Landlord compliance: EPC, EICR, gas safety and smoke/CO alarms explained

General information only, not legal advice. Rules stated as of June 2026 and focused on England (the EPC/energy rules also apply in Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland differ).

Every few months another landlord gets caught out — not by malice, but by a spreadsheet that didn’t exist, a reminder that slipped into junk, or a certificate quietly expiring between tenancies. The compliance landscape for private landlords in England rests on four pillars: Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICRs), gas safety checks, and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Each has its own renewal cycle, its own penalty regime, and its own paperwork trail. Miss one, and the consequences range from a financial penalty to a criminal prosecution — or a possession claim that collapses in court.

Here is a plain-English breakdown of what the law actually requires, where the deadlines bite, and how to stay on top of all of it.

EPC: the energy certificate that follows the building

An Energy Performance Certificate rates a property from A (most efficient) to G (worst) and must exist before you market a property to let. The same certificate covers multiple consecutive tenancies; you do not need a new one each time a tenant changes. The catch is the expiry date: EPCs are valid for 10 years from the assessment date. If yours was issued in 2015 or earlier it may already have lapsed — check the date on the certificate or look it up on the GOV.UK energy certificate register.

Current minimum standard: Under the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES), properties in England and Wales must be rated E or above. You cannot legally let a property rated F or G without a registered exemption. The maximum financial penalty under the current regime is £5,000 per property, made up of component penalties (for example, up to £2,000 for letting a sub-standard property for under three months, up to £4,000 for three months or more, plus further penalties for false register entries or ignoring a compliance notice).

The 2030 change: On 21 January 2026 the government confirmed that privately rented homes in England and Wales will need to reach EPC C by 1 October 2030 — a single deadline covering both new and existing tenancies, unless an exemption applies. Legislation is still to follow, so treat the detail as policy intention rather than settled law. A £10,000 per-property cost cap applies: landlords who spend up to that amount and still cannot reach band C may register an exemption. The proposed maximum penalty for non-compliance is up to £30,000 per property. Helpfully, any property that achieves band C on its current-style EPC before 1 October 2029 is treated as compliant until that certificate expires — a strong incentive to commission a fresh EPC now if yours is near the end of its life.

Reform note: the new “Home Energy Model” (HEM) methodology, which replaces today’s RdSAP/SAP-based assessments, has been delayed and is now expected to launch in the second half of 2027, running alongside current EPCs until at least October 2029. The exact switch-over date is still to be confirmed. Until then, current EPCs remain valid.

Gas safety: annual, no exceptions

If your property has any gas appliances or flues — boilers, gas hobs, gas fires — you are legally required to have them checked every year by a Gas Safe registered engineer. This is not optional and cannot be delegated to the tenant.

The check produces a Gas Safety Record (often called a CP12). Your obligations:

• Keep the record for two years
• Give a copy to each existing tenant within 28 days of the check being completed
• Give a copy to any new tenant before they move in

One useful flexibility: under the 2018 amendment to Regulation 36 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, you can carry out the check up to two months early without resetting the anniversary date. So if your check is due in December, you can do it in October and the next one is still due the following December.

Failure to comply is a criminal offence. The Health and Safety Executive can prosecute, and conviction in the magistrates’ court carries an unlimited fine and/or up to six months’ imprisonment (the Crown Court can impose longer sentences in the most serious cases). Penalties vary widely with the facts, and serious or repeat failures attract substantially higher fines. There is also a practical possession risk: a court may refuse a possession order if you cannot demonstrate you met your gas safety obligations throughout the tenancy.

EICR: every five years, on every property

The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 require landlords to hold a valid Electrical Installation Condition Report for every rental property. The inspection must be carried out by a qualified electrician and renewed at least every five years.

The report covers the fixed electrical installation — wiring, consumer unit, sockets, switches, light fittings. It does not cover portable appliances (for those, PAT testing is good practice but not a legal requirement for residential lets in England).

Inspectors assign codes: C1 (danger present) and C2 (potentially dangerous) defects must be remedied within 28 days (or sooner, if the report specifies). You must confirm any remedial work in writing to your tenant, and supply the report to the local authority within seven days of a written request.

Costs vary by property size and region: roughly £120–£200 for a one-bed flat and £250–£350 for a larger house (2026 prices, with London and the South East at the higher end).

Penalties: Following changes that took effect alongside the Renters’ Rights Act, the maximum civil penalty for electrical safety breaches has risen to £40,000 per offence. A landlord with five properties each lacking a valid EICR faces five separate penalties.

Smoke and CO alarms: the day-one test

Under the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (in force from 1 October 2022), landlords in England must:

• Install at least one smoke alarm on every storey used as living accommodation
• Install a carbon monoxide alarm in every room with a fixed combustion appliance — this now includes rooms with a gas boiler, not just solid-fuel burners (gas cookers are excluded)
• Test all alarms on the first day of every new tenancy, and repair or replace any found faulty following a tenant report

The penalty for failing to comply with a remedial notice served by the local authority is up to £5,000 per breach.

A few practical points that often trip landlords up:

• If a tenant reports a faulty alarm, the duty to fix it falls on the landlord — not the tenant
• Battery alarms are permitted in England (there is no mains-wiring requirement, unlike Scotland), though sealed-for-life units are recommended
• Scotland has gone further since February 2022, requiring interlinked alarms and a heat alarm in the kitchen; if you own Scottish property, the rules differ materially

The real risk: certificates that expire unnoticed between tenancies

The most common failure mode is not negligence during an active tenancy — it is the certificate that lapsed while a property sat vacant, was being refurbished, or carried over between back-to-back tenants without anyone checking the dates.

Storing certificates in a shared folder is a start, but what actually prevents missed renewals is tying each certificate to the property record and surfacing renewal reminders automatically. With PropertyGoose’s tenancy management features, you can attach certificate documents directly to a tenancy and get ahead of renewals before they become a compliance problem. It is the same system you would use for tenant referencing and tenancy agreements — one place rather than four separate email threads and a drawer of PDFs.

If you are unsure how your compliance stack compares to what you are legally required to do, take a look at our pricing page — or book a quick demo to see how the platform handles document management alongside the referencing workflow.

Summary: renewal intervals and key penalties at a glance

Certificate	Renewal interval	Key penalty (as of June 2026)
Gas Safety Record	Annually	Unlimited fine / up to 6 months’ imprisonment
EICR	Every 5 years	Up to £40,000 per offence
EPC	Every 10 years	Up to £5,000 (current); proposed up to £30,000 from 2030
Smoke/CO alarms check	Every new tenancy	Up to £5,000 per breach

This article is general information, not legal advice. If you are uncertain about your obligations, seek advice from a qualified solicitor or your local housing authority.

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Craig Ryder