Expired EPC certificate: can you still rent the property
Ten years is a long time to remember a date. Most landlords notice their EPC only when a letting portal asks for it again, and by then the certificate has often already run out.
Last reviewed 21 August 2026 · England
Gas and electrical certificates announce themselves. An engineer books the visit, or a landlord gets a reminder from somewhere. An EPC certificate does neither. It sits in a folder for ten years, nobody chases it, and the first sign it has expired is usually a letting portal or an agent asking for a valid one before your listing can go live.
What an expired EPC actually stops
An expired EPC certificate does not undo a tenancy that is already running. It stops you doing the next thing with the property.
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| A tenancy already running | Continues. An expired EPC does not end an existing tenancy or give either side a reason to end it early. |
| Re-marketing the same property | Blocked. You need a valid EPC in hand before you can advertise the property again, even to the same tenant on a new agreement. |
| Selling the property | Blocked. A valid EPC has to be commissioned before the property goes on the market, same as letting it. |
A tenant who signed a year ago, on an in-date certificate, keeps living there on the same terms. The certificate expiring mid-tenancy changes nothing for them. It changes something for you the moment you try to re-let, renew on a new agreement, or put the property up for sale, all of which need a valid EPC in place before marketing starts, not after.
Why this one catches people out
Gas runs on a twelve-month clock and an EICR on five. Both come round often enough that landlords build a habit around them. Ten years is long enough to buy the house, remortgage it, change letting agents twice, and forget the EPC ever needed renewing at all. By the time it comes up again, the landlord who bought the property is sometimes not the landlord dealing with the renewal.
What doesn’t reset when a tenancy renews
A new fixed term or a rolling periodic tenancy on the same property does not touch the EPC clock either way. The certificate runs from its own issue date, ten years forward, regardless of how many tenancy agreements pass over that time. Confusing a new tenancy agreement with a fresh compliance clock is the same mistake that catches landlords out on gas and electrical certificates, and the EPC is no different.
Booking the renewal before you need it
An EPC assessment does not need the property to be empty or between tenants. You can book an assessor while a tenant is still living there, get the new certificate issued, and have it ready well before the old one lapses. Landlords who wait until they are actually re-marketing lose time they didn’t need to lose, sitting on an unlettable property while the assessment and paperwork catch up.
What to do now
- Find your current EPC and check the issue date, not just the rating on the front.
- Add ten years to that date. That is your real renewal deadline.
- If you are within a few months of it, book the assessment now rather than waiting for a portal to ask.
- Keep the date somewhere you will actually see it again. CertSorted tracks EPC alongside every other certificate on one screen and reminds you at 90, 60, 30 and 7 days before it runs out.
This applies to rental properties in England. EPC rules are set separately in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.