Tenants guide

Contents

• Overview
• Fees and upfront costs
• Help with your rent 
• Tenant responsibilities 
• Landlord responsibilities 
• Difficulties with your landlord
• Rent arrears 
• Housing standards
  
• Ending your tenancy
• Eviction

Tenant responsibilities

In brief, as a tenant you must:

• pay the rent on time
• consider your neighbours and understand that you are responsible for anyone visiting your property  
• keep the property in a good condition, ensuring your landlord is notified immediately if there are any repair issues. You can get more information from the Shelter website
• give appropriate notice to bring your tenancy to an end - ending a fixed term tenancy

Things as a tenant you should do:

• inform the landlord if you are going to be away from the property for any length of time
• keep the property adequately heated and ventilated to avoid mould and moisture build up
• notify the landlord if you have changed your telephone number
• allow your landlord to inspect the property at reasonable intervals
• allow access to carry out maintenance and repairs as long as you are given adequate notice
• allow for gas safety checks to be carried out

How to rent guidance 

You can find out more about your rights and responsibilities as a private tenant in the GOV.UK how to rent guide. This must be provided by your landlord.

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Next Landlord responsibilities

Page last reviewed: 20 May 2024