Decent Homes Standard for private landlords: the five criteria and how to prepare for 2035

The Decent Homes Standard is being extended to the private rented sector for the first time under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. In its policy statement of 28 January 2026, the government confirmed a single, modernised five-criterion standard covering both social and private rented homes, with enforcement in the private sector beginning in 2035. The headline most landlords have seen is “one in five private rented homes fail the current standard”; the more relevant figure is the government’s own impact assessment estimate that around 48% of private rented homes would fail the updated definition, most of them on disrepair. The works, and the records to evidence them, are best started now rather than in the early 2030s.

This guide explains what each criterion means in practice, when the standard applies, and gives you a property-by-property checklist to audit against. For the definition itself, the dictionary entry above sets out the formal version; this is the working guide for getting a property ready.

What the five criteria mean for your property

The new standard moves away from the age-based tests of the original 2001 framework and focuses on the actual condition of the property. Following consultation, the government dropped the proposed age-based replacement rules for kitchens and bathrooms, so a functioning older kitchen is judged on condition, not date of installation. To be decent, a home must pass all five criteria at once.

Criterion A, free from the most serious hazards. The property must be free of Category 1 hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, as set out in Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004. A Category 1 hazard is one serious enough to warrant the highest enforcement response. In practice that means severe damp penetrating internal walls, dangerous electrics, structural instability in floors, stairs or ceilings, fire safety failures such as missing detectors or blocked escape routes, and extreme cold. If a gas safety check, an EICR or a recent inspection flagged anything approaching this severity and it is unresolved, criterion A is the priority. Much of this already overlaps with a landlord’s existing duty to keep a property fit for human habitation.

Criterion B, reasonable state of repair. A property fails if one key building component is not in a reasonable state of repair, or if two or more other components are not. Key components are the elements whose failure threatens the structure or habitability: roof, walls, windows, external doors, chimney, and the main heating and hot water system. The test is condition, not age. A forty-year-old boiler that works reliably and is serviced does not automatically fail; a five-year-old one that leaks and cannot heat the home consistently does. Lifting roof slates, detached guttering causing water penetration, or windows that no longer seal would each count as a failure. This is the same condition standard that sits behind a landlord’s general repair obligations.

Criterion C, core facilities and services. For houses, the property must provide at least two of an adequately laid-out kitchen, an appropriately located bathroom and WC, and adequate noise insulation. For flats, the threshold is three of four, adding the size and layout of common entrance areas. The criterion also introduces a new duty for most landlords: child-resistant window restrictors, capable of being overridden by an adult, on windows that present a fall risk where a child could reach them. This requires a physical check of every property, and the sector is still seeking clarity on exemptions for windows that physically cannot take a restrictor.

Criterion D, thermal comfort. The property must provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort, tied to energy efficiency. Under the confirmed framework, private rented homes must reach EPC C or equivalent by 1 October 2030 under the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards, unless a valid exemption is registered, well ahead of the 2035 date for the standard as a whole. Beyond the rating, the main heating system must be able to heat the whole home, not just one or two rooms, and must be programmable so the tenant controls timing and temperature. If your rating is below C, an EPC improvements calculator will show what measures close the gap and at what cost.

Criterion E, free of damp and mould. This is the sharpest departure from the current position. A property fails if a damp and mould hazard is assessed in the more serious HHSRS bands; only the mildest traces fall outside the threshold. That is a far lower tolerance than many landlords apply. A patch of mould in a bathroom corner that might once have been dismissed as tenant condensation could now constitute a failure if a local authority assesses it. This sits alongside Awaab’s Law, which introduces enforceable timescales for fixing serious hazards. In our experience working with self-managing landlords, damp and mould is the issue most often patched rather than resolved, usually because the cause, whether water ingress or poor ventilation, is harder to fix than the visible symptom.

When the Decent Homes Standard applies to private landlords

The standard takes its statutory foundation from the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, which received Royal Assent in October 2025 and gave the government power to set and enforce the criteria through secondary legislation. The implementation date for the private rented sector is 2035, from which local housing authorities will enforce against landlords who do not meet it. The government chose that lead-in deliberately, to let landlords absorb the other reforms first, including the end of Section 21 from 1 May 2026, the PRS landlord database and the extension of Awaab’s Law.

It is a deadline for compliance, not a cue to wait. Larger capital works, a roof replacement, window upgrades or a heating overhaul, need contractor availability, and those contractors are already under pressure from the energy efficiency programme. A landlord who starts in 2033 competes for the same trades as one who started in 2026, at higher cost and with less room to manage disruption to tenancies. The EPC C requirement under criterion D, due by 1 October 2030, is the first hard milestone and is effectively live for planning purposes now.

Decent Homes Standard checklist: a five-criterion self-assessment

Detailed statutory guidance is due later, but the confirmed criteria are enough to run a property-by-property audit now. Work through these questions for each property, grouped by criterion.

Criterion A, hazards

• Has the property had a gas safety check in the last twelve months, with no outstanding advisories?

• Has it had an EICR in the last five years, with any unsatisfactory items remedied in time?

• Is there any unrepaired structural damage to roof, floors, ceilings or staircase?

• Are there working smoke alarms on every floor, and a carbon monoxide alarm where there is a solid-fuel appliance?

• Has damp been identified in the last two years, and was the cause fixed rather than just the surface treated?

Criterion B, state of repair

• Is the roof watertight, with no missing, slipped or cracked tiles?

• Are external walls free of significant cracking, spalling or water penetration?

• Do all windows and external doors open, close and seal properly?

• Is the guttering intact and clear?

• Is the boiler serviced within the last twelve months and heating the home reliably?

Criterion C, facilities and restrictors

• Does the kitchen give adequate space for food preparation and storage?

• Is the bathroom appropriately located relative to bedrooms?

• Have you identified every window a child could reach that presents a fall risk, and are child-resistant restrictors fitted?

Criterion D, thermal comfort

• What is the current EPC rating, and if it is below C, is there a plan to reach C by 1 October 2030?

• Can the heating system heat every habitable room?

• Does it have a programmable thermostat or timer the tenant controls?

Criterion E, damp and mould

• Has any tenant reported damp or mould in the last two years, and was the response a structural investigation or a surface clean?

• Is there adequate ventilation in the bathroom and kitchen?

• Is there any visible mould at all, and if so, has the cause been identified rather than assumed?

The properties that need the most remedial work tend to be the ones where maintenance has been reactive. A property where issues were logged, fixed promptly and documented is far easier to bring into compliance, and to prove compliant, than one where problems were handled informally. August’s compliance checklist tracks these obligations and renewal dates across a portfolio so nothing slips.

What happens if a property fails

From 2035, local housing authorities will enforce the standard using the existing HHSRS machinery and the Renters’ Rights Act enforcement powers. A council may inspect on a tenant complaint, as part of a proactive programme, or where the PRS database flags a property. If it finds a breach, it can serve an improvement notice specifying works and a deadline, and in serious cases take emergency remedial action and recover the cost. Civil penalties run up to £40,000 in the most serious cases, with criminal prosecution and Rent Repayment Orders of up to two years’ rent also available.

It is worth being clear about what is not yet settled. The detailed secondary legislation, the assessment methodology for councils, and the guidance for tenants on raising a complaint had not been published as of mid-2026, and the government has committed to publishing them in due course. Cost caps and exemptions, including for access, MEES and physical or planning constraints, are being confirmed. For the current position, check the gov.uk Renters’ Rights collection rather than secondary sources.

What to do now, with the deadline years away

The case for acting early is practical, not premature. Start with a written audit of every property against the five criteria using the checklist above. For most landlords with well-kept properties, the two gaps that surface first are window restrictors and EPC rating, and both are actionable immediately: restrictor kits are inexpensive and need no specialist, and an EPC assessment shows exactly what is needed to reach C. For properties needing more, treat the 1 October 2030 EPC C date as the first milestone and get into a contractor’s schedule while there is slack in it.

Documentation matters as much as the works. A council inspecting in 2035 will want evidence that a property has been maintained to standard over time, not just that it passes on the day. Service records, EICR and gas certificates, inspection reports and records of damp investigations and their fixes are that evidence, and August’s document storage keeps them in one place against each property, alongside the property standards and compliance requirements of the wider Act. The landlords who will struggle in 2035 are those who treat the standard as a problem for later; the ones who find it manageable start the audit now, close the easy gaps, and plan the capital items across the next several years.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Decent Homes Standard apply to my property right now? 

Not yet as an enforceable PRS standard. It currently applies to social housing, and extends to the private rented sector for enforcement from 2035. Many of the underlying duties, such as freedom from Category 1 hazards and adequate heating and safety, are already legal obligations.

My bathroom has some mould. Does it fail criterion E automatically? 

Not automatically. Criterion E is assessed by HHSRS band, and only the more serious bands fail; the mildest traces do not. You cannot self-assess the band, so if there is visible mould, the safest course is to find the cause, fix it and document what you did.

Will leasehold flats be treated differently? 

The standard applies to the landlord responsible for the tenancy, but where a freeholder controls the building fabric, enforcement notices can be served on both. If your lease restricts structural works, engage the freeholder early about how criterion B will be met.

What if I cannot afford the works? 

The government has committed to guidance on cost caps and exemptions, with the detail still to be confirmed. In the meantime, address the criteria that need little capital first, and plan the larger works early to spread the cost across the period to 2035.

The bottom line

The Decent Homes Standard turns a set of good-practice expectations into an enforceable standard for the private rented sector from 2035, with the EPC C element biting sooner. For landlords who maintain properties well and keep records, most of it is already business as usual. The work now is to audit honestly against the five criteria, fix the easy gaps, and build a plan for anything larger while there is time and contractor capacity to do it calmly.

Want your certificates, service records and inspection history in one place before the standard bites? Start for free. No credit card required, free for up to two properties.

This article reflects the law and government guidance as of June 2026. The extension of the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector is subject to ongoing secondary legislation and guidance from MHCLG. Check gov.uk for the latest position before making compliance decisions.