Letting a home in London in 2026 means following a sequence: certificates and any licence before you advertise, one stated rent in the advert, legal checks on every adult before the tenancy starts, a written statement of terms before the tenancy is agreed, safety certificates by move-in day, and the deposit protected within 30 days of receiving it. Since 1 May 2026 almost every new private tenancy in England is an assured periodic tenancy with no end date, so you can get the property back only on a legal ground (GOV.UK, Assured periodic tenancies: a guide for landlords). This guide walks through each stage and links to our detailed guides where one exists.
It covers private lets in England. If you let a room in the home you live in, you are a resident landlord with a lodger and most of the rules below work differently; the tax side of that is covered under money and tax. It is general information, not legal or tax advice on your situation.
What the London market looks like for a landlord
London’s average private rent was £2,332 a month in August 2026, up 3.5% on a year earlier (ONS, Private rent and house prices, UK: September 2026). That figure covers all private tenancies, old and new, so it runs below what homes are advertised at today: Rightmove’s average London asking rent was a record £2,791 in April to June 2026 (Rightmove Rental Trends Tracker, Q2 2026). The London Rent Index on FTR London gives the ONS figure for each borough and home size, which is a sensible starting point for pricing and later for justifying an increase.
Demand is steady rather than frantic. Rightmove found London had the closest balance of supply and demand of any region, with 8 enquiries per rental home against 10 nationally, and said its first figures since the Renters’ Rights Act showed supply, demand and pricing ‘steady and in-line with seasonal norms’, while calling it ‘still early days’. The pressure is on supply: Knight Frank reports that a growing number of landlords have sold because of the Act (Knight Frank, July 2026).
Yields are thin. London’s average house price was £569,000 in July 2026, down 3.3% in a year (ONS). Twelve months at the average rent, £27,984, is about 4.9% of that price before any costs, tax or empty months. It is a rough figure, because the average rent and the average price describe different mixes of homes, but it explains why the rest of this guide spends so long on costs.
Before you advertise
These must be in place before a tenant moves in, and some before you market the home at all.
| Requirement | The rule | Maximum penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Energy Performance Certificate | Rated E or better, unless a valid exemption is registered | £5,000 per property |
| Gas safety check | By a Gas Safe registered engineer every 12 months; copy to a new tenant before they move in | A criminal offence, prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive: on conviction in the Crown Court, an unlimited fine and up to two years in prison |
| Electrical installation report (EICR) | At least every 5 years; copy to a new tenant before they occupy; remedial work within 28 days, or sooner if the report says | £40,000 |
| Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms | A smoke alarm on every storey with living accommodation; a CO alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance (not gas cookers); checked on the first day of the tenancy | £5,000 |
| Licence, where the council requires one | Mandatory for larger HMOs; selective or additional licensing in many boroughs | £40,000 civil penalty, and rent repayment orders |
Sources: GOV.UK minimum energy efficiency standard guidance; HSE, gas safety for landlords; Electrical Safety Standards Regulations 2020; GOV.UK smoke and CO alarm guidance.
The EPC standard is going up. In January 2026 the government confirmed that every privately rented home must reach EPC C by 1 October 2030, with spending capped at £10,000 per property. It is not law yet: it needs new legislation first (GOV.UK government response). Work you do from 1 October 2025 counts towards the cap, so a landlord planning improvements anyway loses nothing by starting now. Our EPC guide covers the bands and exemptions.
Licensing is where London differs most. Since December 2024 councils have not needed government approval for selective licensing schemes of any size, and many London boroughs run one.
Some examples, with the fee each council publishes: Newham, 22 of 24 wards, £750 for up to five years; Waltham Forest, most wards to April 2030, £895; Lewisham, nearly all privately rented homes, £640; Redbridge, 17 wards, £997.69; and Croydon, whose scheme covering 14 of 28 wards started on 25 September 2026, £800. Westminster’s scheme went live in November 2025, covering designated areas across 15 wards. Check your address with the council before you advertise, because letting without a required licence can cost up to £40,000 and up to two years’ rent in a rent repayment order. Our HMO licensing guide explains the tiers and the minimum room sizes for shared homes.
Check two contracts as well: your mortgage lender’s consent to let, and landlord insurance. Since 1 May 2026, terms in mortgages that ban letting to benefit claimants or families with children have no effect.
Advertising and choosing a tenant
Every written advert must state one specific rent, not a range, and you must not ask for, encourage or accept offers above it. The fine is up to £7,000 per breach (GOV.UK landlord guide). Pricing matters more as a result: set the rent you want, because a bidding war is no longer available to correct it upwards.
You can still reference applicants and judge whether they can afford the rent on their income. What you can’t do is refuse someone because they have children or receive benefits: ‘No DSS’ and ‘no kids’ adverts, and blocking viewings for those reasons, have been unlawful since 1 May 2026, with fines up to £7,000 (Renters’ Rights Act 2025, sections 33 and 34; section 41 keeps income checks lawful). You may ask for a guarantor. You can’t make a tenant pay for a guarantor service, insurance or a deposit replacement product.
Right to Rent checks apply to every adult aged 18 or over who will live in the home, whether or not they are named on the agreement, and to British citizens as well as everyone else. Check original documents in person, use a registered digital verification service, or use a Home Office share code; physical biometric residence permits are no longer accepted. Where someone’s permission is time-limited, check within 28 days before the tenancy starts and diary a follow-up. A first breach can cost up to £10,000 per occupier, a repeat breach £20,000 (GOV.UK, Checking your tenant’s right to rent; Home Office code of practice). A new code of practice takes effect on 1 October 2026.
Our guide to tenant referencing in London shows the process from the renter’s side, which is worth reading before you set your own criteria.
Money you can take, and move-in paperwork
The Tenant Fees Act 2019 limits what you can charge. Take a two-bedroom flat let at London’s ONS average for that size, £2,232 a month in August 2026:
- A holding deposit of at most one week’s rent: about £515. It must be returned within 7 days, or credited to the rent or deposit, unless the applicant gives false or misleading information, withdraws, fails a Right to Rent check, or doesn’t take reasonable steps to agree the tenancy by the deadline (15 days, unless you both agree another date in writing).
- No rent at all before the tenancy agreement is signed, and at most one month’s rent, £2,232, between signing and the start date.
- A tenancy deposit of at most five weeks’ rent: about £2,575. Six weeks applies only where the annual rent is £50,000 or more.
The deposit must be protected in an approved scheme (the Deposit Protection Service, mydeposits or the Tenancy Deposit Scheme) within 30 days, with the prescribed information given in the same 30 days (Housing Act 2004, section 213). Get this wrong and a court must order you to pay the tenant one to three times the deposit, and you can’t obtain possession on most grounds until you put it right. Our guide to deposit protection schemes compares the three.
Before the tenancy is agreed, give the tenant a written statement of its key terms, under regulations made in 2026 (SI 2026/324); failing to can cost up to £7,000. The government’s ‘How to Rent’ guide no longer has to be given: it was withdrawn on 1 May 2026. Before the tenant moves in, give them the gas safety record, the electrical report and the EPC, and make an inventory with photos. It costs little and it is what a deposit adjudicator will rely on at the end.
During the tenancy
Repairs. You are responsible for the structure and exterior, and for the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation, heating and hot water (Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 11), and the home must be fit to live in throughout. To inspect, give at least 24 hours’ written notice and come at a reasonable time. Since 22 June 2026 councils can fine up to £7,000 where a serious (Category 1) hazard could reasonably have been removed. Awaab’s Law, with its fixed repair deadlines, applies to social housing only; extending it to private renting is planned but has no date.
Rent increases. Rent can rise once a year, not in the first year, and only by serving Form 4A at least two months before the new rent starts, even if the tenant has already agreed. Rent review clauses no longer work. A tenant can ask the First-tier Tribunal to decide, and it cannot set a rent above the one you proposed. Evidence helps: if your rent is below the ONS figure for your borough and size, say so.
Pets. A tenant can ask in writing to keep a pet; you must reply in writing within 28 days and can’t refuse unreasonably. A superior lease that bans pets is a reasonable ground; a general dislike of pets usually isn’t. You can’t require pet insurance or a separate pet deposit, but you can claim pet damage from the ordinary deposit.
Money and tax
Individual landlords can’t deduct mortgage interest from rental income. Instead they get a tax reduction worth 20% of it, rising to 22% from 6 April 2027 (GOV.UK, Tax relief for residential landlords; HMRC technical note on the 2027 rates). From the same date property income is taxed at its own rates: 22%, 42% and 47% (Finance Act 2026, section 7).
Take a higher-rate taxpayer with £24,000 of rent, £8,000 of mortgage interest and £4,000 of other allowable costs, and assume all the profit falls in the higher band. In 2026-27 the tax is 40% of £20,000, less 20% of the interest: £8,000 minus £1,600, or £6,400. In 2027-28 it becomes 42% of £20,000, less 22% of the interest: £8,400 minus £1,760, or £6,640. The change costs this landlord £240 a year; the bigger effect is that interest never reduces the taxable profit at all.
- Making Tax Digital started on 6 April 2026 for landlords and sole traders with qualifying income, gross rent and turnover before expenses, over £50,000; it extends to over £30,000 from April 2027 and over £20,000 from April 2028.
- Buying another property carries a stamp duty surcharge of 5 percentage points in England, since 31 October 2024.
- Selling means capital gains tax at 18% or 24% above a £3,000 allowance, reported and paid within 60 days of completion.
- Short lets no longer get special tax treatment (the furnished holiday lettings regime ended in April 2025), and in London a home can be let for under 90 nights at a time for at most 90 nights in a calendar year without planning permission, provided the person letting it is liable for its council tax.
A resident landlord letting a furnished room in their own home can earn up to £7,500 a year tax-free under Rent a Room relief. Our London landlord tax guide goes into each of these, and short let or long let compares the two models.
Ending a tenancy
A tenant can leave with two months’ notice. You can end the tenancy only with a section 8 notice giving a legal ground, followed by a court order if they don’t leave. To sell or to move in yourself or a close relative (Grounds 1A and 1), you must give four months’ notice, and it can’t expire within the first 12 months of the tenancy.
After using either ground you can’t re-let or market the home for about 16 months from serving notice with a standard four-month notice; a breach can cost up to £40,000. The mandatory rent-arrears ground now needs at least three months’ arrears, both at notice and at the hearing. Our guides to the section 8 grounds and to what the Renters’ Rights Act requires of London landlords set out the main grounds and their notice periods.
What is coming, with dates
- 1 October 2026: a new Right to Rent code of practice.
- 6 April 2027: property income rates of 22%, 42% and 47%, and Making Tax Digital for qualifying income over £30,000.
- 15 July to 14 October 2027: London landlords must register themselves and each let property on the new database. The government says the fee will be £65 per property per year; the regulations are still in draft.
- 2028: membership of a landlord ombudsman is expected to become mandatory.
- 1 October 2030: EPC C for every privately rented home, subject to legislation.
- 2035: the Decent Homes Standard is due to apply to private renting.
Letting your home on FTR London
On FTR London you list a home directly and renters contact you directly, without a letting agent in between. Renters can browse homes to rent across London by borough, zone, bedrooms and property type, and check what similar homes rent for in the Rent Index.
How we researched this: legal and tax points checked against GOV.UK, HSE and legislation.gov.uk, and licensing schemes and fees against each council’s website, on 25 September 2026; rents from the ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026); house prices from the ONS UK House Price Index (July 2026).
Correction, 25 September 2026: an earlier version of this guide was written in 2025, before the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 became law. It described the Act as a Bill expected in 2025, section 21 as still available, and the ‘How to Rent’ guide as required; it gave a 2028 date and a £12,000 average cost for EPC C, Right to Rent fines of £3,000 and a 12-month cap on rent repayment orders, and treated furnished holiday lets as a tax option.
It also presented Awaab’s Law repair deadlines as binding on private landlords, suggested pet rent and requiring tenants to buy pet insurance, quoted yields, tenant-enquiry figures and letting times without sources, and said FTR London offers pre-screened tenants and professional marketing, which it does not.
It understated the gas safety penalty as up to £6,000 and six months in prison (on conviction in the Crown Court the fine is unlimited and the prison term up to two years); said a carbon monoxide alarm was needed only with a solid fuel appliance (since October 2022 it is any fixed combustion appliance except a gas cooker); said electrical faults coded C1 or C2 must be fixed immediately (the rule is within 28 days, or sooner if the report says); said landlords could require an additional pet deposit; listed residence permits among Right to Rent documents; expected national landlord registration by summer 2025 (London landlords are due to register between 15 July and 14 October 2027); and gave £30,000 as the maximum fine for licensing and electrical safety breaches, which is now £40,000. The guide has been rewritten to the law in force.
