Landlords' legal duties

If you rent out a house or flat in Bradford to someone there are certain things that the law says you must do - these are your statutory responsibilities.

Here is a list of some of the things that you must do by law if you are renting a flat or house to a tenant - this is not a full list, so if you are unsure about anything you should get advice from Bradford Council or another organisation who can help. You can also find more information about your legal duties on Gov.uk.

There are extra duties that you must meet, if you are the landlord of a House in Multiple Occupation.

Before the tenancy starts

You must provide your tenant with a Gas Safety Certificate and Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for the property that is being rented. Generally, it is illegal to let a tenancy with an EPC rating that is below E. This is called the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES).

Supply the tenant with a copy of a report from a suitably qualified and competent person confirming that the electrical installations in the property have been inspected and tested in the last 5 years.

You must check the smoke and CO alarms are working.

You must give the tenant a copy of the How to rent: the checklist for renting in England.

You must check that your tenant has a legal right to live in the UK.

You must make sure that any deposit that you take from your tenant is protected in a government backed tenancy deposit scheme.

During the tenancy

You must make sure that the house or flat is safe and free from hazards. This means that you must carry out repairs promptly and act immediately on urgent repairs, where the health and safety of your tenant is at risk. The type of hazards and what action should be taken by the Council to make sure that these are dealt with are set out in the Health and Safety Rating System.

You must arrange for all gas appliance and pipework to be checked annually by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

You must ensure that all electrical installations meet national standards and are also inspected and checked by a qualified and competent person at least every 5 years.

You must make sure that that all electrical appliances are safe.

You must make sure that all furniture and furnishings comply with fire safety standards.

You must make sure that there are enough smoke and Carbon Monoxide (CO) alarms and that these are tested and maintained properly. From October 2022, a CO alarm is needed in any room with a fixed combustion appliance (excluding cookers) and landlords must replace or repair smoke and CO alarms if they are told these are faulty.

Bradford Council has also published some fire safety principles for residential accommodation.

At the end of the tenancy

You must follow the law to end the tenancy properly. You should also not try to evict a tenant just because they have asked for repairs to be done – this is sometimes called retaliatory eviction.

You must return any deposit that you have been given within 10 days of agreeing how much of the deposit your tenant will get back.

Good practice

The things that we have mentioned on this page are required by law.  There are also things that you should consider doing because they are good practice.  For more information go to our good practice page.