Tenancy compliance checklist. A printable checklist for setting up a tenancy — the documents to serve, the checks to make, the deposit, and the dates that have to be evidenced afterwards.

Tenancy set-up is where almost every later problem is created. The documents served at the start, and the evidence that they were served, determine what a landlord can do a year later — and the file is almost never assembled properly, because at the point it matters nobody is thinking about the point it will matter.

Dates and methods are recorded rather than ticks. 'Served' proves nothing; 'emailed to both tenants on 14 March, read receipt saved, hard copy handed over at check-in' is what survives being challenged, and the difference costs nothing at the time.

Right to rent is recorded by outcome, not by copying documents onto the checklist. Where the check applies, it is a specific process with its own evidence requirements, and a copy of a passport attached to a general checklist is both the wrong evidence and an unnecessary holding of someone's identity documents.

Deposit handling is on the same sheet as everything else because the consequences of getting it wrong are the most mechanical. Protection and prescribed information are separate steps and both are time-bound, and the file needs to show both happened — not that the deposit reached the scheme.