Scope: England and Wales. Retention periods below are practical minimums driven by limitation periods and enforcement windows, not a single statutory list — no such list exists. Verified against the legislation on 14 August 2026.
There is no statute that says "keep your records for six years". What there is instead is a set of moments — a tribunal, a council investigation, a deposit adjudication, an insurance claim — where somebody asks you to prove something you did years ago.
A landlord who complied perfectly and cannot prove it is, in a dispute, in the same position as one who did nothing. That sentence is the whole reason for this page.
What to keep, and for how long
| Record | Keep for | Why |
|---|
| Tenancy agreement and any variations | 6 years after the tenancy ends | Contract limitation period |
| Proof of service of every document | 6 years after the tenancy ends | The commonest thing you will be asked to prove |
| Gas Safety Records | At least 2 years, and practically longer | Regulation 36 requires 2; disputes run longer |
| EICR and remedial evidence | Until superseded, plus 6 years | Proving the 28-day remedial window was met |
| Deposit protection certificate and prescribed information | 6 years after the tenancy ends | The claim survives the tenancy |
| Inventory and check-out, with photographs | 6 years after the tenancy ends | Deposit adjudication and damage claims |
| Licence, application and correspondence | Life of the licence, plus 6 years | RRO defence and civil penalty appeals |
| Right to Rent check evidence (England) | 1 year after the tenancy ends, minimum | The statutory excuse depends on it |
| Rent records | 6 years, and longer for tax | Arrears claims and HMRC |
| Repair reports and your responses | 6 years | Disrepair counterclaims, Awaab's Law timescales |
Where two periods conflict, keep for the longer. The cost of storage is nil and the cost of the gap is the case.
What "evidence" has to look like
A tribunal is not persuaded by an assertion. It is persuaded by contemporaneous records:
- Dated at the time, not reconstructed afterwards. A note made on the day beats a recollection made for the hearing.
- Showing what was actually sent, not a blank template. Keep the completed document.
- Attributable — who did it, when, and how you know.
- Unaltered. A photograph with metadata beats a photograph pasted into a document.
For service specifically, see method and proof of service: the single largest category of avoidable loss.
Data protection cuts the other way
Keeping everything forever is its own breach. You are a data controller, and personal data must not be kept longer than necessary:
- Unsuccessful applicants — delete their documents once the decision is made. Holding a rejected applicant's passport scan for years is a breach nobody notices until somebody asks. See what you can check.
- Right to Rent — keep the check evidence, not a library of underlying documents; the online response is itself the evidence.
- Former tenants — when the retention reason expires, delete.
Retention is a decision with a reason and an end date, not a habit.
Where we sit in this
We record dates and details, not documents. Certificates are recorded, not on file, unless you switch storage on yourself in Settings — so the files above remain yours to keep, and this page is not a sales pitch for a vault we deliberately do not sell.
What that means practically: we can tell you when an EICR is about to expire; we cannot produce the certificate for you at a hearing. Keep the document.
A workable system
- One folder per property, one subfolder per tenancy.
- Name files with the date first —
2026-08-14 gas record.pdf sorts itself.
- Save proof of service with the document it proves.
- Back it up somewhere that survives a laptop.
- Diarise the deletions as well as the renewals.
Run the free compliance check to see which of these documents your property needs in the first place.
Common questions
How long should a landlord keep tenancy records?
There is no single statutory list. In practice six years after the tenancy ends covers most of it, because that is the contract limitation period and it captures deposit claims, disrepair counterclaims and arrears. Gas safety records have a two-year statutory minimum but are worth keeping longer, licence papers should survive the licence by six years for rent repayment order and penalty appeals, and where two periods conflict you keep for the longer.
What does a tribunal actually want to see?
Contemporaneous records: dated at the time rather than reconstructed for the hearing, showing what was actually sent rather than a blank template, attributable to a person, and unaltered. A note made on the day beats a recollection made for the hearing, and a photograph with its metadata beats one pasted into a document.
Can I just keep everything forever?
No — that is its own breach. You are a data controller and personal data must not be kept longer than necessary. Unsuccessful applicants' documents should go once the decision is made; holding a rejected applicant's passport scan for years is a breach nobody notices until somebody asks. Retention should be a decision with a reason and an end date.
Do you store my certificates for me?
No, by default. We record dates and details rather than documents — certificates are recorded, not on file, unless you switch storage on yourself in Settings. So we can tell you when an EICR is about to expire, but we cannot produce the certificate for you at a hearing. Keep the document.