Most landlord compliance breaches are not landlords refusing to get a certificate. They are missed dates: a gas check that slipped, an EICR that quietly expired, a deposit protected a week too late. The problem is that the penalties do not scale with how sorry you are, they are fixed, and several are severe.
Here is what actually happens for each certificate if you miss the deadline in England, with the current penalties.
Missed Gas Safety check
Failing to carry out the annual Gas Safety check is a criminal offence under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. The consequences:
- An unlimited fine
- Up to 6 months' imprisonment
- Likely invalidation of your landlord insurance, since most policies require compliance
This is the most serious of the routine certificates because it carries criminal, not just civil, liability. Detail in our gas safety certificate guide.
Missed or expired EICR
If a local authority believes you are in breach of the electrical safety duties, it can serve a remedial notice and, where you fail to comply, impose a civil penalty of up to £40,000. The council can also arrange the remedial work itself and recover the cost from you. See the EICR guide for how the report codes affect this.
Letting below the EPC minimum standard
Letting a property that does not meet the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard, currently EPC E, without a valid registered exemption, can attract a penalty of up to £5,000 per property. This becomes a much bigger exposure as the minimum rises to EPC C. See the EPC 2030 guide.
Missing smoke or CO alarm duties
Failure to comply with the smoke and carbon monoxide alarm regulations can result in a local authority civil penalty of up to £5,000.
Late or missing deposit protection
If you do not protect a deposit in an approved scheme and serve the Prescribed Information within 30 days, a court can order you to repay the deposit and pay the tenant compensation of between one and three times the deposit amount. It also affects possession, see below.
Legionella
There is no fixed fine for failing to assess Legionella risk, but the duty sits under health and safety law. If a tenant is harmed and you did not carry out a reasonable assessment, you face potential liability and enforcement action. Absence of a fine is not absence of risk.
The bigger risk since the Renters' Rights Act 2025
Since the Act came into full force on 1 May 2026, compliance is no longer only about fines. Section 21 no-fault eviction has been abolished. To recover a property, landlords now rely on Section 8 grounds, which require you to demonstrate you have met your obligations, including serving compliance documents to the tenant.
In practice this means a missed or unserved certificate is no longer just a fine risk, it can undermine your ability to regain possession of your own property. Being able to show a clean, served compliance record has become central to a landlord's legal position.
Penalties at a glance
| Miss this | And the penalty is |
|---|---|
| Gas Safety check | Criminal offence, unlimited fine, up to 6 months prison |
| EICR | Civil penalty up to £40,000 |
| EPC minimum standard | Up to £5,000 per property |
| Smoke / CO alarms | Up to £5,000 |
| Deposit protection | Repay deposit plus 1x to 3x compensation |
| RRA information duty | Up to £7,000, rising to £40,000 for repeat breaches |
How to make sure you never miss one
Every penalty on this page comes from a missed date, not a refusal to comply. The fix is a reliable system that warns you before each certificate expires. Work out your dates with the free certificate renewal calculator, see the full list of obligations in the compliance checklist, and read how to track landlord certificates without missing a renewal.