Most landlords think about compliance as a to-do list: get the gas check, get the EICR, protect the deposit. That is the easy half. The hard half, and the one that catches people out, is proving you did all of it, on time, when someone official asks. Since Section 21 was abolished and the new landlord database is on the way, that question is being asked more often and the stakes are higher. This guide is about the proof, not the checklist.
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Why "I was compliant" stopped being enough
For years, the practical reality was that nobody checked your paperwork unless something went badly wrong. A gas certificate sat in a drawer or an inbox, and that was fine, because it was rarely tested.
Three changes have ended that.
First, Section 21 was abolished on 1 May 2026. Every eviction now runs through the evidence-based Section 8 process, and your paperwork is part of the case. Courts scrutinise it. A missing or unprovable gas or electrical record can stall or sink a possession claim, even when the underlying property was perfectly safe.
Second, the new landlord database is coming. From late 2026 the government rolls out a mandatory Private Rented Sector Database. Registration requires you to provide and keep current your compliance documents for every property, and councils will use it to spot gaps proactively rather than waiting for a complaint. A separate Landlord Ombudsman follows, with mandatory membership expected in 2028.
Third, councils have more power. Local authorities gained stronger investigatory powers and can issue civil penalties on a notice process, often triggered by a tenant complaint or a database mismatch, without going to court first.
The common thread is that being compliant now has to be demonstrable. The drawer is no longer good enough.
The difference between a record and a reminder
Here is the trap most landlord software walks people into. A reminder app, a spreadsheet, or a folder of PDFs tells you a certificate exists and when it is due. None of them prove when it was issued, that it has not been altered since, or that you served it on the tenant within the legal window.
That distinction matters because the things you have to prove are not just "did the check happen" but "did I do it on time and tell the tenant on time". For gas, the record must reach the tenant within 28 days of the check. For an EICR, the same 28-day rule applies, and seven days for the council on request. A reminder that the certificate exists does nothing to evidence that you met those service deadlines two years ago when the question finally comes up in a Section 8 hearing.
A PDF can be back-dated. A spreadsheet can be edited. An email can be lost. When the standard of proof shifts from "I'm sure I had it" to "show me", your own unverifiable records are the weakest form of evidence you can offer.
What you actually need to be able to prove
For a typical let in England, the documents and deadlines you may be asked to evidence are:
- Gas safety: a valid CP12, renewed annually, served on the tenant within 28 days of each check, with a continuous chain. Full gas safety rules
- Electrical safety: a satisfactory EICR every five years, served within 28 days, with remedial work evidenced. Full EICR rules
- EPC: a valid certificate at the required rating.
- Deposit protection: the deposit in an approved scheme and the prescribed information served within the statutory deadline.
- Right to Rent: checks carried out and recorded.
- The Renters' Rights Act information sheet: served on existing tenants by 31 May 2026 and at the start of new tenancies.
For each, the useful question is not "do I have it" but "could I prove, to a council officer or a judge, that I had it and served it on time". If the honest answer is "probably, somewhere", that is the gap.
How to keep records that hold up
Whatever system you use, good compliance evidence has four properties:
- Dated independently. Ideally the date a document existed is recorded by something outside your own control, so it cannot be questioned as self-serving.
- Tamper-evident. If a document is changed after the fact, that change should be visible, not hidden.
- Service is logged. Not just the certificate, but proof you sent it to the tenant, and when.
- Exportable as one pack. When a council, insurer, or solicitor asks, you want to hand over one organised bundle, not reconstruct a folder under time pressure.
You can build this yourself with disciplined habits. The reason a tool helps is that it makes the discipline automatic and adds the one thing a folder cannot: independent verification.
How VoxaMTD does it
When you store a certificate in VoxaMTD, we create a cryptographic fingerprint of the document and submit it to an external timestamping authority using the RFC-3161 standard. An independent third party records that this exact document existed at this exact time, and that record sits outside our systems. Change the document by a single character and the fingerprint no longer matches. The result is a compliance history that someone else can verify, rather than one they have to take your word for.
To be precise about what this is: an externally timestamped, independently verifiable record that a document existed and was valid at a point in time. It is not a qualified trust service under eIDAS, and it does not make a legal judgement about whether you met every duty. It gives you clean, tamper-evident evidence; the legal interpretation stays with you and your advisers. When you need it, you can export the whole thing as one organised pack. Proof of service · Evidence bundle export
The compliance record sits in our paid landlord tiers, from £8.99 a month, above the free MTD filing. You can start free and add it when the proof is worth having to you.
This guide is general information about landlord compliance in England and is not legal advice. Rules and timelines are based on government guidance current at the time of writing; check GOV.UK or take advice for your own circumstances.