A tenancy is a contract with duties on both sides. The landlord's duties get the headlines — repairs, safety, deposit protection — but yours matter just as much, because they are the terms the deposit is measured against and the relationship rests on. This guide sets out what tenants are actually responsible for in an English assured shorthold tenancy, why each duty exists, and what “doing it well” looks like in practice. None of it is complicated; most of it is calendar hygiene and honesty.

Paying rent

Rent is due on the date the agreement says, usually monthly in advance, and paying it on time is the single duty that outshadows all the others. Set the standing order on move-in day for the day after payday, not the day rent is due — the buffer is free insurance against a bank's bad morning. If a payment will bounce, tell us the day you know. A landlord who hears “the salary moved to the fifth, payment comes Friday” plans around it; a landlord who discovers the miss from a returned payment starts the formal process, which is worse for everyone and still ends with the rent being paid.

Holding deposits and rent in advance are capped by the Tenant Fees Act, and so is what can be charged when rent runs late — usually interest at three percent above the Bank of England base rate after fourteen days, per the agreement. Know the terms you signed; they are the terms that apply, and our fees page lists every permitted payment so nothing arrives as a surprise.

Universal Credit and housing benefit tenants: the payment schedule can differ from calendar-month rent, and it is worth agreeing the split payment pattern with us at the start rather than explaining arrears patterns at the end. We work with every lawful payment arrangement; what we need is transparency about which one applies.

Looking after the home

The law asks tenants to keep the interior in a reasonably clean condition and to use the property “in a tenant-like manner” — an old phrase that means treating the home like the responsible adult you are. In practice: ventilate against mould by opening trickle vents or windows daily, especially in winter; wipe condensation off windowsills; clean the appliances you use; clear drains before they block; change smoke alarm batteries where the alarm is tenant-maintainable; and keep the garden to the standard the tenancy sets, if the tenancy includes it.

Fair wear and tear is the boundary that protects you: ordinary use over time — carpet worn along a hallway line, paint fading, a handle that loosens — is not chargeable at checkout. Damage is: burns, holes, broken tiles, wine on the mattress. The inventory decides which is which, which is why you should read yours at move-in and photograph anything you would describe differently. Disagreeing with an inventory on day two is a conversation; disagreeing on day seven hundred is a dispute.

Alterations need written permission, and almost always get it for the reasonable ones: picture hooks with the right fixings, a shelf bracket, the satellite dish the building already allows. Unauthorised alterations — painted walls, removed doors, the “temporary” home cinema wiring — are damage plus breach, and they are the one category tenants consistently underestimate. Ask first; the answer is usually yes, and then it is documented.

Reporting repairs

Your responsibility is not to fix the boiler; it is to report the boiler. Landlords in England must keep the structure, exterior and core services — heating, hot water, gas, electricity, sanitation — in repair, but their duty to fix starts when they know. A slow leak reported on Tuesday is a repair visit; the same leak discovered at checkout as rotted skirting is a deduction, because silence turned a repair into damage.

Report through the channel the tenancy sets — our online form or the 24-hour line for managed homes — with photos and a sentence about when it started. Emergencies, meaning gas smells, total power or water loss, uncontainable leaks, or heating failure in cold weather, get same-day triage; routine jobs are scheduled within normal working days. Allow access for the fix with the notice given, and if the first appointment does not solve it, say so in writing to the same thread so the history stays attached to the job.

If a repair stalls, escalate in writing and keep the thread. Our managed properties have an internal escalation to a director within the same week; tenants of other landlords should write formally to the landlord, and the council's environmental health team exists as the backstop for genuine disrepair. What tenants should not do is repair-and-deduct without legal advice or withhold rent as leverage — rent withholding hands the landlord a possession claim regardless of the original fault, and it is the worst trade in renting.

Access and inspections

Tenants must allow access for genuine purposes — repairs, inspections, safety checks, viewings near the end — with at least twenty-four hours' written notice in most cases, at reasonable times. The annual gas safety check is a legal duty for the landlord, and refusing access can put the tenant in breach while leaving everyone less safe; if the offered times genuinely do not work, say so and offer alternatives. What tenants are not required to accept is turn-ups without notice, except in true emergencies like a burst pipe.

Inspections, done properly, are for you as much as the landlord: the six-monthly mid-term is where the small leak, the mould patch behind the wardrobe and the boiler's odd noise get caught early, at nobody's charge. Tidy is not required — this is your home, not a show flat — but access to the rooms, the meter cupboard and under the sinks is.

Neighbours, noise and other people

The tenancy asks you not to cause nuisance or annoyance to neighbours, which covers noise, parking, bin behaviour and the general courtesies of shared buildings. UK noise rules of thumb: everyday living is fine, amplified late-night sound is not, and anti-social hours run roughly eleven at night to seven in the morning. Housemates: everyone named on the agreement is jointly responsible for it, which means one housemate's unpaid rent is everyone's problem on paper — choose accordingly, and sort the house rules before move-in rather than at the first argument.

Subletting, hosting paying guests, or listing the home short-term without written permission is breach territory in most agreements, and unauthorised subletting can be a serious matter indeed. Smoking is property-specific: where the agreement says no smoking indoors, it means it, and the smell at checkout is a measurable, chargeable condition. Pets follow the same rule of ask-first; where the building and landlord allow them, it goes in writing with any conditions attached.

The rules that catch people out

A few duties hide in plain sight. Provide accurate information on applications — false statements are grounds to lose the holding deposit and, later, the tenancy. Do not change the locks without permission and, where you do, provide a key. Store nothing in escape routes — the hallway bike is a fire-safety issue, not a storage choice. Register for the local council tax and utilities as the agreement assigns them, because an unregistered account becomes a charge. And read the letters the building sends: the boiler service you ignore is the boiler that fails in January, at everyone's worst convenience.

The end of the tenancy

Give notice exactly as the agreement specifies — in writing, for the notice period stated — and agree the checkout date early. Then work the pre-checkout checklist: the deep clean to the standard of the check-in report, all keys counted and returned, every bulb working, walls back to their agreed colour, furniture back where the inventory found it, meters read and photographed, mail redirected. The deposit is returned against the check-in inventory; tenants who follow the checklist lose nothing but the key, and tenants who dispute a deduction have the scheme's free adjudication behind them.

Every good tenant habit in one sentence: pay on time, report early, ventilate often, ask before changing, and leave the home as the inventory found it.— The H1 Housing lettings desk