For landlords

What are my legal responsibilities for repairs as a landlord in England?

Guide · about 24 min read · Covers the law as at October 2026 · Last checked on 12 October 2026

In England a landlord who lets a dwelling on a tenancy granted for a term of less than seven years normally has to keep the structure and exterior of the property in repair, and has to keep the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation, space heating and hot water in repair and in proper working order. That duty comes from section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which applies to the leases described in section 13 and not to those listed in section 14. A second and wider duty, in section 9A of the same Act, is to keep the home fit for human habitation. Neither duty can be shifted on to the tenant by a term in the tenancy agreement, apart from the tenant's own tenant-like-manner duty and, for section 11 only, where a county court has authorised an exclusion on the parties' application. VEYLO X is a software platform for renting and letting in England. It does not carry out repairs and takes no view on whether one has been done.

This is a plain-English guide for England. It is general information about letting, not legal advice. The statutory provisions and published guidance cited below can be read at source. The section 11 notice rule also derives from decided cases, and the page says so where it appears.

Which repair duties are in force for private landlords in England?

Five separate things get discussed together as "repairs". Three of them bite today and two do not, and the distinction between them is easy to lose. This is the shape of it before the detail.

Duty	Provision	In force?
Keep the structure, exterior and the listed installations in repair	Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 11	Yes
Keep the home fit for human habitation	Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 9A	Yes
Council penalty of up to £7,000 alongside enforcement action on a category 1 hazard	Housing Act 2004, section 6A	Yes, since 22 June 2026
Fixed timescales for remedying serious hazards in a private tenancy	Renters' Rights Act 2025, section 60	No
A Decent Homes Standard for the private rented sector	Housing Act 2004, section 2A, inserted by Renters' Rights Act 2025, section 100	No. No Decent Homes requirements under section 2A are in force for the private rented sector

Section 100 is partly in force, which is where the confusion starts. Parts of it commenced on 27 December 2025 for the purposes of the investigatory powers chapter, so far as they give "qualifying residential premises" its meaning, and further parts commenced on 22 June 2026 to put the financial penalty in the third row into the Housing Act 2004. Separately from all of that, section 145(2) of the Act brought it into force for the purposes of making regulations on the day it was passed. None of that sets a Decent Homes requirement, and no regulations setting one have been made.

Which repairs does section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 put on the landlord?

Section 11(1) implies a covenant by the landlord in any lease the section applies to, and section 13(1) applies it to a lease of a dwelling-house granted on or after 24 October 1961 for a term of less than seven years. That covers most private tenancies, but not all of them. The covenant has three limbs.

To keep in repair the structure and exterior of the dwelling-house, including drains, gutters and external pipes.
To keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwelling-house for the supply of water, gas and electricity and for sanitation. The section names basins, sinks, baths and sanitary conveniences, and excludes other fixtures, fittings and appliances for making use of those supplies.
To keep in repair and proper working order the installations for space heating and heating water.

Sections 13 and 14 draw the edges. Section 13(2)(c) takes a lease out of "less than seven years" if it gives the tenant an option to renew for a term which, together with the original term, comes to seven years or more. That has an express exception of its own in section 13(2)(b): a lease the landlord can bring to an end before seven years from the start of the term is treated as a lease for less than seven years whatever the renewal option says, and section 13(2)(c) does not apply to it. Section 14 then sets out exclusions, and each of them has a qualification worth reading. Section 14(1) takes out a new lease granted to an existing tenant, or to a former tenant still in possession, where the previous lease was not a section 11 lease, and for a previous lease granted before 24 October 1961 that applies only if it would also have been outside section 11 had it been granted on or after that date. Section 14(3) takes out a tenancy of an agricultural holding within the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 where that Act applies to it, and a farm business tenancy within the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995. Section 14(4) takes out a lease granted on or after 3 October 1980 to a local authority, a non-profit registered provider of social housing, a registered social landlord, a body making student lettings that is specified, or of a class specified, under the powers it names, and certain other public bodies. Section 14(5) takes out a lease granted on or after 3 October 1980 to the Crown, unless the lease is under the management of the Crown Estate Commissioners, or to a government department or a person holding in trust for the Crown for the purposes of a government department. Section 32(2) is narrower than it is often described: it takes out a new lease to an existing tenant, or a former tenant still in possession, where the new lease is one to which Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 applies and the previous lease either was such a tenancy or would have been but for section 28 of that Act.

Section 11(3) then sets the standard: regard is had to the age, character and prospective life of the dwelling-house, and to the locality it is situated in. A Victorian terrace is therefore not judged against the standard of a new build. That factor belongs to the section 11 repair test and nowhere else. It does not reduce the fitness duty in section 9A, and it has no bearing on the gas, electrical and alarm rules, each of which sets its own standard whatever the age of the building.

Section 11(2) sets out what the covenant does not require. It does not require the landlord to carry out works or repairs for which the tenant is liable under the tenant's duty to use the premises in a tenant-like manner. It does not require the landlord to rebuild or reinstate the premises after destruction or damage by fire, tempest, flood or other inevitable accident. It does not require the landlord to keep in repair or maintain anything the tenant is entitled to remove. Where the dwelling is a flat forming part only of a building, section 11(1A) widens the covenant in two directions. The structure and exterior limb reaches any part of the building in which the landlord has an estate or interest. The installations limbs reach installations that serve the flat directly or indirectly, where those installations either form part of a building in which the landlord has an estate or interest, or are owned by or under the control of the landlord. Section 11(1B) then limits the widening. It bites only where the disrepair affects the tenant's enjoyment of the flat, or of the common parts the tenant is entitled to use. Section 11(3A) goes with that duty: where the landlord needs to carry out work outside the flat itself and does not have a sufficient right in the part of the building or the installation concerned, it is a defence to prove that the landlord used all reasonable endeavours to obtain, but could not obtain, the rights needed to do the work.

Is there a separate duty to keep the home fit to live in?

Yes, and it is a wider test than repair. Section 9B sets its reach: the fitness covenant is implied in a lease for a term of less than seven years, counted the same way as under section 11 (section 9B(1)(a) and (8)), and it does not apply to any lease of a kind listed in section 14 (section 9B(2)). Section 9B(1)(b) also reaches the longer social and registered provider leases described in section 13(1A), (1AA) and (1AB), and section 9B(3) to (6) carry transitional rules of their own for leases granted before the fitness covenant came in, including that a periodic tenancy already running then was caught twelve months later. The two covenants overlap substantially, but their coverage is not identical. For an ordinary private letting granted today they reach the same tenancy. On an older one the transitional rules matter. The fitness covenant came into force at the end of three months beginning with the day the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 was passed, which was 20 December 2018. Some fixed-term leases granted before that commencement stay outside section 9A altogether under section 9B(3), while periodic and secure tenancies already running on it were brought within it twelve months later under section 9B(4), and sections 9B(5) and (6) deal with tenancies that arise or are renewed afterwards. Section 9A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, inserted by the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, implies a covenant that the dwelling is fit for human habitation at the time the lease is granted, or at the beginning of the term if that is later, and will remain fit for human habitation during the term. Section 10 sets out the matters regard is had to in deciding whether a dwelling is unfit: repair, stability, freedom from damp, internal arrangement, natural lighting, ventilation, water supply, drainage and sanitary conveniences, facilities for the preparation and cooking of food and for the disposal of waste water, and, for a dwelling in England, any prescribed hazard. Section 10 then puts a limit on that list. The dwelling is unfit if, and only if, it is so far defective in one or more of those matters that it is not reasonably suitable for occupation in that condition.

The practical difference is that a home can be unfit without anything being broken. Section 10(2) ties the words "prescribed hazard" to the hazards prescribed in regulations under section 2 of the Housing Act 2004, with section 10(3) applying that definition for fitness purposes as though the reference to a potential occupier were left out, so a serious damp or cold problem in a building that is in good repair can still engage section 9A. The exceptions largely mirror section 11: section 9A(2) carries the tenant-like manner limb, the inevitable-accident limb and the entitled-to-remove limb, and adds two more, for works that would put the landlord in breach of an obligation imposed by any enactment, and for works needing the consent of a superior landlord or other third party where reasonable endeavours to obtain that consent have failed. Section 9A(3) removes liability where the unfitness is wholly or mainly attributable to the tenant's own breach of covenant, or to disrepair the landlord is not obliged to make good because of an exclusion or modification authorised by a court under section 12. Where the dwelling is a flat, section 9A(6) extends the covenant to any common parts of the building in which the landlord has an estate or interest, so the fitness duty reaches the common parts just as the repairing duty does. Section 9A(5) says that a court may order specific performance of the obligation, regardless of any equitable rule restricting the scope of that remedy.

How long does a landlord have to carry out a repair?

No single period covers everything, and that is the honest answer. The section 11 repairing covenant and the section 9A fitness covenant set no number of days, which is part of why the uncommenced timescales further down this page attract so much attention. Other regimes do fix a period, and the electrical one is the clearest. Regulation 3(4) of the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 requires further investigative or remedial work that a report calls for to be carried out within 28 days, or within a shorter period if the report specifies one, starting with the date of the inspection and testing. The five year cycle those regulations set out is covered in the guide on EICRs for landlords. Where no provision fixes a period, what applies is a reasonable time, judged on the circumstances.

On when responsibility starts there is no single rule either, and the differences matter. Under section 9A the dwelling has to be fit for human habitation at the time the lease is granted, or at the beginning of the term if that is later, so where a home was already unfit on the first day nobody has to be told anything for that covenant to be engaged. For something that goes wrong during the tenancy, the government's guide for landlords on the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 says the landlord is considered responsible from when they are made aware of the hazard by the tenant, and then has a reasonable amount of time to deal with it, which will depend on the circumstances. The same guidance says a hazard in the common parts of a block of flats or a house in multiple occupation makes the landlord immediately liable. And a report from the tenant is not the only way a landlord comes to know about a problem: what an inspection or a contractor has already told the landlord counts as well. For the section 11 repairing covenant the Act itself says nothing about when the duty starts running. That has been settled by decided cases rather than by the section, and in general terms the position is this: for disrepair inside the part of the property the tenant has possession of, liability under the covenant depends on the landlord having notice of the disrepair and a reasonable opportunity to put it right. Do not read that as meaning the clock only starts on a formal written report, and different considerations can apply outside the let premises. Record when and how the landlord learned of the problem, and take advice if the starting date is in dispute.

Two practical points follow. Where a defect arises during the tenancy and the tenant reports it, that report date is the natural point to measure a reasonable time from, which is why it is worth writing down rather than remembering. It is not the only starting point, as the paragraph above sets out: a home that was unfit at the start, a hazard in the common parts, and something the landlord already knew about do not wait on a tenant saying anything. And what counts as reasonable is decided on the facts rather than by a rule of thumb, which is why the same guidance tells landlords to put right what they are responsible for as soon as they can. Urgency is part of it. A boiler that has failed in January and a cracked paving slab are not the same problem, and nothing in the law in force treats them as one.

Can a tenancy agreement move repair costs on to the tenant?

No, not for the section 11 matters, and it is the part most often got wrong in a tenancy agreement. Section 11(4) says a covenant by the tenant for the repair of the premises is of no effect so far as it relates to the matters in section 11(1)(a) to (c), except so far as it imposes the tenant-like manner duty or the duty over things the tenant is entitled to remove. Section 11(5) spells out what counts as such a covenant: to put in repair or deliver up in repair, to paint, point or render, to pay money in lieu of repairs by the tenant, or to pay money on account of repairs by the landlord. A clause asking the tenant to decorate the outside, or to contribute to a boiler replacement, would normally sit inside that list.

Section 12(1) goes further than making the clause ineffective, and it reaches beyond the tenancy agreement itself. A covenant or agreement, whether it is in a lease to which section 11 applies or in an agreement collateral to such a lease, is void so far as it purports to exclude or limit the landlord's obligations or the tenant's immunities under section 11, or to authorise a forfeiture or impose any penalty, disability or obligation on the tenant in the event of the tenant enforcing or relying on them. There is one narrow route out, in section 12(2): a county court may, by order made with the consent of the parties, authorise provisions excluding or modifying section 11, where it appears reasonable having regard to all the circumstances of the case. That is a court order, not a clause someone can draft. Section 9A(4) does the same job for the fitness covenant, voiding any provision that purports to exclude or limit it, or to penalise the tenant for relying on it.

Can a landlord charge the tenant for a repair?

Damage the tenant is responsible for is a different thing from the landlord's own repairing duty, and only the first can be charged. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 makes a payment prohibited unless Schedule 1 permits it. Schedule 1 paragraph 5 makes a payment of damages for breach of a tenancy agreement a permitted payment, so the Tenant Fees Act is not what would stop a landlord claiming for damage the tenant is responsible for. That is a point about the category and not about the figure. What can actually be recovered is a separate question, decided by the ordinary law on damages, including whether there was a breach, what it caused and a fair allowance for wear and tear, and by whether the term being relied on is fair under Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. A permitted payment is not the same thing as an established claim. Schedule 1 paragraph 4 permits a payment in the event of a relevant default where the tenancy agreement requires it, and it defines relevant default narrowly: the loss of a key or other security device giving access to the housing, or a failure to pay rent in full before the end of the period of 14 days beginning with the due date. For a lost key, paragraph 4(3) caps the payment at the costs reasonably incurred as a result of the default, and only where those costs are supported by written evidence provided to the person being asked to pay.

What cannot be billed back is the duty itself. A boiler that has reached the end of its life, a roof that has started letting water in, a waste pipe that has failed: those sit in section 11, and section 11(4) and section 12(1) between them stop a tenancy agreement turning them into the tenant's expense. The wider fee rules work the same way, and they are set out in the guide on what the Tenant Fees Act 2019 bans.

How much notice must a landlord give before going in to look at a repair?

Section 11(6) implies a covenant by the tenant that the landlord, or any person authorised by the landlord in writing, may enter the premises comprised in the lease for the purpose of viewing their condition and state of repair. It attaches two conditions to that right, and both of them matter. Entry may be at reasonable times of the day only, and only on giving 24 hours' notice in writing to the occupier. Section 9A(7) and (8) carry the same right and the same two conditions for the fitness covenant.

Two practical points follow from the wording. The notice has to be in writing, so a doorstep conversation is not notice and a written trail is worth keeping. And the right is a right to view the condition and state of repair, which is narrower than a general right of access: it is not a right to come and go, and it does not cover a visit for some other purpose. It is not the provision to rely on for doing the work. Access for the work itself is usually arranged with the tenant, and a landlord who is kept out of a repair they are obliged to carry out should take advice rather than force entry.

Notice is also not a power of entry. The right in section 11(6) is a contractual one, and giving notice does not authorise going in over the tenant's objection. The government's guide for landlords on the 2018 Act says that where a tenant will not give access, landlords should seek legal advice and keep a record of every attempt they made to contact the tenant. The same guidance says that in an emergency a landlord may be entitled to enter on shorter notice.

Our guide to whether a landlord can enter a property without the tenant's permission sets out the access rules in full.

What can a council do if a serious hazard is not dealt with?

Section 2 of the Housing Act 2004 defines a hazard as any risk of harm to the health or safety of an actual or potential occupier of a dwelling or house in multiple occupation arising from a deficiency in the dwelling or house in multiple occupation, or in any building or land in the vicinity, and defines a category 1 hazard as one that reaches or passes a prescribed score under a prescribed method. The hazards, the bands and the method are prescribed by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) Regulations 2005. Section 5 then puts a duty, not a discretion, on the local housing authority: if it considers a category 1 hazard exists on any residential premises it must take the appropriate enforcement action, and where more than one course is available it must take the one it considers most appropriate out of an improvement notice, a prohibition order, a hazard awareness notice, emergency remedial action, an emergency prohibition order, a demolition order, or declaring a clearance area.

For the renter's side of the same rules, see our guide on what a renter can do about damp and mould.

Since 22 June 2026 there is also money attached. A new section 6A of the Housing Act 2004, inserted by paragraph 6 of Part 1 of Schedule 4 to the Renters' Rights Act 2025 and commenced for category 1 hazards by regulation 2(c)(iv) of S.I. 2026/638, lets the authority impose a financial penalty on the responsible person, and section 6A(6) caps it at £7,000. It does not reach every letting. Section 6A(1)(a) limits it to what the Act calls qualifying residential premises, and the inserted section 2B defines those by several routes, not one. Section 2B(2) defines a relevant tenancy as an assured tenancy, an assured agricultural occupancy or a Rent Act 1977 regulated tenancy. Section 2B(1) then brings in a dwelling or house in multiple occupation in England let on a relevant tenancy, or which is supported exempt accommodation; a house in multiple occupation where at least one unit in it is let on a relevant tenancy; a building or part of a building constructed or adapted for use as a house in multiple occupation that is for the time being occupied by a single household on a relevant tenancy or as supported exempt accommodation; certain homelessness accommodation; and the common parts of a building containing one or more of those flats. The exclusions concern social housing where the landlord under the tenancy, or the provider of the accommodation, is a registered provider of social housing. An ordinary standalone company let or holiday let will generally fall outside all of those routes, but the label put on an occupation does not decide it by itself. The responsible person is whoever an improvement notice could have been served on, under section 6A(3), which for most private lettings is the landlord. How it is framed matters, because it is not a charge for having a defect. Section 6A(2) allows the penalty only when the authority is first taking the enforcement action that section 5(1) already requires of it. Section 6A(1)(b) allows it only where, in that authority's opinion, it would have been reasonably practicable for the responsible person to secure the removal of the hazard. Section 6A(1) also leaves out the common parts of a building containing one or more flats. Under section 6A(7) one penalty may cover more than one category 1 hazard on the same premises. Section 6A(9) and Schedule A1 set out the procedure, with a notice of intent and a final notice, the right of appeal, and how the penalty is enforced.

Do the new repair timescales and the Decent Homes Standard apply to private landlords yet?

No, and the dates circulating for this are not law yet. The provision that would extend fixed timescales for remedying hazards to private tenancies is section 60 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, headed "Remedying of hazards occurring in dwelling-houses in England". It rewrites section 10A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 so that the regime reaches leases of less than seven years rather than social housing leases only. Section 60 is not in force for the purpose of imposing repair obligations on private landlords, and section 10A as it stands today applies only to a lease that is a relevant social housing lease, which section 10A(6) defines. Our search of the statutory instruments made under the Act, run on legislation.gov.uk on 12 October 2026, identified three commencement instruments, Commencement No. 1, S.I. 2025/1354, Commencement No. 2, S.I. 2026/421, and Commencement No. 3, S.I. 2026/638, together with the Consequential Amendments Regulations 2026. It returned no Commencement No. 4. Separately from that search, section 10A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 as it stands today reaches only a relevant social housing lease, so nothing under it applies to a private letting.

The Decent Homes Standard sits in section 100. That section inserts sections 2A and 2B into the Housing Act 2004, and lets regulations specify requirements for what the Act calls qualifying residential premises. Those requirements are split in two: type 1 requirements, enforced under section 5, and type 2 requirements, enforced under section 7. The two commencement regulations that touch section 100 are narrow. Regulation 2(a)(iii) of S.I. 2025/1354 commenced section 100(1) and (5) on 27 December 2025 only so far as they give "qualifying residential premises" its meaning in the inserted section 2B, and only for the purposes of the investigatory powers chapter. Regulation 2(c)(iv) and 2(c)(vi) of S.I. 2026/638 are expressly limited to financial penalties relating to category 1 hazards only. Section 145(2) of the Act separately brought it into force for the purposes of making regulations on the day it was passed, so the machinery to make them exists. What does not exist is any requirement: no regulations under section 2A have been made, so no Decent Homes requirement is in force for the private rented sector today. What that means in practice is straightforward. The duties set out above are the ones in force today. A date circulating for either measure is not law until the commencement regulations are made, and for the Decent Homes Standard not until requirements are actually set under section 2A as well. The power to make those regulations existing is not the same thing as a requirement binding a landlord. For the duties the Act did bring in on 1 May 2026, see the guide to what the Renters' Rights Act 2025 put on landlords.

What should a landlord write down when a repair is reported?

There is no prescribed form for this, so what follows is practice rather than law. A dated written record earns its keep in three specific places. Section 11(3) makes the standard of repair depend on the age, character and prospective life of the property and its locality, so what was done and when is the evidence behind that judgement. Paragraph 4(3) of Schedule 1 to the Tenant Fees Act 2019 permits a charge for a lost key only where the cost is supported by written evidence provided to the person paying. And a financial penalty under section 6A of the Housing Act 2004 carries a right of appeal under Schedule A1, and the dates of what happened are part of that record.

In practice that means recording six things.

The date the tenant reported the problem.
What they reported, in their own words.
What was arranged, and when.
Who attended.
The date the work was finished.
The invoice, kept with the rest of it.

The certificates belong in the same record, which is why the landlord compliance checklist and the rules on smoke and carbon monoxide alarms sit next to it rather than in a separate folder. VEYLO X is a software platform for renting and letting in England. What has been built is a place for a landlord to keep records of this kind, dated and in one place, rather than anything that decides whether a repair has been done.

Common questions

Can I ask my tenant to do the repairs instead?

Not for the matters in section 11, apart from the tenant's own duty to use the premises in a tenant-like manner and anything the tenant is entitled to remove. Section 11(4) makes a tenant's repairing covenant of no effect so far as it relates to the section 11 matters, and section 12(1) makes any clause excluding or limiting the duty void unless a county court authorised it. Asking a tenant to arrange a particular job is a different thing from moving the duty itself, which the agreement cannot do.

Do I have to give notice before I inspect?

Yes. The entry right in section 11(6) applies only at reasonable times of the day, and only on 24 hours' notice in writing to the occupier.

Is the £7,000 penalty a fine for having a hazard?

No. Section 6A of the Housing Act 2004 lets an authority impose it only when it first takes the enforcement action it is already required to take, and only where in its opinion it would have been reasonably practicable for the responsible person to secure the removal of the hazard.

Do the new repair timescales apply to me yet?

No. Section 60 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 is the provision that would extend that regime to private tenancies, and it is not in force for the purpose of imposing repair obligations on private landlords. None of the three commencement instruments identified in our search brings it in.

What does VEYLO X do with a repair record?

VEYLO X is a software platform for renting and letting in England. It does not inspect a property and takes no view on whether a repair has been done.

Is the position the same in Wales and Scotland?

No. This guide is about England. Section 13(1ZA) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 disapplies section 11 for a dwelling-house in Wales subject to an occupation contract, because Wales has its own scheme under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, and Scotland and Northern Ireland differ again.

Sources

The primary sources behind this guide. Where the law and a summary disagree, the law is what counts.

This article is general information about letting in England, not legal advice. It reflects the position in England as at October 2026. Section 60 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 is not in force for the purpose of imposing repair obligations on private landlords. Section 100's limited commencement history is explained above, and it does not itself establish binding Decent Homes requirements. Both of those can change when further regulations are made. For the duties that apply to a particular property, see the GOV.UK guidance and take advice on anything that turns on the facts.

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