Managing a rental property involves more paperwork than simply keeping a copy of the tenancy agreement. Landlords may need records covering the tenancy, deposit, property safety, maintenance, inspections and communication with tenants.
Keeping these documents organised can make it much easier to manage a property, demonstrate compliance and find important information when it is needed.
The exact documents you need depend on where the property is located, the type of property and the tenancy or occupation contract involved. Rules differ between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
What documents should a landlord keep?
As a practical starting point, landlords should consider keeping organised records of:
- Tenancy agreements or occupation contracts
- Tenant and contact information
- Deposit protection records
- Gas safety records
- Electrical safety reports
- Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs)
- Right to Rent records where applicable
- Inventories and check-in/check-out reports
- Property inspection records
- Maintenance and repair records
- Rent and payment records
- Relevant licences
- Correspondence with tenants
- Contractor invoices and certificates
- Insurance documents
Some of these documents are subject to specific legal requirements, while others are useful records that can help demonstrate what happened during a tenancy.
Let’s look at them in more detail.
1. Tenancy agreement or occupation contract
Keep a copy of the agreement governing each tenancy for your records, together with any later variations, renewals or other relevant written information.
This establishes important information such as who occupies the property, the rent and the terms applying to the tenancy.
The terminology and requirements vary across the UK. For example, Wales uses occupation contracts under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act rather than the tenancy arrangements used in England.
For new tenancies in England from 1 May 2026, landlords are also required to give tenants specified written information about key tenancy terms. This information may be incorporated into a written tenancy agreement or provided separately.
Keep together:
- Signed agreement or written statement
- Amendments or variations
- Renewal information
- Relevant notices
- Records of important changes to the tenancy
2. Tenant information
Keep the information you legitimately need to manage the tenancy, such as the tenant’s name and contact information.
There may also be additional records depending on where the property is situated.
For example, landlords in England are required to carry out Right to Rent checks for relevant adult occupiers. Right to Rent does not apply in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
Where Right to Rent applies, landlords should follow current Home Office guidance on conducting the check and retaining the required evidence.
Remember that tenant records contain personal information, so they should be stored securely and handled in accordance with applicable data protection requirements.
3. Deposit protection records
If you take a tenancy deposit, keep a clear record of:
- The amount received
- Date received
- Deposit protection scheme used
- Deposit reference or certificate
- Information supplied to the tenant
- Any correspondence relating to deductions or repayment
Deposit requirements vary across the UK, so landlords should check the rules applicable to the location of their property.
In England, landlords have responsibilities to protect qualifying deposits in a government-approved tenancy deposit scheme.
Keeping all deposit information alongside the tenancy record makes it considerably easier to find later, particularly when the tenancy ends.
4. Gas safety records
Where a rental property has relevant gas appliances, gas safety documentation is particularly important.
Keep copies of each gas safety record rather than simply replacing the previous certificate when a new inspection is completed.
This gives you a history of the property’s gas safety checks.
In Wales, for example, landlords must arrange annual gas safety inspections where applicable and provide the required record to the contract-holder.
A useful property record should therefore show:
Property → Gas safety record → Inspection date → Expiry/renewal date → Document
This makes upcoming compliance dates much easier to identify.
5. Electrical safety reports
Electrical safety documentation should also form part of the permanent record you maintain for each rental property.
This may include:
- Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICRs)
- Electrical Installation Certificates where applicable
- Evidence of remedial work
- Contractor invoices
- Confirmation supplied to tenants
Requirements differ across the UK.
For example, landlords in Wales must ensure relevant rented homes have a valid electrical condition report and provide copies to contract-holders within specified periods. Rent Smart Wales also recommends checking the report’s actual reinspection date because an electrician may specify an interval shorter than five years.
That last point demonstrates why simply writing “EICR – every five years” in a spreadsheet isn’t always sufficient. The document itself and its stated dates matter.
6. Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
Keep the current Energy Performance Certificate for each applicable property.
An EPC provides information about a property’s energy efficiency and is one of the documents landlords may be required to provide when renting a property. GOV.UK lists providing an EPC among a landlord’s responsibilities in England.
Rather than storing the EPC somewhere separately, keep it with the rest of that property’s compliance records so its details can be found easily.
7. Inventory and check-in records
A detailed property inventory can be extremely useful even where the particular format is not prescribed by law.
An inventory might record:
- Furniture and furnishings
- Fixtures and fittings
- Existing damage
- Condition of walls and flooring
- Appliances
- Meter readings
- Keys provided
- Photographs of the property
Keep the original inventory together with photographs, acknowledgement from the tenant where applicable, and subsequent check-in or check-out documentation.
This creates a much clearer record of the property’s condition over the course of a tenancy.
8. Property inspection records
If you carry out routine property inspections, keep a record of them.
For each inspection, consider recording:
- Property
- Date
- Person carrying out the inspection
- General condition
- Maintenance issues identified
- Photographs where appropriate
- Actions required
- Follow-up work
- Date the issue was resolved
Inspection records can help create a useful timeline of what was identified and what action was taken.
They can also make maintenance much easier to manage across several properties.
9. Maintenance and repair records
Maintenance records are among the easiest landlord documents to lose because information often ends up scattered between emails, text messages, invoices and notes.
For significant maintenance issues, consider keeping:
Date reported → Issue → Property → Action taken → Contractor → Completion date → Supporting documents
You may also want to retain:
- Tenant repair reports
- Photographs
- Quotes
- Contractor details
- Invoices
- Guarantees
- Certificates
- Correspondence about the repair
Accurate written records can be particularly valuable if there is later disagreement about when an issue was reported or how it was handled. Rent Smart Wales, for example, recommends keeping accurate records of repair issues and confirming relevant discussions in writing.
10. Rent and financial records
Landlords should maintain organised financial records relating to their rental properties.
Depending on your circumstances, these may include:
- Rent received
- Rent statements
- Expenses
- Contractor invoices
- Maintenance costs
- Insurance
- Agent fees
- Property-related bills
- Receipts
- Tax records
Financial and tax record requirements are a separate subject in their own right, so check current HMRC requirements or obtain professional tax advice for your circumstances.
The important organisational principle is to make it possible to identify which transaction relates to which property.
11. Licences and registrations
Some landlords or rental properties require licences or registrations depending on their location and circumstances.
Keep copies of any applicable:
- Landlord registration
- Property licence
- HMO licence
- Selective licence
- Additional licence
- Licence conditions
- Renewal correspondence
Again, requirements differ significantly by area.
For example, landlords in Wales are subject to the Rent Smart Wales registration and licensing framework, while other licensing schemes may be administered locally.
Always check the requirements that apply to the specific location and type of property you let.
12. Communication with tenants
Not every email or message needs to become a permanent property record, but important communication should be retained.
That could include correspondence concerning:
- Repairs
- Property inspections
- Rent changes
- Complaints
- Access arrangements
- Tenancy changes
- Deposit matters
- Notices
- Compliance documentation
The objective isn’t to save every conversation forever. It’s to maintain a clear record of significant decisions and events relating to the tenancy.
How should landlords organise their documents?
A simple approach is to create a separate record for each property and organise information into consistent sections.
For example:
Property
→ Tenancy
→ Tenants
→ Compliance
→ Documents
→ Maintenance
→ Inspections
→ Inventory
→ Financial records
If you manage several properties, consistency becomes particularly important.
A document named EICR.pdf might make sense today.
Six months later, when you have five properties and several versions of the same document, it becomes much harder to know what belongs where.
A good property management system should let you quickly answer questions such as:
Which property does this document relate to?
When was it issued?
When does it need renewing?
What maintenance is outstanding?
Where is the previous report?
That’s more useful than simply having a large folder full of PDFs.
How long should landlords keep documents?
There isn’t one universal retention period covering every landlord document.
Different records can have different statutory, tax, regulatory and practical retention requirements. The appropriate period can also depend on which part of the UK the property is in and what type of document it is.
For that reason, landlords shouldn’t assume that every document can be deleted when a tenant moves out.
A sensible approach is to establish a retention policy covering each type of record and check the relevant official guidance before deleting documents that may be required for compliance, tax or legal purposes.
Personal information should also not be kept indefinitely simply because it might be useful one day.
Do landlords need to keep paper copies?
Not necessarily for every document.
Many landlord records can be stored digitally, provided the format and storage method meet any requirements applicable to that particular record.
Digital record keeping can actually make managing several properties easier because documents can be associated with the correct property and retrieved without searching through physical folders.
Whichever method you use, important records should be secure, backed up and easy to retrieve.
A landlord document checklist
For each rental property, consider whether you have an organised record of:
✓ Tenancy agreement or occupation contract
✓ Tenant information
✓ Deposit documentation
✓ Gas safety records where applicable
✓ Electrical safety reports
✓ EPC
✓ Right to Rent evidence where applicable
✓ Inventory and check-in records
✓ Inspection records
✓ Maintenance and repairs
✓ Rent and financial records
✓ Licences and registrations where applicable
✓ Important tenant correspondence
✓ Contractor documents, invoices and certificates
The exact documents required will depend on the property and where it is located.
Keeping landlord records organised with Propiva
As a property portfolio grows, keeping documents in separate folders, inboxes and spreadsheets can become difficult to manage.
Propiva is designed to bring important property information together, allowing landlords to keep property details, tenant information, documents, compliance records, maintenance and inventory information organised by property.
That means the information relating to a rental property can be kept together rather than spread across different systems.
Frequently asked questions
What documents should a landlord keep?
Landlords should generally maintain organised records relating to their tenancy or occupation contract, tenants, deposit, property safety, EPC, inspections, maintenance, inventories, rent, relevant licences and important correspondence. The exact legal requirements depend on the property and where in the UK it is located.
Do landlords need to keep old gas safety certificates?
Landlords should retain gas safety records for the period required by the applicable regulations rather than simply discarding the previous record when a new inspection is completed. Keeping a longer organised property history may also be useful for management purposes.
Should landlords keep records of repairs?
Yes. Keeping records of reported problems, inspections, contractor work, invoices and completion dates creates a useful maintenance history and can help demonstrate how an issue was handled.
Do landlords need to keep tenant documents after they move out?
Some records may need to be retained after a tenancy ends because of legal, tax or regulatory requirements. However, personal information should not simply be kept indefinitely without a valid reason. The appropriate retention period depends on the type of record.
Can landlord documents be stored digitally?
Many landlord documents can be stored digitally, subject to any specific requirements applying to the record. Digital records should be secure, appropriately backed up and easy to retrieve when needed.
Disclaimer: This guide is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal, financial or professional advice. Rules and requirements may vary depending on your location and circumstances and can change over time. Always check current official guidance and seek professional advice where appropriate.