The Goal of This Checklist:
The Landlord Compliance Checklist aims to quickly distil crucial snippets of knowledge to Scottish landlords looking to rent their property out.
Rental property compliance in Scotland is a minefield of legislation, regulations, and codes of practice.
It can be very overwhelming trying to learn what your responsibilities are as a landlord, given that rules aren’t in one convenient place.
Our Landlord Compliance Checklist exists to serve as a guide for landlords who want to rent their buy-to-let property out safely, and legally.
What are a Scottish Landlord’s Responsibilities?
When you decide to let your property out to a tenant, you automatically assume a boatload of legal responsibilities as a landlord.
It can be very overwhelming to fresh-faced landlords entering “the property game” if they’re largely unaware of the legal responsibilities soon to be rigidly fixed upon their shoulders.
Most of your responsibilities are detailed in UK Legislation (Our Landlord Compliance Checklist focuses primarily on Scottish legislation), such as the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, and the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, but there are large amounts of supplementary regulations and standards which you must adhere to.
We’re going to stick to what we know best – property compliance – and cover the key things you need to know to let your property out safely, and legally.
The Landlord Compliance Checklist
Our Landlord Compliance Checklist contains all the information you need to know to have a fully compliant rental property in no time.
For ease of reading, we’ve split our Landlord Compliance Checklist into 5 different categories:
The Bricks & Mortar
- The Building Must be Structurally Sound
- The Property Mustn’t Pose Health Risks to the Tenant
- A Valid EPC Must be In Place
- There Must be an Adequate Heating System
The Electrics
- Electrical Wiring Must Meet British Standards
- Electrical Appliances Must Meet British Standards
- Electrics Must be Inspected, Regularly
Fire Safety
- There Must be Means for Detecting Fire
- All Smoke & Heat Alarms Should be Inspected, Regularly
- Fire Fighting Equipment Must Be Supplied in Special Buildings
- Emergency Lighting Must Be Installed in Special Buildings
Gas Safety
- The Gas Installation Must Be Safe
- Pipes Must Be Secure
- A CP12 Gas Safety Certificate Must Be in Place
- Gas Safety Inspections Must Occur Yearly
- Carbon Monoxide Alarms Are (Probably) Required
The Plumbing
Things to Know Before We Dive In
Our Landlord Compliance Checklist will repeatedly reference “the repairing standard”, and the “the tolerable standard“.
These standards are defined in Scottish Legislation, and it would be wise for any landlord to learn about these standards before commencing their property letting adventure.
Here are links to these definitions in Scottish Legislation:
- The Repairing Standard – Section 13 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006
- The Tolerable Standard – Section 86 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987
Don’t fancy reading legislation?
Here’s the one-line summary:
Your property, and the things inside it, must be in a reasonable state of repair and in proper working order.
With that being said, let’s dive in!
The Bricks & Mortar
1. The Building Must be Structurally Sound
This is so obvious; we’ll make this quick.
Your rental property MUST be structurally sound to meet Scotland’s Repairing Standard and Tolerable Standard. This means it must be stable, it’s interior and exterior must be in a reasonable state of repair, and that pipes, gutters, and drains are secured properly, and functioning as intended.
All buildings in Scotland, including rental properties, must also be constructed in such a way to minimize likelihood of:
- Collapse of the building, or part of the building
- Deformations of the building, introducing danger
- Impairing the stability of another building
Learn more with the Scottish Government’s technical handbook for domestic buildings in Scotland:
2. The Property Mustn’t Pose Health Risks to the Tenant
Health risks in rental properties can come in a variety of forms – from fire outbreak, to electrocution, to carbon monoxide poisoning – and it is YOUR responsibility as the landlord to protect your tenant against all of them.
Of course, there are potential dangers within your rental property which you have no control over – your tenant choking on a chip for example.
It’s only your responsibility to make all REASONABLE efforts to eliminate dangers posed to your tenant within your property.
Examples of ways you can meet this requirement are:
- Having your property assessed by a qualified domestic assessor before tenants move in
- Having testing carried out at your property on a regular basis. Specifically:
- Testing of electrical wiring
- Testing of electrical appliances
- Testing of boiler + heating system
- Testing of carbon monoxide Alarms (s)
- Testing of water system
- Testing of fire-detection system
The legislation doesn’t specify every minute thing a landlord needs to do to satisfy the law, but historical cases have shown that the law tends to side with common sense.
If something seems like it MIGHT be dangerous to your tenant, it probably deserves attention right away.
3. A Valid EPC Must be In Place
Landlords cannot legally allow a tenant move into their property without an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) being in place.
An EPC is needed to show that your rental property meets Scotland’s energy efficiency requirements.
In Scotland, rental properties should have a minimum Energy Efficiency Rating of D.
In 2025, the minimum standard will increase from D to C, so prepare early!
4. There Must be an Adequate Heating System
To satisfy the Tolerable Standard & Repairing Standard, a system for heating the rooms, and the water, within your rental property must be present, and in a reasonable state of repair and in proper working order.
If there is a problem with the heating in your rental property, your tenant should let you (or us, if you’re using any of our service packages for landlords) know about it, then it becomes your responsibility to arrange for repairs to that heating system.
The Housing Health and Safety Rating System gives between 18oC to 21oC as an example of a healthy indoor temperature for properties in England and Wales.
Although, Scots are probably more accustomed to the cold than their English siblings, so perhaps we should adjust the reasonable temperature range for a Scottish rental property to be 17oC to 20oC ?
Of course, these temperatures are just rough guidance, and needn’t be analysed by the minute.
Just make sure your heating works, and that there are no other problems which would cause extreme highs/lows in temperature, and you’ll be good.
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The Electrics
5. Electrical Wiring Must Meet British Standards
There are a lot of British Standards.
Check out the list of them on Wikipedia: List of British Standards
Without going deep into electrical technicalities, as a landlord, it’s sufficient to know the following:
- The electrical wiring inside your buy-to-let property MUST be safe for continual everyday use.
- Landlords need an EICR certificate which confirms the safety of their property’s electrical installation.
To find out if the electrical installation inside your property is safe, and meets British Standards, you’ll need to arrange for an Electrical Installation Condition Report to take place at your property.
An Electrical Installation Condition Report involves a qualified electrician inspecting your property’s electrical installation. The electrician will perform a range of electrical tests before creating an EICR Certificate which verifies that the electrical installation in your property is satisfactory, and safe for tenants.
6. Electrical Appliances Must Meet British Standards
All electrical appliances in your rental property must be in a reasonable state of repair and in proper working order.
This must be maintained for the entire duration of any tenancy.
Landlords are required to arrange regular inspections of the electrical appliances within their property.
A record must be made of all appliances tested, including the results of each test.
Appliances that fail a portable appliance test should be replaced or removed immediately.
7. Electrics Must be Inspected, Regularly
Because things degrade over time, landlords are required to renew their property’s EICR certificate every 5 years.
Electrical inspections must be carried out by a competent person, and the landlord must provide their tenants with a copy of the most recent EICR.
Letting tenants live in your property without a satisfactory EICR certificate in place is an offence, and could see landlords fined up to £1,000, or more!
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Fire Safety
8. There Must be Means for Detecting Fire
To meet the Tolerable Standard and Repairing Standard, ALL properties in Scotland must have equipment for detecting, and giving warning of fire.
The standard which applies to ALL homes in Scotland is:
- One smoke alarm in the main living-room
- One smoke alarm in the hallway & every landing
- One heat alarm in every kitchen
- All smoke & heat alarm interlink
9. All Smoke & Heat Alarms Should be Inspected, Regularly
Landlords should follow the advice of the manufacturers of the alarms in their rental properties, and most manufacturers advise regular testing to ensure they are working as intended.
Couple this with the landlords responsibility to ensure their properties can detect and give warning of fire, and it’s clear that landlords ought to have the smoke & heat alarms in their rental property tested regularly to ensure they continue to operate as intended for the entire duration of any tenancy.
It’s a good idea to have a certificate completed once your smoke & heat alarms have been inspected by a competent assessor.
This proves your property meets UK & Scottish standards at the time of inspection.
If your property’s smoke alarm installation is unsatisfactory, improvement suggestions should be provided by the assessor.
The 3 most common things we come across which render a rental property’s fire detection & alert system unsatisfactory are:
- Expired alarms (should typically be replaced every 10 years)
- Alarms not interlinking
- Alarms installed too close to obstructions (walls, lights, storage, etc)
10. Fire Fighting Equipment Must Be Supplied in Special Buildings
If your property is a HMO, it is subject to even MORE legislation, including:
Part of your extended responsibility as a HMO landlord is to meet a higher standard of fire safety, which, among other things, means you need to provide fire-fighting equipment which meets British Standards.
We’ll skip straight to what you want to know: What does my HMO need?
The MINIMUM acceptable provision of fire-fighting equipment in most HMOs is:
- One Fire Extinguisher in the hallway
- One Fire Blanket in the kitchen
This is the minimum when applied to the average HMO and would not be acceptable in a larger / more complex building.
Fire fighting equipment should be clearly visible, easily accessible, and identified by signage.
It’s not enough that fire-fighting equipment is present in your rental property if you neglect to maintain/service it. Your tenant needs to know that the fire fighting equipment present is capable of stopping a fire if one broke out in your property.
It’s advised that you have all the fire safety equipment in your HMO rental property installed and inspected by a competent assessor who will provide a certificate following the inspection.
11. Emergency Lighting Must Be Installed in Special Buildings
This is an area of property compliance we repeatedly see HMO property owners fall short.
Section 13(2) of The Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006 explains that all HMO emergency routes and exits must be provided with emergency lighting, and must be identified with signs.
When we’re doing works in HMOs, we often notice that the emergency route has inadequate emergency lighting or signage.
The 2 most common problems we identify are:
- Absence of emergency lighting in escape routes
- Emergency lighting failing to activate in testing conditions (when deprived of mains power)
Imagine the REAL worst-case scenario:
A quickly growing fire originating from the fuse-board in the middle of the night, cutting power in the property, it filling with smoke rapidly, etc…
There ARE technicalities with Emergency Lights which determine whether they are satisfactory or not, but we won’t discuss them in this (what was supposed to be a) short article. In the interests of attempting to keep this article short, we’ll leave you with this rule-of-thumb:
If it seems inadequate, it probably is, and if it seems adequate (with worst case scenario in mind), it probably is, but your personal judgement will never be as satisfactory to a court as a certificate from a competent fire-safety assessor.
By having your emergency lighting tested and certified by a company like Quinnergy, you’re directly, provably, upholding your duty as a HMO landlord to ensure your tenants are safe according to the standards of Scottish legislation.
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Gas Safety
12. The Gas Installation Must Be Safe
Landlords are required, by Section 36 of The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, to ensure their gas appliances and flues must be maintained in a safe condition.
This effectively means that your boiler / heating system needs to be safe to your tenants all year round.
We specify “all year” because this legislation specifically directs landlords to have Gas Safety Inspections conducted every year at each of their buy-to-let properties.
Jump to number 14 on this list to learn more about landlord gas safety inspections.
13. Pipes Must Be Secure
We’re including this because we come across inadequately secured pipes on rental properties surprisingly often.
Section (13)(1)(b) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 specifies that “external pipes” must be in a reasonable state of repair and in proper working order – the same is true for drains and gutters.
A gas safety inspection includes an inspection of external pipes, and any defects will be included on the resulting gas safety certificate, which we’ll go over next.
14. A CP12 Gas Safety Certificate Must Be in Place
Before any tenant moves into their new rental home, you, as the landlord, must have a gas safety certificate in place which proves that the gas installation in that property is safe.
The certificate should be completed following a gas safety inspection by a Gas Safe registered gas engineer, and contain all information relevant to the condition of your gas installation.
A gas safety certificate will contain information such as
- The date of the inspection
- A description of and the location of each appliance or flue checked
- Defects identified
- Remedial action taken (if any)
- Results from a series of gas-safety tests
To learn more about the gas safety inspection process, use one of the links below:
To read our article on Gas Safety Inspections, CLICK HERE
To watch our video on Gas Safety Inspections, CLICK HERE
15. Gas Safety Inspections Must Occur Yearly
As a landlord, you’re obligated to have a gas safety inspection conducted on an annual basis.
It is YOUR responsibility to instruct a gas safe registered gas engineer to do this on your behalf.
After a gas safety inspection has taken place at your rental property, you should be provided with a CP12 Gas Safety Certificate, which is valid for one year, but should be kept for 2 years as instructed by Section 36(3)(c) of The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.
Tenants must be given a copy of each gas certificate within 28 days of the safety check.
If your property is unlikely to host tenants for more than 28 days at a time (eg: Air BnB / Booking.com), the gas safety certificate may instead be prominently displayed for tenants to see.
16. Carbon Monoxide Alarms Are (Probably) Required
In Scotland, in all properties, all rooms containing a fixed combustion appliance (excluding those used solely for cooking) MUST contain a carbon monoxide alarm, and this extends to rooms which have a flue running through it.
The carbon monoxide detectors in your property should be either:
- ceiling mounted and at least 300-500 mm from any wall (unless otherwise indicated by the manufacturer;
or - wall mounted and positioned at least 150 mm below the ceiling and higher than any door or window in the room (unless otherwise indicated by the manufacturer).
For more detailed information on carbon monoxide detectors, check out this helpful guigance from the Scottish Government: Tolerable Standard Guidance: Satisfactory Fire Detection and Satisfactory Carbon Monoxide Detection
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The Plumbing
17. There Must Be an Adequate Piped Supply of Wholesome Water Available
This title is straight out the legislation itself, making it yet another requirement which must be met for your property to meet the tolerable standard in Scotland.
The legislation also states that all Scottish Properties must have “a sink provided with a satisfactory supply of both hot and cold water”.
Meanwhile, under a separate piece of UK legislation (Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974), you are made responsible for ensuring that your tenants are not exposed to risks to their health or safety.
The Health and Safety Executive have released the following document to help landlords avoid inflicting risk to their tenants in the form of legionellosis– a pneumonia-like illness caused by legionella bacteria:
Legionnaires’ Disease A Brief Guide for Dutyholders
Put simply: it’s YOUR responsibility to ensure your tenants don’t become ill due to an unhygienic, or unmaintained, water system.
18. Water Pipes Shouldn’t Have Dead-Ends
Specifically, the water pipes in your rental properties which are carrying drinking water to your tenants for consumption shouldn’t have dead-ends (sometimes referred to as dead-legs).
This is because if water enters these dead-ended pipes, the water may stagnate until it turns toxic to your tenants.
Stagnating water may pose a variety of health risks to your tenant, including the above-mentioned legionellosis.
Whether your tenant contracts legionnaire’s disease due to the inadequate piping in your property, or any other disease, is irrelevant. What matters is your responsibility to ensure your tenants aren’t exposed to risks to their health or safety as a result of the condition of your property.
Many landlords, to prevent water-based risks to their tenant’s health & safety, arrange a Legionella Risk Assessment at their rental properties.
A Legionella Risk Assessment assesses the condition and quality of your property’s water system, after which you will be provided with a certificate detailing the overall condition of your water system, as well as any defects which could pose a threat to the health & safety of your tenant(s).
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Effortless Letting with Quinnergy
Quinnergy was started with the sole mission of completing safety inspections, and safety certificates, for landlords.
We’ve completed tens of thousands of certificates for our clients over the 5 years in business, and if you look at any review site, you’ll see that we have a good record of keeping our clients happy ?
We offer Compliance Packages for Landlords
Our Compliance Packages mean that you never need to worry about the safety of your rental property ever again.
When you sign up to one of our packages, we reach out to your tenants to arrange ALL the safety inspections you require, arrange key-pickup with letting agents if necessary, then complete all inspections, works, and safety certificates, often all in less than 24 hours.
Check out our Compliance Packages for Landlords by CLICKING HERE
If you think we could help you – if you’ve read everything up to now, we’re sure we can!
☎️ Give us a call: 0141 459 0456
Or
Send us an Email: admin@quinnergy.co.uk
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Do You Think We’ve Missed Anything?
This is, of course, not an exhaustive list of ALL your responsibilities and obligations as a landlord. Most of the items on our Landlord Compliance Checklist relate to problems we solve for landlords, however, if we’ve missed anything that you think is too valuable to be left out, reach out, and there’s a good chance we’ll add your suggestion to our Landlord Compliance Checklist.
If you have suggestions for additions or improvements to The Landlord Compliance Checklist, use the suggestion box below.
In Summary
YOU, as a landlord, are responsible for maintaining your property to ensure the health and safety of your tenants.
MOST areas of landlord compliance are obvious (most landlords know their electrics need to be safe, and that fire alarms should be installed), but there are many technical details that could trip you up if you aren’t careful.
We hope this list is immensely useful to you in your buy-to-let venture.
Consider saving/bookmarking this list so it can help you in the future ?
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