No law in England requires a landlord to fit heating in every single room. What the law requires is a home fit for human habitation, and the standard councils use to assess a cold home is a fixed space-heating appliance in each occupied room, able to hold 21 °C in living rooms and 18 °C in sleeping rooms when it is minus 1 °C outside. This page sets out where that standard comes from, what counts as heating a landlord provides, and the route open to a tenant when the heating or hot water fails. All of it applies to England; gas duties come from the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 as amended.
Does a landlord have to provide heating in every room in England?
No Act in England says a landlord must fit a radiator in every room. The duty is written the other way round. Section 9A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, inserted by the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, requires a rented home in England to be fit for human habitation at the start of the tenancy and kept that way. Fitness is judged against the prescribed hazards in section 2 of the Housing Act 2004, and excess cold is one of them.
The every-room expectation comes from the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) Operating Guidance, the manual councils use to score hazards. It treats the British Standard minimum as a fixed space-heating appliance to each occupied room, available at all times. An unheated box room is therefore not automatically unlawful. It is evidence an environmental health officer weighs when deciding whether the home has an excess cold hazard.
The short answer: no statute in England uses the words one radiator per room. The working standard is a fixed heating appliance in each occupied room, available at all times, applied when a council assesses excess cold under the fitness duty in section 9A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
Fixed heating or plug-in electric heaters: which counts as the heating a landlord provides?
Guidance for England describes a landlord's heating as a fixed system that warms the whole home. Portable plug-in heaters are not described that way in any of the standards below.
| Standard applied in England | Fixed heating (central heating or storage heaters) | Plug-in portable heaters |
|---|---|---|
| How to rent a safe home (GOV.UK) | Central heating that works, or another adequate fixed type throughout the property, such as storage heaters | Not named anywhere in the guidance as an acceptable alternative |
| Decent Homes thermal comfort criterion | Efficient heating with a distribution system serving two or more rooms, or same-fuel storage heaters in two or more rooms | Serves one room and forms no distribution system, so the criterion is not met |
| HHSRS excess cold assessment | A fixed space-heating appliance to each occupied room, available at all times | Removable, so the room has no fixed appliance for the assessor to score |
| New Decent Homes Standard policy statement | The primary heating system must heat the whole home and be programmable by tenants | Heats a single room and is not a whole-home primary heating system |
| Repair duty, section 11 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 | Installations for space heating and heating water must be kept in repair and in proper working order | Section 11 is written around installations in the dwelling-house, not appliances carried in |
Electric heaters handed over while a boiler is out of action are a stopgap during a repair. Left in place as the heating itself, they match none of the descriptions above. Where a boiler keeps failing, the question becomes repair or replacement, which is covered in when a landlord should replace a boiler.
What temperature must a rented home in England be able to reach?
The HHSRS Operating Guidance works to 21 °C in living rooms and 18 °C in sleeping rooms when the outside temperature is minus 1 °C. The heating must be able to hold those temperatures efficiently and be available at all times. These are assessment figures for an excess cold hazard in a rented home, not a thermostat setting a landlord has to prove day by day.
The same guidance sets out why the figures matter. Below 16 °C there is a serious risk to respiratory and cardiovascular health, and the risk is higher for older occupants. Below 10 °C the guidance points to a risk of hypothermia.
A single cold room does not always mean the heating is undersized. Sludge, air or an unbalanced system can leave one radiator cool while the rest of the house is warm. An engineer judges that by a room-by-room heat loss calculation against what the emitters in each room can actually deliver.
Which law makes a landlord responsible for the heating and the hot water?
Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 puts the heating and hot water installations on the landlord in England and Wales. It implies a covenant to keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwelling-house for space heating and for heating water. The same section covers the installations for the supply of water, gas and electricity, for sanitation, and the structure and exterior.
Hot water is a separate limb of that duty, not an extra. A failed cylinder or immersion circuit sits with the landlord in the same way a dead boiler does. GOV.UK puts it plainly for private renting: the landlord is always responsible for repairs to heating and hot water, and to gas appliances, pipes, flues and ventilation.
The standard of repair is judged with regard to the age, character and prospective life of the dwelling and the locality. Section 11 does not cover work the tenant is liable for through the duty to use the premises in a tenant-like manner. It also does not cover rebuilding after fire, flood or inevitable accident. A tenant cannot be made to carry out the landlord's repairs, but must give reasonable access for them.
Heating controls and the annual gas check: what else a landlord has to arrange
Two duties sit beside the heating itself: controls the occupier can use, and gas safety. Boiler Plus has applied in England since 6 April 2018 under Approved Document L. Every boiler installation needs time and temperature control, and a minimum ErP seasonal space heating efficiency of 92%. A replacement combi needs one extra measure as well: weather compensation, load compensation, or a smart control with automation and optimisation.
Controls matter for the fitness question too. The New Decent Homes Standard policy statement says the primary heating system must heat the whole home and be programmable by tenants. A locked programmer in a cupboard the tenant cannot reach works against that description.
- Maintenance of all pipework, appliances and flues provided for tenants' use, by a Gas Safe registered engineer — Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 as amended.
- A gas safety check every 12 months, and within 12 months of installing a new appliance or flue.
- The record kept for two years.
- A copy to existing tenants within 28 days of the check, and to new tenants before they move in.
The duties behind that paperwork are set out in landlord gas safety in England, and the check itself is arranged as a landlord gas safety certificate (CP12).
What can a tenant check on the heating, and what needs a Gas Safe registered engineer?
A tenant in a rented home can safely look at four things before reporting a fault with the heating. Everything else on a gas appliance belongs to a Gas Safe registered engineer.
- The boiler pressure on the gauge or display.
- The thermostat and programmer settings, including holiday or summer modes and the time clock.
- The reset button on the appliance.
- Bleeding a radiator that is cold at the top while the rest of the system is hot.
Anything touching gas, the flue, seals, condensate inside the appliance, or opening the boiler case is work for a Gas Safe registered engineer under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 as amended. That holds whoever lives in the property. The order of those checks is set out in what to check when a boiler has stopped.
No heating or hot water in a rented home: what route does a tenant in England have?
England sets no single statutory deadline for how long a private landlord may leave a home without heating or hot water. The route runs through the repair duty and the council instead. Report the fault to the landlord or agent in writing and keep the dates. If nothing happens, the local council can inspect under the HHSRS and assess excess cold.
Under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 a tenant can also go to court directly. The explanatory notes describe the remedies as an order requiring the landlord to reduce or remove the hazard, and damages.
Awaab's Law adds fixed timescales for investigating hazards, but so far only in the social rented sector in England, where it applies from 27 October 2025. Phase 2 from 30 November 2026 extends the significant-hazard duties to further hazards, including excess cold. Extension to private rented tenancies has been consulted on and no implementation date is set.
If you let a property in London or the surrounding counties, you can arrange the annual gas check on its appliances as a landlord gas safety certificate.
Sources
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 11 (repairing obligations)
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 9A (fitness for human habitation, England)
- Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 — explanatory notes
- Housing Health and Safety Rating System: Operating Guidance
- How to rent a safe home — GOV.UK
- Private renting: repairs — GOV.UK
- The New Decent Homes Standard: policy statement — GOV.UK
- Gas safety checks: who needs them? — HSE
- Gas safety check records and what to keep — HSE
- Awaab's Law in the social rented sector — GOV.UK
- Worcester Bosch: Boiler Plus legislation
- Ofgem: heat networks