Is My Landlord Breaking the Law? UK Checklist 2026

This is the most common violation in the private rented sector, and one of the easiest to check.

Under the Housing Act 2004, your landlord must place your deposit in a government-approved scheme within 30 days of receiving it. The three approved schemes are the Deposit Protection Service (DPS), MyDeposits, and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS). Your landlord must also send you the prescribed information: a written confirmation of which scheme holds the deposit and how to raise a dispute.

If either step was missed, or done late, you can claim compensation of one to three times the deposit amount at a First-tier Tribunal. On a £1,500 deposit, that is up to £4,500, paid by your landlord, on top of the return of the deposit itself.

Check your scheme by going directly to the DPS, MyDeposits, or TDS websites and searching using your address and tenancy start date. It takes about two minutes. If your deposit does not appear in any of them, your landlord is almost certainly in breach.

For a full breakdown of what the prescribed information must include and what compensation you can claim, see our guide to deposit protection violations and compensation.

Your landlord must give you a valid Gas Safety Record before your tenancy starts. After that, it must be renewed every 12 months. There is no grace period. An expired certificate is a breach the moment it lapses.

EICR non-compliance is equally serious. Your landlord must provide an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) every five years. If you have never received one, ask for it in writing. If they cannot produce it, the property may have been rented out in breach of the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, which carries fines up to £30,000.

Check the expiry date on your gas certificate. If it has passed, or you were never given one, your landlord is breaking the law. The same applies to the EICR. Ask your landlord to email both documents. If they stall or refuse, that refusal itself becomes evidence.

For more detail on what landlords owe you on electrical safety, read our article on landlord electrical safety certificate obligations.

If you share a property with four or more people from different households, the property is likely a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) and may require a licence from your local council.

Many landlords operate unlicensed HMOs and assume tenants will not notice. The consequences are significant. Operating an unlicensed HMO is a criminal offence. As a tenant, you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a Rent Repayment Order (RRO) covering up to 12 months of rent paid while the property was unlicensed.

Check your local council's public HMO register. Most councils list licensed properties online. If your property is not on it, your landlord may be operating illegally. Some councils also run selective licensing schemes that require licences for all private rented properties in a given area, not just HMOs.

Our interactive HMO licensing map shows which areas have mandatory licensing schemes. If you are in Hackney, Islington, or Westminster, see our borough-specific guides for Hackney, Islington, and Westminster.

For a full explanation of how to make an unlicensed HMO claim, read our guide on applying for a Rent Repayment Order.

This one is new, and most tenants do not know about it yet.

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 required landlords to serve a government-prescribed Information Sheet to all existing tenants by 31 May 2026. For new tenancies starting after 1 May 2026, the sheet must be provided at the start of the tenancy. The old 'How to Rent' guide has been withdrawn and replaced by this sheet.

Failing to serve it carries a civil penalty of up to £7,000. Continued non-compliance pushes that to £40,000.

This matters beyond the fine. If your landlord cannot show they served you the Information Sheet correctly, it may affect their ability to use certain Section 8 possession grounds. A landlord who skipped this step has weakened their own position if they ever try to evict you.

If you never received it, note that now. You do not need to do anything immediately, but it is a violation worth recording.

Section 21 'no-fault' evictions were abolished on 1 May 2026 (Renters' Rights Act 2025). From that date, your landlord can only seek possession using specific Section 8 grounds.

If your landlord has sent you a letter telling you to leave without citing a valid Section 8 ground, or threatening eviction without going through the courts, that is illegal. Changing your locks, removing your belongings, or cutting off your utilities without a court order is illegal eviction, which carries uncapped damages.

Landlord possession claims fell 5% in Q1 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, totalling 22,733 claims (Ministry of Justice, 2026). That drop reflects the abolition of Section 21. But some landlords are still attempting to pressure tenants out informally, which is where the law is clearest in your favour.

If you have received any kind of eviction notice or pressure to leave, check our guide to Section 8 notice grounds and how to respond before you do anything else.

Two new obligations came in with the Renters' Rights Act that most tenants have not heard of yet.

All private landlords in England must register on the new Private Rented Sector Database, which is launching later in 2026. They must also join the mandatory Landlord Ombudsman scheme. Failing to do either can result in penalties of up to £40,000 and, in serious cases, criminal prosecution.

You cannot check the database yourself yet, as it is still being rolled out, but you can ask your landlord directly whether they have registered. If they have not heard of the requirement, that tells you something about how on top of their legal obligations they are.

Once the database is live, non-registration will also affect a landlord's ability to use certain possession grounds. For guidance on what the Ombudsman covers and how to make a complaint, see our article on private rented sector Landlord Ombudsman complaints.

Going through this list yourself is a reasonable starting point. But you can miss things, especially around your tenancy agreement, which may contain clauses that are unenforceable under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or the Renters' Rights Act 2025, without looking obviously wrong.

Remedy Legal is an AI-powered platform that assesses your situation and identifies which violations apply to your specific tenancy. You share the key details, and Remedy gives you a clear, jargon-free breakdown of your legal position and what you may be able to claim. There is no upfront cost and no credit card required for the initial assessment.

If you upload your tenancy agreement, Remedy's tenancy agreement analysis extracts the key terms and flags potential issues at the clause level, including terms that may be unenforceable. The platform also checks HMO licensing status, deposit protection timing, and gas safety certificate compliance as part of its landlord assessment.

For tenants who want to go further, the £40 full platform access covers AI-drafted letters to your landlord or council, claim valuation based on similar past cases, tribunal bundle generation, and document storage with deadline tracking. If you need a human expert, the no-win-no-fee tier starts at 10% of winnings and includes a consultation and document review.

You can also reach Remedy via WhatsApp if you would rather not fill in a web form.