Landlord Law Essentials

Landlord Law Essentials Part 11 - Protecting your position

With the new regime under the Renters Rights Act 2025 will come greater tenant rights and Local Authority Enforcement. How can landlords protect themselves from claims and penalties?

Probably the most important way to protect your position is to take enormous care in your choice of tenants. We looked at this in Part 4.

In this section, we have a few more suggestions.

Keep up to date with law reform
Do regular property inspections
Keep detailed records
Do an annual audit of your properties
Use specialists when needed
Use solicitors wisely
The Landlord Law Service
Further Reading

Keep up to date with law reform

If you are to comply with the rules, you need to know what those rules are in the first place.

I am afraid the time of landlords ‘winging it’ and hoping to get by on the basis that they are well-meaning and a ‘nice person’ are long gone.

This does not mean to say that it is all over for small and amateur landlords self-managing. However you should only do this if you are confident that you understand what you are supposed to do, and that you do it!

Hopefully, this course will have helped.

However, I would suggest that all landlords should do training regularly to keep themselves up to date. Remember 100% compliance = 100% protection.

Landlord Law can help with this as we have detailed guidance on the rules and regulations, along with compliant documents and monthly training sessions with specialists to keep you up to date. Members unable to attend on the day can watch the recordings later (Business Level Members only).

However, just being a member of Landlord Law is not enough. You need to use it!

Here are other important ways to protect your position.

Use the correct documentation

It is particularly important that you get tenants to sign all the documentation required, as once they have been given the keys to the property and moved in, you lose much of your negotiating leverage.

Tenancy agreements

This is particularly important as you can be fined, for example if

You don’t give a tenancy agreement (or ‘statement of terms’), or
Your tenancy agreement does not include the required terms (as discussed in the tenancy agreement section), or
If you attempt to grant a tenancy with a fixed term

As this is so important, you need to take enormous care to ensure that your tenancy agreement is compliant and includes all the correct clauses and information.

If you have staff (for example, if you are a letting agent), the issue of tenancy agreements should not be left to junior staff but should always be approved by a senior staff member before issue.

Guarantee deeds

If you are taking on a tenant who does not pass referencing or who you consider is a bit of a risk, it is normal to take a guarantor, usually from a property-owning relative.

However, many guarantees will not survive a rent increase, due to a long-established legal rule that a guarantor can be released if the main contract is materially varied without their consent. Many guarantees fail for this reason.

You may therefore want to consider using the Landlord Law Guarantor Deed, which aims to solve this problem by making it clear in the deed that the guarantor’s liability continues despite variations to the tenancy or replacement tenancies involving the same tenant. Including rent increases.

Find out more about this in the article here.

These are the initial documents which will be most impacted by the Renters Rights Act changes.

Do regular property inspections

This is enormously important. You really need to know what is happening in your property. For example:

You need to make sure that no unauthorised occupiers have moved in. If they have, this is highly likely to turn your property into an HMO (discussed in Part 9) and probably subject to HMO licensing and all the extra expense that brings. If your property is already a licensed HMO, an extra occupier may cause you to exceed the occupation limit set out in your license.
You need to check that your property has not been sublet. This can cause all sorts of problems. For example, if your property is leasehold and your tenant is subletting all or part of it on Airbnb, this could be in breach of your lease and may even make it vulnerable to forfeiture.
You need to ensure that the property is in a proper condition and does not breach any of the property condition rules discussed in Part 8. This could both make you liable to claims by your tenants and improvement notices served by Local Authorities.
You need to make sure no illegal activity is going on. The worst is probably conversion to a cannabis farm, which can cause massive damage to your property, which will be expensive to put right. Other illegal activities can include dealing in drugs, growing a few cannabis plants (wardrobes and attic spaces are places to check), and hotwiring electricity.
You need to be sure that tenants have not made any unauthorised changes to the property. For example, unauthorised installation of gas and electrical appliances (which could be dangerous), or structural changes.
You need to be sure there is nothing that will adversely affect your insurance. Insurance companies now expect landlords or their agents to conduct regular inspections (often this is a condition of your insurance) and may not accept claims if this has not been done.
Inspection visits are also a good opportunity to get to know your tenants, and maybe also serve documents on them (such as a section 13 rent increase notice).

Property inspections are the heart and soul of proper property management. I cannot emphasise enough how important they are.

How often should you inspect?

Ideally, inspections should be carried out at least once every 3 months, though for longstanding, trusted tenants, every 4 or 6 months may be sufficient. Do not leave it longer than that.

For HMO properties, it is often necessary to inspect more frequently, for example weekly, e.g., to oversee putting out rubbish bins for collection by the Council.

Many landlords may not have done many or indeed any inspection visits in the past. However, this is really asking for trouble. If your tenants ask you why you are suddenly visiting more often, you can tell them it is because of the new rules introduced by the Renters’ Rights Act. Or that it is now required by your insurance.

Help for landlords

Landlords, uncertain how to go about doing an inspection visit can use our Property Inspection Kit. Find out more about it here, although it is available to all Landlord Law members as part of their membership.

If your tenants won’t let you in, the Landlord Law Property Access Kit is very detailed and has extensive guidance (including a step-by-step guide on obtaining an injunction).

Keep detailed records

This is essential.

If you are accused of non-compliance by the Local Authority, you will need your records to prove them wrong.
If a claim is brought against you by your tenants, you will need evidence to defend it (for example, that the reason you did not do repair work was that they would not allow you access!)
If you need to evict tenants, you will need evidence to support your claim.

Remember – if you cannot prove something, evidentially it is the same as if it never happened.

So you need to keep records of EVERYTHING. For example:

All telephone calls
All meetings
All certificates
All estimates and receipts for work done, and
Your reasons for dealing with things in a particular way

So, for example, if you are contacted by the Information Commissioner’s Office because of a data information breach, if you can show them records of your work on setting up your procedures as discussed in this post, they are unlikely to fine you, as they will see that you have done your best to be compliant.

How to keep records

Your records can either be paper-based or electronic.

If you prefer a paper-based solution, you can keep records of all your meetings and telephone calls, and also notes about what you are doing at the property, in lever arch files and store them in a filing cabinet.

Even putting things in cardboard boxes under the bed is better than nothing! So long as you know where they are and can find them quickly. Be careful about ‘safe places’ that you then forget!

If you prefer electronic records, you can scan all documents and correspondence and store them in folders (named for your properties and maybe also have separate folders for different years) on your computer. Storing them in the cloud, for example, in Dropbox or Google Drive will guard against them being lost by a computer failure.

I would suggest, though, that you hang on to your original certificates.

A property diary – it is also be a good idea to keep a property diary (one for each property if you have more than one) where you write down (either in a book or online, maybe in a Google doc) everything that happens with that property – from meetings, to work done, to your reasons for doing what you do.

The more records you keep, the better you will be able to deal with problems when they arise. Don’t assume you will remember things – you won’t!

How long should you keep records?

You should keep them for as long as the tenancy lasts and for 7 years afterwards. This is because:

Tenants can bring claims against you up until the end of the ‘limitation period’, which is six years after the tenancy has ended, and
HMRC will expect you to keep records for seven years

DON’T destroy certificates after two years because the regulations say you can! You will need them for the landlord’s database (when it is set up) and also to prove (if it is ever in question) that you have always been compliant.

Do an annual audit of your properties

This is a really good idea. If you are a busy person, it is all too easy for something to slip through the net and get forgotten.

In most cases you will probably pick this up but not always.

So an annual general check to make sure that you are 100% compliant is a very good idea.

At Landlord Law we have a special Audit Kit. It is available to all Landlord Law members as part of their membership, but can also be bought as a separate product.

Use specialists when needed

If you are self-managing, you are saving yourself a lot of money on agents fees.

So you should therefore be able to afford specialist services, for example:

Use a really good professional referencing company – one that will check applicants and their paperwork for fraud
Get a professional company to carry out your right to rent checks (make sure you have a written agreement with them), for example, via the register here
Use inventory clerks to prepare your inventory and check your tenants in and out.
If you are unable to visit the property yourself easily, you can also use inventory clerks to carry out your property inspections (although I would advise a personal visit yourself at least once a year)
Employ a cleaner if you run an HMO where tenants rent a room in a shared house. The cleaner will ensure you comply with the HMO Management regulations requirement that you keep the common parts clean, and will also act as an extra pair of eyes who can report back to you if there are any problems
If the property has a garden, you could also consider employing a gardener to visit say, monthly.
Employ professional cleaners to ensure properties are clean both before a tenancy starts and after tenants have vacated.
Get a fire risk assessment done by professional fire safety experts if this is appropriate for your property
Use professional tradespeople as and when needed for things like repairs, dealing with pest control, general maintenance and the like.

Of course, if you prefer to do things yourself and are well able or qualified to do them, then go ahead! However, you will probably find that using these professionals will make your life easier and protect you from expensive problems.

It is also easier to make a claim for fees from tenants (if you are entitled to do this) if you have an invoice for the work.

Use solicitors wisely

I would also STRONGLY recommend that you consult and use solicitors when needed, in particular

To evict tenants (as there are fierce penalties now for non-compliance with the rules, as discussed in Part 10)
If your tenants make a claim against you
To advise and represent you if you are approached by the Local Authority claiming you are in breach of any of the rules.
Particularly if you are asked by the Local Authority to attend a PACE interview. Do not attend this on your own – it is very easy to inadvertently make an admission which can later be used as the basis of a claim against you.

The various penalty fines can be so huge now that it really is a false economy to skimp on legal advice and representation if you get into trouble.

Remember that if you receive a Civil Penalty Notice and then commit a further breach or offence, you can face a double penalty – the first for the second offence itself, and the other because this is a repeat offence (which can be up to £40,000).

If you do not know any specialist landlord and tenant solicitors, any of the solicitors on the Landlord Law Telephone Advice panel will be able to help you.

Watch out for costs, though

You need to be careful when using solicitors to make it clear to them what you are prepared to pay for costs, as otherwise you may find you have run up a higher bill than you expected.

Ideally get them to agree to a fixed fee. If this is not possible, then set a limit beyond which they cannot go without getting your approval first.

Make sure this is set out in writing.

Solicitors will always send out a ‘client care’ letter when they first start acting for you, which will set out the arrangement for their costs. Read it carefully and make sure you agree with it. If not, get back to them about it and ask them to change it.

We have a little guide on finding and using solicitors, which you may find helpful.

The Landlord Law Service

Landlord Law was set up over 20 years ago to support self-managing landlords comply with all the rules and regulations which apply.

Many landlords have been members for many years and have used the service to support them and achieve compliance. For example, see the comments on our TrustPilot page.

You can find out more about our service via this page and the various pages linked from it.