Free rental check: the certificates and licences your let needs
Free, about 2 minutes, no sign-up. At the end you’ll see which certificates, checks and licences this rental needs, what to do about each, and the fine where there is one. Your answers are not saved unless you choose to.
Why are we asking?
Licensing rules are set council by council. The postcode picks the right rulebook. Picking the address finds the home's own energy certificate.
Datestone is a tool for running your rental homes, not legal advice. Results reflect your answers and the rules as we hold them today; every item links its official source.
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Councils and postcode suggestions from postcodes.io. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2025. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2025. Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2025. Contains NRS data © Crown copyright and database right 2025.
What the check covers
These are the duties the check looks at for a rental in England, and the rules on the way. Your result shows where your home stands on each one that concerns it, based on your answers. Where we have a guide to one, its name links to it.
Certificates & inspections
- Gas safety certificate (CP12)
- Electrical safety report (EICR)
- Energy performance certificate (EPC): valid, rated E or better
- Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms
- Fire risk assessment of the shared areas
- Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms (licence condition)
- Electrical installations safe (HMO licence condition)
- Legionella risk assessment
- Alarms proven working at check-in
For each tenancy
Houses in multiple occupation (HMOs)
- Mandatory HMO licence (5+ people, 2+ households)
- HMO: your name, address and phone number to every household, and on display
- HMO: escape routes clear, fire alarms and equipment working, escape notices
- HMO: shared areas and shared appliances kept safe, clean, lit and in repair
- HMO: each room clean when a new occupier moves in, and kept in repair
- HMO: enough bins for every household
Licensing: depends on your council
Registration (from 15 Dec 2026)
- Private rented sector (PRS) database: register yourself and each home
- Private rented sector (PRS) database: registering an empty home
On the horizon
The check doesn’t report on rules for how you let and run a home rather than dated deadlines:
- Rent increases: once a year, on Form 4A
- Advertise an asking rent, and take no offers above it
- No rent before the tenancy agreement is signed
- No refusing tenants because they have children or are on benefits
- Pet requests: refuse only with a valid reason