The UK landlord compliance calendar: every deadline in one place

Gas safety, EICR, EPC, alarm testing, HMO and selective licensing — five different rules, five different intervals, and one fine if you miss any of them. Here's exactly how often each one is due.

If you own one rental property, you're juggling five separate compliance deadlines, each with its own interval, its own paperwork, and its own penalty for getting it wrong. If you own three or four, you're juggling fifteen to twenty. Most landlords track this in their head, in a paper diary, or — if they're organised — a spreadsheet that quietly falls out of date the moment life gets busy.

This is the full list: what's actually required, how often, and what happens if you miss it. Nothing here is legal advice — it's a summary to help you keep track, and the source regulations are named throughout so you can check the detail yourself.

The five deadlines at a glance

1. Gas safety check — every 12 months

If your property has any gas appliance — a boiler, gas fire, gas hob — the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 require an annual check by a Gas Safe registered engineer. This applies across the whole UK, not just England.

• The check must happen within 12 months of the last one — not 12 months from when you remember to book it.
• You must give tenants a copy of the record (often called a CP12) within 28 days of the check, or before a new tenant moves in.
• Keep records for at least 2 years.

This is the one deadline landlords are usually best at tracking, because the consequences are the most visceral — gas safety failures can be fatal, and enforcement (via the HSE) reflects that.

2. EICR — every 5 years

Since the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 came fully into force in April 2021, every tenancy in England needs a valid Electrical Installation Condition Report — an EICR — carried out by a qualified electrician at least every 5 years, or sooner if the previous report recommends it.

• You must give the report to tenants, and to your council if they ask for it.
• If the report flags remedial work, you're required to get it done and provide written confirmation.
• This one's easy to lose track of precisely because 5 years feels distant — until it's suddenly overdue.

3. EPC — every 10 years (for now)

Every rented property needs a valid Energy Performance Certificate, and it can't be let with a rating below E under the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015. An EPC is valid for 10 years from issue.

Worth watching: the government has consulted on raising the minimum rating to C, with a phased introduction discussed for the coming years. Nothing is confirmed as law yet at the time of writing, but if you're planning improvement works anyway, it's worth budgeting for a tighter standard rather than assuming E will always be enough.

4. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms — checked every tenancy

This is the deadline that trips people up because it isn't really a fixed interval at all. Under the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 (amended 2022), you need:

• A smoke alarm on every storey used as living accommodation.
• A carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance — boilers, gas fires, wood burners — excluding gas cookers.
• Checks confirming both are working on the day a new tenancy starts, not once a year on a fixed date.

Because it's tied to tenancy starts rather than a calendar date, a simple "renews annually" reminder is actually the wrong tool here — you need a nudge every time a new tenant moves in, whenever that happens to be.

5. HMO and selective licensing — set by your council

If your property is a licensable HMO (broadly, five or more tenants forming more than one household, sharing facilities), or sits in a council's selective licensing area, you'll hold a licence with its own expiry date — usually somewhere between 1 and 5 years depending on the council. There's no single national interval here; it's whatever's printed on your licence.