement notice, or at the far end stop the property being lived in at all. The best defence is proactive: assess the property before letting, keep on top of repairs, and respond promptly to any tenant-reported issue.

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 is the biggest change to the private rented sector in a generation. The bulk of it has been in force since May 2026.

• Section 21 no-fault evictions abolished.
• All tenancies convert to periodic, so fixed-term ASTs become a thing of the past.
• One rent rise a year at most, and tenants may take it to tribunal.
• Rental bidding banned, and a national landlord database and ombudsman scheme introduced.

We have a dedicated Renters’ Rights Act page for landlords with the full detail.