Becoming a landlord — a step-by-step guide

Letting isn't always the right move. It can be — for some properties, in some markets, it makes more financial sense than selling, especially if the alternative is taking a loss after a slow market or paying capital gains tax on a recent gain. But it's a long-term commitment that demands time, capital, and a stronger stomach than most people expect. Start with the maths. Take the realistic monthly rent (we can value yours; agents in your area can too), multiply by twelve, subtract everything that will leave your account in a typical year — letting agent fees, insurance, gas and electrical safety certificates, repairs, the odd void week — and compare what's left against the equity you'd free up by selling. If the net annual figure is less than three or four per cent of the property's value, you may be better off selling and investing the proceeds elsewhere. Then think about your tolerance for the unglamorous bits: a boiler that fails at Christmas, a tenant who stops paying in month seven, an EICR that flags eight thousand pounds of remedial work. None of these are common, but all of them happen. A good agent absorbs most of them; a self-managing landlord absorbs them personally. If you're letting because you've inherited the property, or because you're moving in with a partner and renting their place for now, those are perfectly sensible reasons — but treat it as a business decision rather than a holding pattern, because the obligations are the same either way.

Before any tenant moves in there's a stack of paperwork to get straight. Most of it is routine once you've done it a couple of times; all of it carries real consequences if it slips. A valid Gas Safety Certificate, renewed every twelve months by a Gas Safe-registered engineer, is the most familiar one. The Electrical Installation Condition Report — the EICR — has been mandatory for new tenancies in England since 2020 and needs renewing every five years. You'll also need an Energy Performance Certificate of at least band E, though that minimum rises to band C from 1 October 2030 with a £10,000 spending cap per property. If you're currently sitting on a D or below it's worth starting to plan the upgrade now rather than scrambling closer to the deadline. Inside the property itself, there should be a working smoke alarm on every storey and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance. Boilers count; gas cookers don't. All of them tested on day one of the tenancy. Until the Renters' Rights Act, the government's How to Rent guide had to be issued to every new tenant; that requirement has gone — the key information now forms a written statement within the tenancy agreement itself. And you need to have carried out a documented Right to Rent check on every adult moving in — penalties for missed checks were uplifted in February 2024 and now run to £10,000 per occupier for a first breach, £20,000 for a repeat within three years. The deposit itself has to be protected within thirty days of you receiving it, in one of three government-approved schemes — DPS, MyDeposits, or TDS — and the tenant served with the scheme's prescribed information in the same window. Since 1 May 2026 the Renters' Rights Act 2025 has added a fresh layer on top of all this. Every tenancy is now an assured periodic tenancy (APT) from day one, no-fault eviction has been abolished, rent can only be raised once a year by a Section 13 notice, and tenants have a statutory right to request a pet that you can't unreasonably refuse. The new mandatory Property Portal and PRS Ombudsman are being rolled out in stages from late 2026. If any of this is unfamiliar, our [compliance checklist](/guides/compliance-checklist) goes through each certificate in turn, and the [Renters' Rights Act guide for landlords](/guides/renters-rights-act-for-landlords) walks through the 2026 changes in detail.

Rental profit is taxable income. You declare it on a Self Assessment return — by 31 October on paper, 31 January online for the previous tax year — and it stacks on top of any salary, pension, or other taxable income, pushing some of your earnings into a higher band. Allowable expenses are deducted before tax: letting agent fees, repairs (not improvements), insurance, ground rent and service charges, council tax during voids, accountancy fees, and the cost of advertising for tenants. Mortgage capital repayments aren't allowable; mortgage interest gets the Section 24 treatment described below. Section 24 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2015 phased out the deduction of mortgage interest from rental profits between 2017 and 2020. Individual landlords now get only a basic-rate (20%) tax credit on interest, regardless of their own band. For a higher-rate landlord on a heavily-mortgaged property this can mean paying tax on a notional profit even when the cash flow is break-even. It's the single biggest reason landlords incorporate into a limited company, which isn't caught by Section 24 — but incorporation has its own costs and pitfalls. Capital Gains Tax bites on disposal. Any period the property was your only or main residence reduces the gain proportionally. Current CGT residential rates are 18% within the basic-rate band and 24% above it. You must report the gain and pay it within 60 days of completion via HMRC's online service — late returns attract penalties regardless of the tax position. None of the above is advice. The Section 24 / incorporation question alone is worth a conversation with a chartered accountant before you buy a second property — a few hundred pounds in fees usually pays for itself within a year. Our [tax guide](/guides/tax-and-accounting-for-landlords) covers the basics in more detail.

The decision usually comes down to time and tolerance, not money. A fully-managed service typically costs 10–15% of rent plus VAT in our area; a let-only service is a one-off fee of 8–10% of the first year's rent. On a £1,500 pcm let, that's roughly £180 a month for full management or £1,440 up front to find a tenant and walk away. Self-managing works well if you live close to the property, you're comfortable handling tenant calls and tradespeople directly, and you have the appetite to stay on top of compliance dates. It works badly if you're juggling work, family, and a property forty miles away — or if a single avoidable mistake (a missed Right to Rent check, a deposit registered late) would cost more than a year of management fees. What a good agent earns its fee on isn't the obvious work — marketing, viewings, contracts — but the rest: knowing which tradespeople pick up the phone on a Sunday, spotting a poor reference before it becomes a court case, serving the right notice on the right form. The Renters' Rights Act has made the procedural side materially harder; a let-only landlord in 2026 is taking on more than they were in 2024. If you do self-manage, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) is the single best resource — membership pays for itself in template documents alone. If you choose an agent, ask which redress scheme they belong to (The Property Ombudsman or Property Redress), whether they hold client money protection, and how many properties their property managers each carry.

The first thirty days move quickly, and roughly in this order. Marketing goes live once we've taken the photographs, written the listing, and confirmed all the certificates are in date. Most properties priced sensibly attract a viewing within forty-eight hours of going up. Viewings then run for one to two weeks; we accompany every one. Offers tend to come either at the viewing itself or within twenty-four hours of it, and strong properties in central Worthing or BN1 will routinely receive more than one. You decide which offer to accept, and we'll talk you through the trade-offs — covenant strength, move-in date, any pet request, the length of stay the tenant is hoping for. The chosen tenant pays a holding deposit, capped at one week's rent, which takes the property off the market for fifteen days while referencing runs. Referencing checks identity, employment income (usually thirty times the monthly rent on an annual basis), the previous landlord, and any adverse credit. About one in fifteen pulls comes back with a flag — most often a missed payment that needs a guarantor or a slightly higher up-front rent. We always talk to you before recommending either. The tenancy agreement is then drawn up, signed electronically by both parties, and the deposit (capped at five weeks' rent) and first month's rent both clear in our account before keys are released. The check-in inventory happens either on the day of move-in or the day before — alarms tested, meter readings noted, deposit registered with DPS within thirty days. After that the property manager takes over. Rent collection, monthly statements, repairs, the annual gas inspection. You hear from us when you need to.