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Landlord and tenant responsibilities for health and safety

As a landlord, you must keep your rented properties safe and free from health hazards. You must make sure that all gas and electrical equipment in your properties has been safely installed and is maintained. You must also follow fire safety regulations - for example, by checking that tenants have access to escape routes at all times.

Under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), your local authority may inspect your property for health and safety hazards. If it finds serious problems, you will have to fix them. However, you can reduce the chance of this by carrying out your own checks for potential hazards, like damp. If you are a person licensed by a local authority to let out a property - a 'licensor' - you do not have the same health and safety responsibilities as landlords. However, you are still covered by the HHSRS. These standards are usually checked by your local authority's environmental health team.

Your tenants have a duty to use the property in a responsible way - for example, by clearing kitchen sinks clogged of food waste to avoid blockages. They are also responsible for any damage caused by their family or friends.

Tenants should only carry out repairs to a property if they have agreed this with their landlord in their tenancy agreement.

• The Housing Health and Safety Ratings System

• Download 'Repairs - a guide for landlords and tenants' from Communities and Local Government (PDF, 275K) Opens new window

• Help with PDF files

Gas and electrical installation and appliance safety

As a landlord, you are responsible for making sure that any gas and electrical installations in your rented properties are safe.

Gas installation safety

If you let a property connected to a mains gas supply, you must arrange an annual maintenance check of gas pipe work, appliances and flues. This should be carried out by an engineer registered with the Gas Safe Register - formerly Corgi.

You should keep inspection records for at least two years and give copies of the reports to your existing tenants within 28 days of each check. You should also give copies to new tenants before they move in.

Your tenants are responsible for any gas appliances they own, but you must still maintain the parts of any associated gas installations - like flues and ventilation grilles - and the pipe work.

• Gas advice for landlords - Gas Safe Register Opens new window

• Frequently asked gas safety questions - Health and Safety Executive Opens new window

• Download gas appliance safety information from the Health and Safety Executive (PDF, 199K) Opens new window

• Help with PDF files

Electrical installation safety

At the beginning of each new tenancy, you should ensure that electrical installations - like fixed wiring - are safe and well maintained. Any electrical appliances you supply to tenants - like cookers and kettles - should be safe for them to use.

You should carry out regular inspections of fixed electrical installations - like sockets and light fittings - every five years. You should also arrange, at least once a year, for a qualified electrician to carry out a portable appliance testing (PAT) safety test on any portable electrical equipment you provide for tenants, like kettles. The PAT tester will give you a dated certificate and put stickers on the plugs of appliances to show that they are safe.

• More about electrical equipment safety - Health and Safety Executive Opens new window

Fire safety standards

You must make sure your tenants have an escape route from your properties in case of fire. Depending on the size of the property, you may also have to provide fire alarms and extinguishers.

If you have a property let out to several different tenants - a house in multiple occupation - you may be asked to carry out a fire risk assessment by your local housing authority or fire service.

The assessment is designed to:

• identify fire hazards
• reduce the risk of hazards that may harm occupants
• decide what physical fire precaution measures, like fire doors, and management procedures may be needed - if any risks are found, you may be asked to make changes, like clearing fire escapes

You must follow the fire-resistant furniture regulations if you let furnished accommodation to tenants. Furniture manufacturers will usually label their fire-resistant products. If a property is let on a one-off, short-term basis - for example, while you work away from home - the regulations do not apply.

• Fire safety and risk assessment - Businesslink Opens new window

• Furniture fire safety factsheet from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (PDF, 359K) Opens new window

• Help with PDF files

Energy performance certificates and landlords

If you rent out, buy, sell or build a property, you will need to get an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). An EPC rates the energy efficiency of a property. It is based on the building's energy performance - for example, how much heat is lost through the roof.

An EPC also takes account of the property's heating and lighting. EPCs do not cover domestic appliance performance, like washing machines.

An EPC is valid for ten years - even if new tenants move into your property during that time. You should give a copy of your property's current EPC to each new tenant.

• Energy Performance Certificates - what they are

• Energy Performance Certificates - a guide for residential landlords Opens new window

More useful links

• Repairs, planning and building regulations