Renting out an inherited property in England: what to sort out first

Nobody signs up to become a landlord this way. A property arrives through a death in the family, letting it looks more sensible than selling it in a flat market, and suddenly you are the one responsible for gas safety certificates and deposit deadlines on a house you did not choose to manage. Before any of that compliance checklist starts, though, there are three more basic questions to settle: whether you are actually allowed to let it yet, whether it is insured for what you are about to do with it, and what the mortgage — if there is one — has to say about it.

Do you have the authority to let it yet?

Which kind of personal representative you are changes the answer, and it is worth getting straight before anything else. An administrator — appointed where there is no will — has no authority until letters of administration are granted, because it is the grant that appoints them. An executor named in a will is in a different position on paper, since their authority comes from the will rather than from the grant, but in practice they cannot demonstrate it to a lender, a bank or anybody's solicitor until probate is issued, and cannot be registered at the Land Registry without it.

Either way the practical answer is the same, and it is not a close call: do not grant a new tenancy before the grant comes through. A tenancy signed on an estate's behalf by somebody who cannot yet show the authority to sign it is an argument waiting to happen, with a tenant already living in the property while it does.

There are exceptions worth knowing about rather than assuming apply to you: a property held in joint names is different, because the surviving joint owner may already have authority to act in their own right, and a tenancy that already existed before the death simply continues, which is a separate question covered below. Which of these applies, and how far you can reasonably go before the grant arrives, is a question for a probate solicitor rather than a blog post — applying for probate is the starting point on GOV.UK.

If the property already has a tenant, what actually changes?

A tenancy does not end because the landlord dies. It is a legal interest in the property, and it survives — the tenant carries on living there under the same terms, and the personal representative, and later whoever inherits the property, simply steps into the landlord's position for it.

What is worth checking rather than assuming is whether the compliance paperwork that comes with that position is actually in date. A gas safety certificate issued eighteen months before the death has probably expired by the time probate is sorted out. An EICR is valid for five years, which sounds generous until you realise nobody may have kept track of when it was last done.

The deposit is the one that is genuinely different

Every other item on the checklist is the same duty on an inherited tenancy as on any other. The deposit is not, and it is worth ten minutes of your attention rather than a note to look at later.

The duties in section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 are keyed to the landlord receiving the deposit: protect it in an approved scheme, and give the tenant the prescribed information, both within 30 days of receipt. You never received it — the person who died did — and neither the Act nor GOV.UK's guidance says what becomes of those duties when the landlord changes. That question is a solicitor's. The good news is that you mostly do not need it answered, because the part that reaches you is written differently.

Section 215 is in the present tense. A court may make an order for possession — on every ground except 7A and 14 — only if the deposit is being held in an authorised scheme, and only if the prescribed information has been given in the prescribed form. Neither test asks who was the landlord at the time. Neither asks whether it was done on time, either: section 215 counts compliance "whether or not within the period" section 213 sets, and points at the prescribed form rather than at the 30-day deadline. Being late is curable. Nothing having been done is not, and that one you inherit.

Which makes the practical answer cheap enough not to agonise over. The prescribed information your tenant holds names the previous landlord — their name, address and contact details are part of what the Prescribed Information Order requires it to contain, along with their signed confirmation that it was accurate — so the document the tenant has on file describes somebody who has died. Tell the scheme, get the deposit held in the name of whoever is now the landlord, and serve fresh prescribed information. The Tenancy Deposit Scheme's published guidance covers a tenanted property being sold mid-tenancy rather than inherited, and says the incoming landlord should register the deposit under their own membership and "serve the required Prescribed Information" — the nearest case anybody has written down. Ask your scheme how it handles a death, because that one it has not published.

Is it insured for what is about to happen to it?

An ordinary buildings and contents policy is written for an occupied, owner-lived-in home. Two things change that. The property standing empty is one: a residential policy will usually restrict or withdraw cover once the house has been unoccupied for a continuous period, and the number of days is set out in your own policy's unoccupancy clause rather than being the same everywhere. Read that clause before assuming you are covered — the period tends to be shorter than people expect, and clearing a house takes longer. The property being let is the other: a standard home policy does not cover that at all. If there is a gap between clearing the house and finding a tenant, that gap needs its own unoccupied-property cover; once it is let, it needs landlord insurance. Neither is a legal requirement in the way a gas safety certificate is, but letting a property with the wrong insurance in place is a real and avoidable way to lose money on a claim that should have been straightforward.

Does the mortgage allow it?

If the property has a mortgage rather than being owned outright, check what kind it is before doing anything else. A residential mortgage is written on the basis that the owner lives there, and letting the property without telling the lender is usually a breach of the mortgage terms — even where the owner never chose to become a landlord. Many lenders will grant "consent to let" for a limited period, sometimes at a higher rate, precisely for situations like this one; others will expect a switch to a buy-to-let product instead. Either way, it is the lender's decision to make, not something to work around quietly.

Once that is settled: the checklist every landlord in England has to meet

From here, an inherited property being let for the first time is in exactly the same position as any other let in England, and the full compliance checklist is worth reading in full rather than summarised here. The headline items: a valid gas safety certificate before anyone moves in, an EICR no older than five years, an EPC of at least band E, the Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet given to the tenant before the tenancy is agreed, Right to Rent checks on every adult occupier, and — if you are taking a deposit — protecting it in an approved scheme and giving the tenant the prescribed information, both inside 30 days of receiving it, with the deposit itself capped at five weeks' rent (six where the annual rent is £50,000 or more).

One thing has changed since Section 21 was abolished: every tenancy you grant now is assured periodic from the outset. There is no fixed term to set, no renewal date to diarise, and no six or twelve months to write into the agreement — which also means there is no natural moment later on to catch up on any of this if it gets rushed now.

None of this is complicated on its own. What catches an accidental landlord out is usually the order — starting on the compliance checklist before the authority to let is actually in place, or discovering the insurance gap after a claim rather than before one. If part of the decision in front of you is whether to do this yourself at all or hand it to a letting agent, what an agent's 10% actually buys is worth reading before you choose.

Tenarize is built for exactly the point you are at now: a guided checklist for what is required and when, a tenancy agreement generated against the current rules and e-signed — it is not solicitor-reviewed, and does not replace probate advice — and rent collected by Direct Debit with a proper record instead of a bank transfer or a spreadsheet. It tracks the compliance checklist and the deposit deadline; it does not carry out the Right to Rent check or protect the deposit itself, both of which stay yours to do.

Probate is the part of all this that is genuinely not a software problem. For anything turning on the grant itself — whether you have the authority yet, and what you can safely do before it arrives — talk to a probate solicitor before you commit to a tenancy.

Where to check this yourself

• Applying for probate — GOV.UK
• Renting out a property — GOV.UK
• Renters' Rights Act: an overview for landlords — GOV.UK
• The Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet — GOV.UK
• Deposit protection schemes and landlords — GOV.UK, and the information you must give your tenants
• Housing Act 2004, section 213 — the protection and prescribed-information duties, and what triggers them; section 215 — when a deposit stops a court making a possession order; and the Prescribed Information Order — what the information itself has to contain
• Gas safety for landlords — HSE and the Gas Safe Register
• Electrical safety standards guidance (EICR) — GOV.UK
• Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard guidance (EPC) — GOV.UK
• Landlord's guide to Right to Rent checks — GOV.UK
• Shelter and Citizens Advice — free, independent advice on a specific situation

Tenarize is £15 a month for one to five properties, with the first month free. The help centre is free to read either way.