Keyring

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What a letting agent has to check

Every compliance check Keyring performs, what triggers it, and what it will tell you. If you want to know whether Keyring is watching something for you, this is the page to read — and the section at the end lists what it is not watching, which is the part worth your attention.

Keyring is a tracking tool, not legal advice. It tells you what is coming up and what has lapsed. It does not tell you what to do about it, and it cannot confirm that your paperwork is correct — only that it exists and is in date. Anything time-sensitive or contested is worth putting to a solicitor.

Keyring is built for England

This is the first thing to know, because almost nothing here is UK-wide.

England
Everything on this page.
Wales
Partly covered. Gas safety, the energy certificate, HMO licensing and the deposit duties reach Wales. The electrical report, the alarm checks and Right to Rent do not.
Scotland
Barely covered. Gas safety is close to the only thing that reaches Scotland.
Northern Ireland
Not covered at all — not even gas safety, which is governed there by separate regulations.

You tell Keyring which country each property is in when you add it, and it stops asking for the duties that do not apply there. Anything switched off is still listed on the property, so you can see what Keyring has stopped watching rather than finding a shorter list with no explanation. Turning the England rules off is not the same as tracking the local ones: Keyring does not track the Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish equivalents and has not checked what they are. Where it names one, that is a signpost to help you find it, not something Keyring has verified.

The six words Keyring uses

Every check resolves to one of these. Nothing is stored as a status — Keyring works it out from your dates each time you open a page, so it cannot quietly go stale.

  • ValidIn date, and anything that had to be given to the tenant has been.
  • Due soonInside the warning period for this particular check.
  • OverduePast its expiry date, or a deadline for giving it to the tenant was missed.
  • MissingThis applies to the property or tenancy, and nothing has been recorded.
  • Not applicableDoes not apply here — no gas appliance, no deposit taken, and so on.
  • Not yet in forceExists in law but has not started. Keyring never raises an alert on these.

Each check has its own warning period

Ninety days’ notice is sensible for a five-yearly electrical report and useless for a 28-day deadline, so the window is set per check. Every one of them is listed below.

Two deadlines, not one

Several checks have a second clock running separately from the expiry date: the deadline for getting the document to the tenant. A gas certificate can be perfectly in date while the deadline for giving a copy to your tenant has already been missed — and it is that second one that can sink a possession claim. Keyring tracks both, and will show a property as Overdue on either.

On the property6 checks

These follow the building. They carry on across a change of tenant. Which of them apply is worked out from what you have told Keyring about the property — whether there is a gas appliance, whether there is a solid fuel appliance, how many storeys, and whether it is a licensable HMO. A property with no gas appliance is never asked for a gas safety certificate.

  • Gas safety certificate

    What it is
    The annual safety check on gas appliances, pipework and flues, carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
    When it applies
    Where you have told Keyring the property has a gas appliance, pipework or a flue.
    How often
    Every year.
    What Keyring flags
    Due soon from 60 days before it expires, then Overdue. Separately, a copy must reach an existing tenant within 28 days of the inspection: Keyring shows that deadline from the moment you record the inspection, warns from 7 days out, and marks it Overdue once it passes. A new tenant must have their copy before they move in.

  • Electrical installation condition report (EICR)

    What it is
    The periodic inspection of the property’s fixed electrical installation.
    When it applies
    Every privately rented property in England.
    How often
    Every five years.
    What Keyring flags
    Due soon from 90 days before it expires, then Overdue. A copy must reach the tenant within 28 days of the inspection, warned from 7 days out and Overdue after that.

    Worth knowing. Keyring records whether the report came back satisfactory or unsatisfactory, says so on the duty, and now chases the remedial work an unsatisfactory one owes. The deadline is 28 days from the date of the inspection — not from the day the report arrived — or a shorter period if the report specified one, which for a serious fault it usually does. Keyring asks for that period rather than assuming 28, because assuming it would tell you that you had three more weeks when the report said seven days. Record the work and the duty settles; a breach carries a penalty of up to £30,000. One thing it does not yet chase: once the work is done, written confirmation is owed to the tenant and the council within 28 days, and Keyring says so on the duty but does not count that clock.

  • Energy performance certificate (EPC)

    What it is
    The energy rating for the property.
    When it applies
    Every property being let.
    How often
    Each certificate lasts ten years.
    What Keyring flags
    Due soon from 180 days before it expires, then Overdue.

    Worth knowing. Keyring now checks the band against the minimum for a letting, which is E. A property at F or G is shown on the property and counted on Today. It never says the property cannot be let, because a registered exemption makes letting lawful and there are six of them — all relevant improvements made, high cost, wall insulation, third-party consent, devaluation, and recently becoming the landlord. Those live on the government’s PRS Exemptions Register, which Keyring cannot read, so you can record one against the property and the warning stops. Keyring watches its end date and says so again when it lapses. England and Wales both. A higher minimum of band C has been widely reported but has no date, so nothing is built around it and nothing is flagged on it.

  • Smoke alarms

    What it is
    At least one alarm on every storey used as living accommodation.
    When it applies
    Every property. Keyring works out how many you need from the number of storeys you have recorded.
    How often
    No expiry. They must be tested at the start of each new tenancy, and repaired or replaced once a fault is reported.
    What Keyring flags
    Missing until you record a test date; Valid once you have.

    Worth knowing. Because there is no expiry, this stays Valid indefinitely once recorded. Keyring does not currently prompt you to re-test at the start of a new tenancy, so that one is still on you.

  • Carbon monoxide alarms

    What it is
    An alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance, not counting gas cookers.
    When it applies
    Where you have recorded a solid fuel appliance or a gas appliance. Properties with neither are never asked for one.
    How often
    No expiry, same as smoke alarms.
    What Keyring flags
    Missing until you record a test date; Valid once you have. The same caveat about re-testing at a new tenancy applies.

  • HMO licence

    What it is
    The licence issued by the local authority for a house in multiple occupation.
    When it applies
    Only where you have recorded the property as an HMO and said the local authority requires a licence.
    How often
    Terms vary by authority, commonly up to five years. Keyring uses the expiry date you enter rather than assuming a term.
    What Keyring flags
    Due soon from 90 days before expiry, then Overdue.

    Worth knowing. The 90 days is Keyring’s own choice, not a figure from the rules. Selective licensing schemes, which vary by borough, are not covered at all.

On the tenancy7 checks

These follow the people, not the building. They reset every time the tenants change, which is exactly why they are kept separate — a deposit protected for your last tenants tells you nothing about your current ones. They appear once you add a tenancy to a property, and all five are created for you.

  • Deposit protection

    What it is
    Placing the tenant’s deposit in one of the approved schemes: the Deposit Protection Service, MyDeposits, or the Tenancy Deposit Scheme.
    When it applies
    Where a deposit was taken. Record no deposit and Keyring marks this Not applicable rather than chasing you for it.
    How often
    Once per tenancy, within 30 days of receiving the money.
    What Keyring flags
    The clock starts on the date you received the deposit, so that date matters. Missing while the deadline is comfortably ahead, Due soon inside the last 7 days, Overdue once it passes. Recording that you protected it but not which scheme leaves it Missing, because "protected somewhere" is not something you can evidence.

    Worth knowing. If you protect it late, Keyring keeps it marked Overdue permanently and says how many days late it was. Protecting a deposit after the deadline does not undo having missed it, and the record should not pretend otherwise.

  • Prescribed information

    What it is
    Giving the tenant the required written details about their deposit and the scheme protecting it.
    When it applies
    Where a deposit was taken.
    How often
    Once per tenancy, within 30 days of receiving the deposit — the same clock as protection, but a separate duty.
    What Keyring flags
    The same pattern: Missing, then Due soon inside the last 7 days, then Overdue.

    Worth knowing. This is the one most commonly missed. Protecting the deposit does not discharge it, which is why Keyring tracks it as its own line rather than folding it into the one above. The 7-day warning is Keyring’s own choice.

  • Right to Rent check

    What it is
    Confirming that each adult occupant has the right to rent in England, with the evidence kept.
    When it applies
    Every adult occupying the property as their only or main home, whether or not they are named on the agreement. A permitted occupier needs a check exactly as a tenant does.
    How often
    Once before they move in. Where their permission to be in the UK is time limited, a follow-up falls due afterwards.
    What Keyring flags
    Per person, not per tenancy. Missing where nobody has been checked; Due soon from 30 days before a follow-up falls due; Overdue once it has passed. The tenancy shows the worst of them and names who. The follow-up falls due on the later of the date their permission expires and twelve months from the check — so a visa expiring in three months still gives you twelve, and a visa running three years defers the follow-up to the visa. Somebody with no time limit never needs one at all.

    Worth knowing. A person who is not a British or Irish citizen may use either a share code or their original immigration documents, and you cannot refuse them for choosing documents; British and Irish citizens cannot get a share code, so Keyring does not offer them one. An expired British or Irish passport is valid for this check, and a biometric residence permit can be used for 18 months past its printed expiry — Keyring records the expiry of the permission, never of the document, so it cannot wrongly reject either. It asks for a date of birth only to tell who is an adult, and without one it says it cannot tell rather than assuming. The 30 days is Keyring’s own choice. Recording a check never overwrites an earlier one: a correction is a new check and the old one stays, because the history is the evidence.

  • Reporting a failed follow-up to the Home Office

    What it is
    Where a follow-up check shows an occupier no longer has the right to rent, or they will not co-operate, you must report it to the Home Office as soon as reasonably practicable.
    When it applies
    Only after a follow-up check fails. An initial check that fails means you do not let to them, and carries no reporting duty.
    How often
    Once per failed follow-up.
    What Keyring flags
    It appears at the very top of your list, above everything else, with its own wording rather than Overdue. It is the largest single exposure Keyring tracks.

    Worth knowing. Making the report preserves your statutory excuse. Failing to make it loses the excuse and exposes you to a civil penalty of £10,000 for an occupier on a first breach and £20,000 on a repeat — £5,000 and £10,000 for a lodger. Keyring records that you made the report; it does not make it. And this is not the whole of what can follow a failed check — see what Keyring does not check.

  • Written statement of terms

    What it is
    Giving the tenant a written statement of the tenancy’s key terms.
    When it applies
    Every tenancy that began on or after 1 May 2026, in England. A tenancy that started earlier never owed one and is never asked.
    How often
    Once per tenancy, before it is entered into.
    What Keyring flags
    Missing until you record it, Due soon from 14 days before the tenancy starts, and Overdue once the tenancy has started without one. On a tenancy that began before 1 May 2026 it reads Not applicable and is never chased.

    Worth knowing. This is the duty that replaced the How to Rent guide, and it is a good deal more serious: where a statement is not given, a council may impose a financial penalty of up to £7,000. Keyring records that you gave one and the date. It does not hold the statement itself, check what is in it, or put it in a document pack — so the record here is your note that it was done, not evidence of what it said. Two exceptions in the rule are not handled: where a tenancy arises by succession, or is a demoted tenancy, the law allows 28 days from that event instead of requiring it beforehand, and nothing on a Keyring tenancy says which of those applies. The deadline shown is always the before-the-tenancy one, so on those two kinds of tenancy it is stricter than the law. England only: a Welsh letting is an occupation contract and has its own written statement duty under different legislation, which Keyring does not track.

  • How to Rent guide

    What it is
    Giving the tenant the current government How to Rent guide.
    When it applies
    Tenancies that began before 1 May 2026. The duty ended that day and Keyring does not ask for a guide on anything starting on or after it.
    How often
    Once per tenancy, before it started.
    What Keyring flags
    On a tenancy that began before 1 May 2026: Missing until recorded, Due soon from 14 days before the tenancy started, Overdue once it had started without one. On any tenancy from that day onwards: nothing at all — it reads Not applicable and is never chased.

    Worth knowing. The provision behind this duty — section 21B of the Housing Act 1988 — was omitted on 1 May 2026 by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, and the guide itself was withdrawn from gov.uk the same day. Keyring used to go on marking it Overdue regardless, which was a false alarm; it no longer does. Older tenancies keep it, because the repeal carries savings and a guide you already served is worth keeping on the record. What replaced it — the written statement of terms — is the check immediately above this one.

  • Tenancy type

    What it is
    A check on the tenancy itself rather than a document.
    When it applies
    Every tenancy.
    How often
    Continuously; there is no date to renew.
    What Keyring flags
    Every assured shorthold tenancy became a periodic assured tenancy on 1 May 2026 under the Renters' Rights Act 2025. A tenancy recorded as fixed term with a start date on or after that day is marked Overdue, because it is either a typing mistake or a tenancy that needs putting right, and the record alone cannot tell you which. Keyring warns you about this while you are entering the tenancy, not only after you save it.

    Worth knowing. A fixed term that started before 1 May 2026 is treated as a historic record and is not flagged.

What happens when a tenancy ends

Its duties stay visible on the property as a record of what was done, but they stop being chased — they no longer appear in your outstanding duties and no longer count against the property. What was or was not given to a tenant who has moved out is not something you can still act on, and leaving it in the list would bury the things you can.

Tracked but not yet in force

Keyring shows these so you know they are coming. It will never raise an alert on them, and they never count against a property. A false alarm costs more trust than a missing feature.

  • Register your rental property

    What it is
    Registration of the property on the new national database, under the Renters' Rights Act 2025.
    When it applies
    Every privately rented property in England that is let, or becomes let during the rollout. England only — the rollout has no region covering Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
    How often
    Renewed every year. The government has announced a fee of £65 per property per year; the draft regulations set no figure and leave it to the database operator, so treat it as announced rather than fixed.
    What Keyring flags
    Nothing, and nothing until it commences. It does not count against a property and never appears in your list of outstanding work. What Keyring can now tell you is when: registration opens region by region from 15 Dec 2026, and each region has three months from its own opening date to register a property that is already let. The deadline follows the property, not you — a landlord in London with a house in Birmingham is on the West Midlands dates.

    Worth knowing. Record which region a property is in and Keyring shows both of its dates. Leave it blank and it says so rather than guessing: the nine regions are eight months apart end to end, and a guessed deadline is worse than none. These dates come from draft regulations laid before Parliament and not yet made, and from the government’s registration guidance. Keyring will not chase this duty until it commences. Sources last checked 18 Sept 2026. If the timetable has changed since, Keyring will not know until somebody looks again.

What Keyring reports but will not decide

Keyring works these out and shows them to you. What they mean is a judgement it leaves with you, and it says so wherever the figure appears.

  • Whether a deposit is within the Tenant Fees Act cap

    Keyring works out the deposit cap from the rent and says whether the deposit you recorded is inside it. Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019 the cap is five weeks' rent, or six weeks' where the annual rent is £50,000 or more, and one week’s rent is the annual rent divided by 52. Anything above the cap is a prohibited payment.

    It is shown in four places: as you type a deposit on the tenancy form, beside the deposit on the tenancy itself, on the property, and counted on Today with the total owed back. All four, because a form is only seen by whoever typed it — an agent who imported a portfolio or took over managing one never did — and because a warning that lives only on the tenancy page is a warning nobody finds. On the tenancy it reads as an instruction rather than a status: it says to return the excess, and names the amount. There is no deadline on it, because the deposit was over the cap the day it was taken and stays over until money goes back.

    It only looks at tenancies that are still running. Once a letting has ended, Keyring stops mentioning its deposit — because it does not record deposit returns, and on a tenancy that finished months ago the money has most likely gone back at checkout. Telling you to return something you already returned is worse than saying nothing, so it says nothing. The cost of that is real: a deposit that was over the cap on a letting which ended before anyone noticed stops being raised, and recovering it is yours to pursue.

    It never refuses to save. The cap is set by the annual rent immediately after the tenancy was granted, so a letting entered after the event may have taken a deposit that was lawful at the time, and Keyring records what happened rather than arguing with it.

    It says nothing about tenancies that began before 1 June 2019, when the cap started applying — and that is not the same as saying those deposits were lawful, because the cap also bites on a renewal or continuance after that date and Keyring cannot tell whether one happened. It is England only: the Act’s prohibition reaches a tenancy of housing in England, and Wales has its own fees Act with its own figures that Keyring does not model. The arithmetic is rounded down to the penny, so where the cap falls between pennies Keyring is a penny stricter than the Act rather than a penny more generous.

    Four things Keyring cannot check

    The rent the cap is set by
    The cap is five or six weeks of the annual rent immediately after the tenancy was granted, renewed or continued. Keyring compares against the rent in force now, which is the same figure on most tenancies and not on one whose rent has since changed. Where it has, check the cap against the rent that applied then.
    Whether the payment was required
    The Act prohibits a landlord requiring a prohibited payment. Keyring sees an amount recorded against a tenancy and cannot tell what was asked for, agreed, or volunteered.
    Anything that has happened since
    If an excess has already been repaid, or applied to rent or to the deposit with the tenant’s consent, Keyring does not know. It is comparing two numbers you gave it.
    Tenancies that began before 1 June 2019
    The cap started applying then, so Keyring says nothing about anything earlier. That is not a statement that those deposits were lawful: the cap also bites on a renewal or continuance after that date, and whether one happened is not something Keyring records.

    A deposit over the cap is a prohibited payment, and what follows from that changed this year. A council can impose a financial penalty of up to £5,000; a second breach of the same section within five years is a criminal offence, or up to £30,000 as a penalty instead of prosecution. What is **gone** is the bar on serving a section 21 notice while holding a prohibited payment — section 17 of the Act was repealed on 1 May 2026, along with section 21 itself. Guidance written before then still quotes it, and it is no longer the law. Keyring does not track penalties, does not know what a council has done, and does not decide whether a payment was required within the meaning of the Act.

    Keyring states the cap and the arithmetic. Whether a payment was required within the meaning of the Act, and what to do about an excess already taken, is yours.

  • Whether rent arrears have reached the Ground 8 threshold

    Where a tenancy is behind, Keyring says whether the rent it has been told about has reached the figure Ground 8 of the Housing Act 1988 names: 13 weeks' rent where rent is payable weekly or fortnightly, 3 months' rent where it is payable monthly. These replaced 8 weeks and 2 months on 1 May 2026.

    Quarterly and yearly lets have no threshold at all. The two paragraphs that covered them were removed from the ground the same day, leaving the weekly and monthly limbs only, so no arrears figure reaches Ground 8 on a quarterly or yearly tenancy however far behind it falls. Keyring says that plainly rather than leaving a blank where a figure would be.

    It also tells you the date the threshold was first reached and whether it has been met on every rent day since — Ground 8 asks for the arrears at two dates, so how long it has held matters as much as whether it holds now. That is worked out again from your recorded payments every time the page loads, so entering a payment with an earlier date changes it. Nothing is stored, so nothing can go stale.

    It is not a duty. Reaching the threshold creates no obligation on you and has no deadline, so nothing about it is chased, nothing is emailed, it never counts against a property and it never appears in your list of outstanding work.

    Four things Keyring cannot check

    Both dates
    The arrears must stand at the date the section 8 notice is served and again at the date of the hearing. Keyring knows neither date and reports only the figure for today.
    Universal credit
    Rent unpaid only because the tenant has not yet received the housing amount of a universal credit award is left out when this threshold is counted. Keyring cannot know what a tenant is entitled to, so any such amount is still inside the figure it shows.
    Rent lawfully due
    The ground counts rent lawfully due from the tenant. Whether an increase was validly made, or a sum properly deducted, is a judgement about your own agreement.
    Payments nobody recorded
    The figure is built from what you entered. A payment not entered is a payment Keyring thinks never arrived.

    If a section 8 notice was served on the tenancy before 1 May 2026 and is still valid, the earlier thresholds — 8 weeks or 2 months, and the quarterly and yearly limbs with them — may still govern those proceedings. Keyring does not record when a notice was served, and a tenancy’s start date is no substitute: the savings turn on the notice, not on when the letting began. Ground 8 is part of the law of England and Wales only.

    Keyring does not determine whether a possession ground is made out. That is a matter for you and the court.

What Keyring does not check

Listed so you know what is still yours to watch. This is not a list of things that do not matter — several of them matter a great deal.

  • Whether the alarms are actually fitted

    Keyring works out how many smoke alarms a property needs from the number of storeys you recorded, and says so on the duty — “at least 3” on a three-storey house. What it records is a date on which you tested them. It does not record how many alarms are fitted, or where, so it cannot tell a house with three working alarms from one with a single alarm in the hall. Both read Valid once a date is entered. The same is true of carbon monoxide alarms, where the requirement is one in every room with a fixed combustion appliance and Keyring holds no room-by-room record at all. The date is your word that you checked, and it is worth treating it as exactly that — a reminder of when you last looked, not evidence that the property is equipped.

  • Whether the rent has actually been paid

    Keyring works out what rent was due and what you have told it arrived, and shows the difference. It does not know anything it has not been told: it takes no payments, holds no money, and is not connected to a bank, so a payment nobody records is a payment Keyring thinks never came. The figure carries the date it was worked out for, because it changes by the day. Keyring also treats rent as payable in advance, so the first instalment falls due on the day the tenancy starts — if your agreement says in arrears, the balance will read a period out. Payments are not matched to the months they were meant for: a payment counts on the day it arrived, so a tenant who pays late shows the period they missed and the period the money landed in. That is deliberate — deciding which month a payment settles is a judgement Keyring will not make on your behalf. And arrears is a record, not a compliance check: nothing about it is chased, and Keyring does not decide whether a possession ground is made out.

  • Anything on an archived property

    Archiving a property takes it out of compliance tracking, and takes its tenancies and faults with it. Nothing is deleted — every certificate, tenancy, document and date stays intact, and restoring the property from the archive brings all of it back — but while it is archived Keyring chases none of it, and none of it appears in your outstanding work or in any email. That is the point of archiving, and it is the right thing for a property you no longer manage. It is worth knowing because the duties do not stop existing: if you archive a property that still has a tenant in it, the deposit, Right to Rent and certificate deadlines are all still owed and Keyring has stopped watching them. It asks before letting you do that and names the tenancy, but it does not refuse.

  • Anything outside England, almost entirely

    Keyring is built for the law of England. Wales is partly covered, Scotland barely, and Northern Ireland not at all. It does not track the Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish equivalents of anything on this page. If your portfolio is mostly outside England, Keyring is not the right tool for it yet.

  • Ending a tenancy after a failed Right to Rent check

    Reporting to the Home Office is not the whole of what follows. Section 33A of the Immigration Act 2014 makes it a criminal offence to rent to someone you know, or have reasonable cause to believe, is disqualified — and the defence is taking reasonable steps to end the tenancy within a reasonable period, not reporting. Keyring cannot tell what you know, so it does not track this and does not try to guess. If a follow-up check fails, the report is the part Keyring watches; what to do about the tenancy is a question for a solicitor.

  • What changing a building’s country does to its flats

    A building groups the flats at one address, and the flats copy its address, its local authority and its country when they are created. Correcting the building corrects them — but only the ones still carrying what the building used to say. A flat whose address, council or country you have changed by hand keeps it, because overwriting something you set deliberately is worse than leaving it. The address is treated as one thing: change any part of a flat’s address and it keeps all of it, rather than ending up with a new street and its own postcode. Changing the country is the one that reaches furthest, because the duties differ by country — moving a block from England to Wales stops Keyring chasing the electrical report, both alarm checks, Right to Rent and the property database on every flat in it. Keyring says how many flats will change before you save, names any it is leaving alone, and afterwards each flat says what stopped being chased, with anything already recorded against those duties kept and still visible. What Keyring does not do is check that a building’s country is right, or notice that one flat in a block disagrees with the rest.

  • Anything about a building’s common parts

    A block of flats can be held as one building, which groups its units and carries the address once. The building itself carries no checks. The fire risk assessment for the structure, external walls and common parts of a building containing two or more homes is a real duty on whoever is responsible for those parts, and so is a licence for a whole converted block — Keyring tracks neither, and records only whether you say you manage the common parts. Nor does it track communal plant: Keyring asks whether a property has a gas appliance one property at a time, so a flat with none of its own but served by a communal boiler is recorded as owing no gas duty. If you own the block you may still owe a record on that boiler, and Keyring will not tell you so. Gas, electrics, the energy certificate and everything about a tenancy are per flat, as they should be.

  • Whether emailing a document counts as having served it

    Keyring records what it sent, to which address, and when, and keeps every open and download. What it cannot tell you is whether email is a valid way to serve that particular tenant — that depends on your tenancy agreement and on what the tenant has agreed to, and Keyring holds neither. The rules behind the documents in a pack are almost all silent on how they must be given: the gas record, the electrical report, the energy certificate, the deposit paperwork and the written statement of terms all say the landlord must "give" the document and stop there. The one exception is the How to Rent guide, where the regulations allowed email only if the tenant had told you an address at which they were content to accept service — so on a tenancy that began before 1 May 2026 and was sent a guide, that condition applied. Keyring does not check it, and does not treat a pack as invalid for want of it.

  • Whether a property needs an HMO licence

    When you let a property room by room, Keyring notices and asks you whether it is a licensable house in multiple occupation — because the shape of the letting makes the question likely, and you are the one who can answer it. It only ever asks. Whether a licence is required turns on how many people live there, how many households they form and which scheme your council runs, and Keyring tracks none of those. Mandatory licensing has a national threshold; additional and selective schemes are designated by each council on their own terms and are not modelled at all. Once you record a licence, Keyring chases its expiry. The decision that you needed one is yours.

  • Which tenant a certificate reached, where a property is let room by room

    A gas record and an electrical report have to be given to each tenant — not to the property. Keyring records one serving date per certificate, which is right for a property let as a whole and not enough for one let room by room: once a flat has more than one tenancy running, that date tells you somebody was served and cannot tell you everybody was. Where that is the case Keyring says "served on one tenant" rather than "served on tenant", and stops short of claiming the duty is done. Sending each room’s tenant their own document pack is how you get a record per room, and whether every room has had one is yours to watch. The 28 days run from the certificate; a tenant moving into a room later must have it before they move in, which is a deadline Keyring does not chase.

  • Anything in a signed tenancy agreement

    Keyring holds the signed agreement against the tenancy if you upload one, and reads nothing from it — not the rent, not the term, not whether it is actually signed, and not whether it is the right document for that letting. Nothing about it is chased: there is no deadline and no status, because having your own paperwork on file is filing rather than a compliance duty, and a tick beside it would stop you looking. It is never included in a document pack, deliberately — a pack is certificates being served and an agreement is a contract that was already agreed, so one acknowledgement cannot stand for both. Keyring does not write agreements, does not check that yours contains what the law requires, and has no part in getting one signed.

  • What is actually in a written statement of terms

    Keyring records that you gave one, and when. It does not hold the statement, check that it contains what the regulations require, or send it — that is still yours to get right. It also always asks for it before the tenancy starts, which is stricter than the law on the two kinds of tenancy that get 28 days instead: one arising by succession, and a demoted tenancy.

  • The RRA information sheet

    The government information sheet for tenants whose tenancies were already running before the new regime, which had a deadline of 31 May 2026. That deadline has passed and Keyring does not track it.

  • Ombudsman membership

    Every private landlord in England will have to join the new landlord ombudsman scheme. The date landlords must sign up by has not been announced, so there is nothing to track yet.

  • The confirmation owed after electrical remedial work

    Once the remedial work on an unsatisfactory electrical report is done, the landlord must get written confirmation from a qualified person and send it, with the original report, to the tenant and to the council within 28 days. Keyring chases the work itself and names this obligation on the duty once the work is recorded, but it does not track its deadline — which runs from the day the work finished, not from the inspection. Watch that one yourself.

  • Re-testing alarms when tenants change

    Recorded once, valid thereafter.

  • Text messages, or notifications on your phone

    Keyring emails, and that is all. See "What Keyring emails you" below for what it will and will not send.

  • Chasing anyone on your behalf

    Keyring writes to you about your deadlines, and writes to a tenant only when you press Send on a document pack. It never writes to your landlords or your contractors, and it never emails a tenant on its own.

  • Rent increase procedure, and several other rules

    Rent increase procedure, possession grounds, ombudsman membership, the Decent Homes Standard, hazard timescales, and Making Tax Digital. None of these are tracked. The deposit cap used to be on this list and is now checked — see what Keyring reports but will not decide, above.

  • What a document actually says

    Keyring will hold your certificates, but it reads nothing from them. If the dates you typed in do not match the certificate you attached, Keyring goes by what you typed.

What Keyring emails you

Keyring writes to you about your own deadlines. It writes to nobody else — not your landlords, not your tenants, not your contractors. Everything here can be changed, or switched off entirely, and every email it sends links straight to those settings.

What the weekly email counts
The weekly email counts more than duties. A deposit above the cap, an electrical report that found a fault, and an energy rating below the minimum are all things no deadline decides — so a portfolio with every certificate in date used to be told nothing was outstanding while holding money it was not entitled to. They appear under “Also worth looking at”, and the subject line counts them, so “nothing outstanding” now means nothing. What the email still cannot do is know you have decided not to act on something — see “What’s coming”.
A note when a tenant opens or acknowledges a pack
Sent when it happens rather than waiting for the weekly, because a confirmation is worth having the day it arrives. It has a switch of its own.
A weekly summary
Two halves. What you recorded in the week just gone, then everything still outstanding across your portfolio — past first, because the outstanding list is the part you will act on and belongs nearest the button. On a day you choose; Monday unless you change it.
A separate email when something will not keep
By default that means anything already overdue or unrecorded, and anything falling due within the next 7 days. You can widen that, narrow it, or set it to overdue only.
It will not repeat itself
Once Keyring has told you about a duty it leaves that one alone for 7 days. The exception is a duty that gets worse: something that was approaching and has now lapsed is worth saying again immediately, and Keyring does.
It never writes to say everything is fine
Silence means there was nothing to say — nothing outstanding, and nothing recorded in the week either. A busy week on a clean portfolio does get the weekly email, because then it has something to tell you. What Keyring will not do is write to confirm that all is well.
The outstanding half is a prompt, not the full list
It lists the six most urgent things and tells you how many more there are. The full list is on your dashboard, in the same order.
The week’s half counts what reached Keyring
A gas inspection carried out in March and entered last Tuesday is counted as last Tuesday. Keyring can see something being recorded; it cannot see the work being done, and the week’s half says "recorded" everywhere for that reason. A tenancy starting or ending is the exception — those are read from the tenancy’s own dates, because that is what its duty clocks run from.
Once a day, early
A certificate that lapses at lunchtime is not mentioned until the following morning, and Keyring is not watching between times. If a deadline matters to the hour, the dashboard is the only thing that is current.

Sent from alerts@keyringmail.co.uk — worth adding to your contacts, so the first one does not land in spam.Request your free trial

Sending documents to a tenant

A tenancy can be sent its documents in one email — the gas safety certificate, the electrical report, the energy certificate, the deposit paperwork where a deposit was taken, and the How to Rent guide. The tenant reads and downloads each one from a link, then confirms they have them.

It refuses to send a pack that is missing something
It refuses on exactly two grounds: a duty with no document attached, and one whose document has lapsed. Both would leave a date on the record saying the tenant holds something current when they do not. What it does **not** refuse is a document that is in date and says something is wrong — an electrical report that found a fault goes to the tenant exactly as it is, because it is their home and their report. The pack says so rather than calling itself complete, the tenant’s email carries the same sentence, and the served date is still recorded: giving them the report and fixing the fault are two separate duties, and the second has its own deadline.
The tenant needs no account
The link in their email is the whole of the way in, so it is treated as a password: unguessable, never stored in a form that could be turned back into a working link, dead after 30 days, and withdrawable at any time.
Every use of the link is recorded
Each time it is opened, each document downloaded, the confirmation itself, and any attempt to use a link that has expired or been withdrawn — with the time and the internet address for each.
The tenant confirms receipt
A tick and a button, which records the date, the time, the address they confirmed from, and the list of documents they were shown. They are told that is being recorded before they do it.
Keyring tells you when they do
One email the first time the link is opened, one when receipt is confirmed — at most two per pack, however often the tenant goes back to it. Both also appear on your dashboard, because an acknowledgement is no use to you filed somewhere you would have to go looking.
Serving dates are filled in for you
When the pack goes, every document in it is marked as served on the tenant that day. This is the one place Keyring stops taking your word for something and records what actually happened.
What it will not tell you
It goes to the lead tenant’s address, or the first tenant who has one — not to every occupant, and never by post or text. It cannot tell you whether the person who opened the link was your tenant, only that somebody holding it did, and from where.

A link that is forwarded works for whoever receives it, which is why withdrawing one sent to the wrong address matters more than re-sending.

A flat let room by room

Where one flat is let as several rooms, the safety certificates still belong to the flat. There is one of each however many rooms are let, so there is nothing to add per room and nothing to copy between them.

The safety certificates belong to the flat, not the room
Gas, electrical, energy and the alarms are duties of the dwelling, and a flat let as five rooms is one dwelling. So there is one gas record, one electrical report, one energy certificate and one set of alarms for the whole flat, however many rooms are let — nothing to add per room and nothing to copy between them. The alarms are the ones worth saying out loud: a smoke alarm goes on each storey of the flat, not in each bedroom, and a carbon monoxide alarm goes in any room with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker, which is usually one room and not the let ones.
What repeats per room is the tenancy paperwork
Each room’s letting has its own deposit protection, prescribed information, written statement and Right to Rent — those attach to the people, and the people are different in each room. Right to Rent is per adult occupier rather than per tenancy, so a room let to a couple needs two checks. Keyring generates these per room automatically when you add each letting.
And the document pack, which is the point rather than a duplicate
A gas record and an electrical report have to be given to each tenant, not to the property, so each room’s tenant gets their own pack and every pack contains the same flat certificates. Five packs holding one gas record are five tenants served. Keyring records one serving date per certificate, which cannot tell you everybody was served — so once more than one room is let it says "served on one tenant" and stops short of calling the duty done. Whether every room has had a pack is yours to watch.

A block of flats

Where one address holds several lettable flats, almost every check belongs to the flat rather than to the block. One certificate for a whole building is not something the rules provide for.

Almost everything is per flat
One certificate for a whole block is not something the rules provide for. The energy certificate belongs to the flat, because a flat is a building unit in its own right and nothing lets one certificate stand for a block or one flat stand for its neighbours. The electrical report covers every installation in the residential premises, which is the flat; the common parts are not mentioned and are not covered. Smoke alarms go on each storey of the flat, so a flat on one floor needs one however many floors the block has. A carbon monoxide alarm goes in any room of the flat that has a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker, so a boiler in a communal plant room triggers none.
Gas is the exception, and it follows control
A gas safety record covers the flat’s own appliances and any appliance outside the flat that serves it, where that appliance is in a part of the building you have an interest in, or is owned by or under your control. So a communal boiler is not outside the duty: if you own the block, the boiler serving its flats is yours to maintain and record, exactly as a combi in a kitchen would be. If you let three flats in a block somebody else owns, it is not. The test is control, not where the pipe runs — and Keyring does not track communal plant either way.
The fire risk assessment belongs to the building
The fire safety rules reach the building’s structure, external walls and common parts wherever it contains two or more homes. It is the only duty here that belongs to the building rather than to a dwelling in it, and it falls on whoever is responsible for those parts — usually the freeholder or managing agent, which may not be you. Keyring does not track it.

Attaching certificates

Every check can hold the paperwork that proves it. Open a check and you can attach the certificate, the report, or a photo of it — agents photograph certificates as often as they scan them, and a clear phone photo is perfectly acceptable here.

Which checks take a document
The gas, electrical and energy certificates and the licence, on the property. On a tenancy: the deposit certificate, the prescribed information, and the How to Rent guide where one was served — those sit on the tenancy, beside the dates, which is where the deposit paperwork belongs. The tenancy type check and the Right to Rent checks produce no document and offer nowhere to put one. Neither does the written statement of terms: Keyring records that you gave one and holds nothing, which is a gap rather than a decision.
What you can attach
PDFs, JPEGs and PNGs, up to 10 MB each. Anything else is refused, and Keyring checks what a file genuinely is rather than trusting its name, so renaming something will not get it in.
How many
As many as you like against each check.
Who can see them
Only you. Files are held privately and are never reachable by a public link: every request to open or download one is checked against whoever is asking, and the storage itself independently refuses to hand another account’s files over even if something went wrong in the app.
Deleting
Permanent, and it asks first. The record and the file both go, and neither can be recovered.

If a property is archived, its documents stay with it.

Where these rules come from. The requirements are drawn from Keyring’s own rulebook, compiled in August 2026 from a mixture of official guidance and industry summaries. Warning periods described above as Keyring’s own choice are not drawn from the rules at all — they are judgements about what gives you enough notice to act. Nothing here should drive a decision that matters without being confirmed against gov.uk first.

Check one property against all of this

Keyring watches these for every property you manage

Including the 20 it does not — those stay on this page so you know they are yours to watch. For everything else: add a property and its duties arrive with it, worked out from its gas, fuel and HMO details.

Request your free trialOr check one property first

This page is the rules as they stand. For the ones that have not arrived yet, see what is changing in lettings law, with the dates and the sources.