How to Become a Landlord in England in 2026: The Legal Steps Before You Let

Before letting a home in England, get lender and insurer consent, check whether your council requires a licence, and complete the safety duties: gas safety record, EICR, an EPC of band E or above, and working alarms. Then carry out Right to Rent checks, give a written statement of terms and protect any deposit within 30 days.

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Landlords should seek independent advice for their specific circumstances. It describes the position in England.

Step 1: Get the permissions in place before marketing

The first step is contractual rather than statutory, but skipping it can be expensive. Most residential mortgages require the lender's consent to let or a switch to a buy to let mortgage, most leases require the freeholder's consent before a flat is sublet, and a standard home insurance policy will usually not cover a let property.

Where a property has joint owners, each owner is a landlord and shares the legal responsibility. Since 1 May 2026, the Renters' Rights Act 2025 has made mortgage and superior lease terms that bar letting to benefit claimants or families with children of no effect.

Step 2: Check whether the property needs a licence

A licence is a legal requirement where a scheme applies, and letting without one is an offence. There are three types under the Housing Act 2004:

Operating a licensable property without a licence carries a civil penalty of up to £40,000 from 1 May 2026, or prosecution, and tenants can apply for a rent repayment order of up to two years' rent. There is no national list, so our guide on checking whether your area has a selective licensing scheme explains how to find out.

Step 3: Complete the safety duties before the tenant moves in

Four safety duties must be met before the tenancy starts, and a fifth risk assessment duty sits alongside them.

The legal document for gas is a gas safety record, often called a CP12. Since 1 May 2026, regulation 3(1)(c), as substituted by SI 2025/1043, requires the electrical installation to be inspected before each new tenancy begins, even where the last report is under five years old. A draft amending instrument would relax this, but it had not been made at the time of writing, so the stricter rule applies. Our certificate calendar shows how the renewal cycles fit together.

Step 4: Find a tenant lawfully

Since 1 May 2026, marketing and choosing a tenant follow rules that carry civil penalties of up to £7,000:

• Advertise an asking rent and do not accept more. The rental bidding ban makes the advertised rent a ceiling, as our article on the bidding ban explains.
• No blanket bans on benefit claimants or families with children. Each applicant must be considered on their own circumstances.

Once the tenancy is running, a tenant's request to keep a pet must be answered within 28 days and can only be refused on reasonable grounds.

Before the tenancy begins, every adult aged 18 or over who will live in the property must pass a Right to Rent check under the Immigration Act 2014. Checking only applicants you think are not British citizens is unlawful. Penalties are up to £10,000 per tenant for a first breach and £20,000 for a repeat. Biometric residence permits are no longer accepted, so most checks now use a Home Office share code.

Step 5: Take money only within the legal limits

The Tenant Fees Act 2019 bans every payment a landlord requires from a tenant unless it is on the permitted list. For a new letting, the limits are:

An unprotected deposit now stops the court making a possession order on almost every ground, so this step deserves particular care. Our article on the Tenant Fees Act lists every permitted payment.

Step 6: Set up the tenancy correctly

Every new private tenancy in England is an assured periodic tenancy. Fixed terms and section 21 notices no longer apply to new private tenancies, and a tenant can end the tenancy by giving two months' notice.

Section 16D of the Housing Act 1988 requires the landlord to give the tenant a written statement of terms before the tenancy is entered into, even where the agreement is oral, with a penalty of up to £7,000 for failing to do so. The How to Rent guide was withdrawn for most tenancies on 1 May 2026, and the government's Information Sheet applied only to tenancies that existed before that date. The gas safety record, EICR and EPC must also be given to the tenant, as our list of documents a landlord must give a tenant sets out.

Step 7: Plan for registration and the Ombudsman

Two new obligations are arriving, and neither is in force for all landlords yet.

Our PRS Database timeline tracks the regional dates as they are confirmed.

Step 8: Register for tax

Rental income must be declared to HMRC, and a new landlord who needs to file a return should register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which letting began. The first £1,000 of property income is covered by the property allowance. Individual landlords cannot deduct mortgage interest as an expense and receive a basic rate tax credit instead.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies from 6 April 2026 to landlords whose combined gross self-employment and property income exceeds £50,000, falling to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. Our guide to Making Tax Digital for landlords covers the quarterly updates. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances, so advice from an accountant is recommended.

What continues once the tenancy has started?

Becoming a landlord is the start of a set of recurring duties, not a one off checklist:

• Renew the gas safety check every 12 months, and the EICR at least every five years and before each new tenancy.
• Carry out repairs to the structure, exterior and installations under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
• Increase rent only through Section 13 and Form 4A, no more than once a year.
• Seek possession only through Section 8 and the prescribed Form 3A notice.

Accidental landlords: letting a former home or an inherited property

An accidental landlord, meaning someone who lets a property they did not buy to let, such as a former home after a move or a property they inherited, owes exactly the same legal duties as any other landlord. The differences are practical.

• Letting your former home. Check the residential mortgage for consent to let and change the insurance before the tenant moves in.
• Inheriting a property with tenants. The tenancies continue. The personal representatives (the executors named in the will, or administrators once appointed) deal with the property and the tenants until it passes to the beneficiaries, and some steps, such as a sale, need a grant of probate.
• Inheriting jointly. All owners become landlords and share the responsibilities.
• Capital gains tax. Private residence relief generally covers the period you lived in the property plus the final nine months of ownership. Lettings relief now applies only where you shared occupation with the tenant. Specialist tax advice is recommended before selling.

Our article on single property landlords covers why owning one property does not reduce the obligations.

Learning the role properly with LLCR Academy

LLCR Academy, the training arm of LLCR (Landlord Compliance Register), is building The Complete Landlord Course, a nine module course on property management and compliance in England written for exactly this situation: landlords setting up under the Renters' Rights Act. It is on the waitlist now, and the waitlist decides which course is built next.

The course available today is Tenancy Deposit Compliance for Landlords (England) on Udemy, which covers Step 5 in depth: holding deposits, the 30 day rule, prescribed information and why deposit compliance now sits in front of every possession claim. It has eight video lessons, about an hour in total, printable checklists and a certificate of completion. LLCR Academy courses cover England only, map every legal point to its source and carry a public "law reviewed" date. They are general training, not legal advice, and are not currently CPD accredited.

Keeping every deadline on one system

A new landlord leaves this article with at least six dated obligations per property. The LLCR platform is designed to hold them: Smart Document Capture reads the dates from an uploaded certificate, compliance tracking sends alerts before each expires, and the document vault keeps every record with a dated audit trail. LLCR Mobile installs on a phone for uploads on site, and LLCR is free for one property.

Not sure what you have missed? The free LLCR compliance checker takes a few minutes, and The Complete Landlord Course waitlist is open now.