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What should I check before I rent a house in England?

Guide · about 3 min read · Covers the law as at November 2026 · Last checked on

Three checks, and none of them is about the money: whether the letting is lawful, who you are actually dealing with, and what the written agreement will tie you to. The money has its own caps and they are worth knowing, but a deposit within the cap on an unlicensed property let by somebody who turns out to have no right to let it, is still a bad position to be in.

Most private renting in England is an assured tenancy, and two of the checks below belong to it: the written statement of terms and deposit protection. Licensing and the energy rating attach to the property, and whether an agent must belong to a redress scheme turns on what they do. Sharing with a resident landlord, social housing, supported housing and accommodation a council arranges are each outside the assured tenancy rules or treated differently, so check which kind of arrangement you have first.

Is the letting lawful?

Start with the licence, and start from the move: search the council's own licensing register for the address before you commit. A house in multiple occupation with five or more occupiers in two or more households needs a licence where it also meets one of the tests article 4 of the 2018 Order prescribes, which is the same everywhere in England and carries its own exception for certain purpose-built flats. A council can go further and designate an area so that smaller shared houses, or ordinary single-family lets, need one too, and those two do depend on the postcode, which is why the register is the place to start and the council itself is who can confirm the position. Our guide to property licensing in England sets out the three kinds and the exclusions.

Then the rating and the records. A landlord generally must not let a home rated below EPC band E unless a valid exemption is registered, which our guide to whether a rental property needs an EPC covers. The gas safety record and the electrical safety report both have their own deadlines for reaching you, and our guide to what to look for when you view a rental property sets out which document is due to you and when.

Who are you actually dealing with?

Two separate questions. Is the landlord the registered owner? The title register answers who is registered, which is not the same question as who may lawfully let the place: a leaseholder with the right to sublet, or somebody authorised to act for the owner, can. Our guide to checking a landlord really owns the property sets out what it does and does not prove.

The second question is about the agent, and one question gets you most of the way. Ask them: which redress scheme are you a member of? The answer should be the name of a scheme you can write down, and the reason it is a fair question is that article 3(1) of the Redress Schemes for Lettings Agency Work and Property Management Work (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc) (England) Order 2014 says a person who engages in lettings agency work must be a member of a redress scheme for dealing with complaints in connection with that work, and article 3(2) limits that to a scheme approved or designated by the Secretary of State. No name is an answer too.

What will you be tied to?

For an assured tenancy you are about to enter into, a written statement of its terms, and it generally comes before you commit. Section 16D(2) of the Housing Act 1988 requires the landlord to give it to you, section 16D(4) says it generally has to come before the tenancy is entered into, and regulations set what it has to cover. That timing is the useful part: it is your chance to put what you were told at the viewing and what the agreement actually says side by side.

Read it for the things that are hard to undo. Whether the tenancy is joint, and what it says about who owes the rent. What is metered separately from the rent. What the agreement says about the condition the property has to be given back in, which is where a deposit dispute often starts. Keeping what you are given is part of what VEYLO X is for. VEYLO X is a software platform for renting and letting in England, where the landlord writes the tenancy record, VEYLO X keeps it, and the renter sees the same one. The renter profile is free for renters. It does not assess anyone, does not decide any outcome, and takes no part in whether a tenancy goes ahead.

The money is a separate job, and the caps and the deadlines are in our guide to what to know when renting for the first time in England, and section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 is the one to remember: a deposit has to be dealt with under an authorised scheme from the time it is received, and within 30 days of that day the landlord has to meet the scheme's initial requirements and give you the prescribed information.

Common questions

What should I check before renting a house?

Three things that are not about the money. Whether the letting is lawful: whether the property needs a council licence and has one, whether its energy rating clears the minimum or a valid exemption is registered, and whether the gas and electrical records exist. Who you are dealing with: whether the person letting it has the right to let it, which is not the same as being the registered owner, and, if there is an agent, which redress scheme they belong to, because article 3(1) of the Redress Schemes for Lettings Agency Work and Property Management Work (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc) (England) Order 2014 says a person who engages in lettings agency work must be a member of one. And what you will be tied to, which is what the written statement of terms is for.

Does a letting agent have to belong to a redress scheme?

Yes, where what they do is lettings agency work within the statutory definition, and article 4 of the Order sets out exclusions. Article 3(1) says a person who engages in that work must be a member of a redress scheme for dealing with complaints in connection with it, and article 3(2) limits that to a scheme approved or designated by the Secretary of State. So asking which scheme an agent belongs to is a fair question, and the answer should be the name of a scheme.

What should I get in writing before I agree to rent?

For an assured tenancy you are about to enter into, a written statement of its terms. Section 16D(2) of the Housing Act 1988 requires the landlord to give you one, section 16D(4) says it generally has to come before the tenancy is entered into, and regulations set what it has to cover. Read it against what you were told at the viewing, because that is your chance to put the two side by side.

Sources

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

This article is general information, not legal advice. It reflects the position in England as at November 2026: the main Renters' Rights Act 2025 tenancy provisions took effect on 1 May 2026, and a few further measures are still to be commenced, so some detail may have changed since. It does not cover how a tenancy is ended. Free advice is available from Shelter and Citizens Advice for your own situation.

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