Advice for landlords

The housing advice team is here to help advise landlords as well as tenants. 

We can help with any problems you may have, for example:

• tenancy issues including housing benefit issues
• evictions
• repairs
• best practice
• tenancy agreements  

Please do get in contact with us, we will be happy to help. 

Safety standards, repairs and issues

When you are a landlord it is important to ensure your property meets basic health and safety standards for tenants. 

Our home safety checklist is a good start. 

Additionally, you should do the following:

• read more about health and safety ratings guidance for landlords on the government website
• provide an up-to-date Energy Performance Certificate, government regulations require all rental properties to have an EPC rating of E or higher before being let to tenants
• provide an annual Gas Safety Certificate, where necessary
• electrics should be checked at least every five years, read more about electrical safety checks for landlords of the government website
• provide a carbon monoxide detector, where necessary, read more about carbon monoxide information for landlords on the government website
• provide a smoke detector on each floor
• provide adequate thermal insulation, such as loft insulation and double glazing  
• provide adequate heating that can be controlled  
• ensure slip, trip and fall hazards are eliminated
• provide adequate lighting  
• provide personal facilities for washing, personal hygiene, food preparation and storage 

Carrying out repairs 

Find out more about your responsibilities for carrying out repairs on the government’s website. 

Property issues

Our aim is to improve housing standards and ensure they meet the basic minimum standards for tenants to live in. If there are issues with your property we will always try and work with you to get them resolved.

Our Private Sector Housing Enforcement Policy is designed to be both fair to responsible landlords but also deal effectively with uninformed or rogue landlords. Where a landlord does not comply, the policy allows the council to charge the landlord for certain notices.

If the notice is not complied with, we can consider either carrying out works in default, which is very costly and includes officer time, or we can serve a civil penalty of up to £30,000 for certain offences. If you have a House in Multiple Occupation please also see the Houses In Multiple Occupation pages.