Most renters have a vague sense they have rights. Fewer know what those rights are, which ones their landlord is currently breaking, and what that's worth in pounds. That gap is where landlords make money.
England's private rented sector is home to 4.7 million households, 19% of the total. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 has added significant new protections on top of existing law, and penalties for landlords who ignore the most serious of them now reach up to £40,000. If your landlord is cutting corners, the law gives you a way to respond.
This checklist covers the obligations your landlord has to you, the breaches that carry financial penalties, and what you can do right now if something on this list is not being met.
What your landlord must give you before or at the start of a tenancy
Before you hand over a penny, your landlord has a set of documents they are legally required to provide. Getting these wrong is not a mere technicality. It can make a rent repayment order application much easier to win.
For tenancies that started before 1 May 2026, landlords were required to provide the government's 'How to Rent' guide. For new tenancies from 1 May 2026, your landlord must instead give you a Written Statement of Terms setting out the key terms of the tenancy, under section 12 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, before or at the start of the tenancy. The Information Sheet is a separate, one-off document for tenancies that were already in writing on 1 May 2026, and had to be served to those tenants by 31 May 2026. If your landlord missed the document that applies to you, note it down.
Whichever of those applies to you, your landlord must also provide:
- A valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
- A current Gas Safety Certificate (renewed annually)
- An Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) no older than five years
- Your deposit protection certificate and prescribed information, within 30 days of receiving the deposit
If any of these are missing, you may be owed compensation, not merely inconvenienced. A missing gas safety certificate is a criminal breach to report to the HSE and your council rather than a rent repayment order ground, though an unsafe gas installation is disrepair you can claim for. A deposit that wasn't protected within 30 days can be worth up to three times the deposit amount in a county court claim. Check our guide to deposit protection violations for the exact mechanism.
How the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changed your tenancy structure
Fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies are gone. From 1 May 2026, all tenancies in England are assured periodic tenancies. Rent periods are capped at one calendar month. Any clause in your agreement trying to lock you into a longer payment cycle is no longer valid.
The shift to assured periodic tenancies under the Renters' Rights Act also affects how rent increases work. Automatic escalation clauses tied to CPI or RPI are no longer enforceable as a self-executing mechanism. Your landlord must follow the statutory Section 13 process, which means serving a formal notice, giving you at least two months' warning, and allowing you to challenge the increase at the First-tier Tribunal if you think it's above market rate.
Section 21 'no-fault' evictions ended on 1 May 2026. Your landlord cannot evict you without a valid ground, and those grounds are now defined in Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 as updated by the Renters' Rights Act. Eviction for wanting the property back for personal use, for example, now requires at least four months' notice and cannot be used in the first 12 months of the tenancy.
If your landlord has served you a notice that looks like it's trying to get around this, that matters. Read our guide on backdoor eviction protections under the Renters' Rights Act to understand what's legitimate and what isn't.
This checklist describes the law in England. Wales runs its own system under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, where renters hold occupation contracts and Section 21 has been gone since December 2022.
Which landlord violations can result in a rent repayment order
A Rent Repayment Order (RRO) lets you claim back up to 2 years' rent through the First-tier Tribunal, for offences committed on or after 1 May 2026 (12 months for earlier offences). You don't need a solicitor. You don't need to leave the property. The grounds are specific enough that if your landlord has committed one of them, the tribunal's job is largely to assess the amount, not relitigate whether the violation happened.
The qualifying grounds for an RRO include:
- Operating an unlicensed HMO (a property that requires a House in Multiple Occupation licence and doesn't have one)
- Failing to comply with a banning order
- Using violence or threats to enter the property
- Committing illegal eviction
- Failing to comply with an improvement notice or prohibition order
- Certain breaches of the Renters' Rights Act 2025
If you live in a shared house with at least three people from two or more households, check whether your property needed an HMO licence. Many landlords don't bother. Our guide to unlicensed HMO rent repayment orders covers what you need to prove and how to find out whether a licence was required.
If you pay £1,200 a month and the property was unlicensed for a year, that period alone is worth up to £14,400, and the 2-year cap can take a long-running case much higher. Tribunals do not always award the maximum, and they weigh the landlord's conduct and any deductions when setting the figure.
What counts as an illegal eviction and what you can claim
Illegal eviction is exactly what it sounds like: your landlord removes you, or tries to, without going through the court process. That covers changing the locks while you are out, removing your belongings, or cutting off utilities to make the property uninhabitable. All of these are criminal offences under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977.
The civil claim is separate from the criminal one. You can sue your landlord for damages in the county court even if the police didn't pursue a prosecution. Where you were forced out, the statutory measure under the Housing Act 1988 (sections 27 and 28) is the difference in the value of the landlord's interest with you in place and with the property empty, worked out by valuation. On top of that you can claim general damages for the distress and disruption, and for any belongings or costs the eviction caused. In a high-value area these figures can run to tens of thousands of pounds.
Harassment short of actual eviction is also actionable. Entering the property without 24 hours' written notice, repeatedly phoning or messaging you to pressure you to leave, or refusing to carry out repairs in a way that's clearly designed to make you move out can all form the basis of a harassment claim. See our guides on landlord harassment legal remedies and illegal eviction compensation for the specific causes of action.
What repairs your landlord must carry out
Under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, your landlord is responsible for the structure of the property, exterior, and installations for heating, water, gas, and electricity. That has been the law for decades, and for private renters the deadline for putting a repair right has not changed.
Awaab's Law sets fixed repair deadlines, but for now it binds social landlords only, in phases from 27 October 2025. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 will extend it to private landlords, but that part is not yet in force, and the timing is still to be confirmed through consultation. So if you rent privately, you cannot yet hold your landlord to those fixed deadlines. What applies now is the long-standing standard: once you report a problem in writing, your landlord must put it right within a reasonable time, judged by how serious it is. A dangerous hazard is not something a landlord can leave for months.
Damp and mould are treated seriously. A private landlord who ignores a written report of serious damp can leave the property unfit to live in under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, which exposes them to a civil claim, and the council can act under its hazard powers. Our guide to mould and damp landlord obligations sets out the process.
Before going to tribunal, a formal letter before action is worth sending. It creates a written record, starts the clock on response time, and often produces a settlement without the tribunal process. Remedy can draft that letter for you, referencing the applicable legislation and the specific failures involved. Check our guide to sending a letter before action to your landlord for what to include.
How to use this checklist to check your own tenancy right now
Run through these in order. Each 'no' is a potential claim.
Documentation your landlord should have given you:
- Gas Safety Certificate (current, renewed annually)
- EICR (no older than five years)
- EPC (valid rating, in writing)
- Written Statement of Terms (for tenancies starting on or after 1 May 2026)
- Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet (for tenancies already in writing on 1 May 2026, served by 31 May 2026)
- Deposit protection certificate and prescribed information within 30 days of payment
Property standards:
- No category 1 hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System
- Heating system in working order
- No unaddressed damp or mould following written complaint
- Smoke alarms on every floor, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room used as living accommodation with a fixed combustion appliance (gas cookers excepted)
Tenancy terms:
- No fixed-term clause in new tenancies post-May 2026
- Rent increase served via Section 13 notice with at least two months' notice
- No rent review clause that auto-applies without the Section 13 process
- No cleaning fees charged at end of tenancy beyond documented evidence of damage (see our guide on whether your landlord can charge cleaning fees)
Licensing (if you share with others):
- If three or more people from two or more households share the property, check whether it needs an HMO licence from the council
- If your borough has selective licensing, check whether your property is registered
Most of the violations on this checklist are ones landlords get away with because tenants don't know they have a claim, not because the law is complicated. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 has strengthened the position. Fines reach up to £40,000, deposit claims can be worth up to three times the original amount, and rent repayment orders up to 2 years' rent.
If you have worked through this checklist and something does not add up, Remedy can look at your tenancy, tell you which violations apply and what you can claim, and help you take the next step.
