What Information Should You Keep When Moving Into a Rented Home?
Start your new home record with the documents, photographs, contact details, meter readings and repair references that will be useful later.
When you move into a rented home, keep the tenancy documents, contact details, starting condition record, meter readings and any repair reports together. Those records give you a useful starting point for understanding the home and following up anything that needs attention.
You do not have to document every detail on the first day. Begin with safety concerns, essential information and the condition you can reasonably observe.
This practical checklist is for renters in England. Private and social tenancies can involve different paperwork and responsibilities.
Keep the documents that explain your tenancy
Save your agreement, any check-in or handover documents and information about the payments you are responsible for.
Keep copies of relevant safety documents and the home's energy certificate where provided. If something is missing or unclear, ask the landlord or agent what applies to your tenancy.
Do not treat this as an exhaustive legal-document checklist. The aim is to make the documents you receive easy to find and connect to the correct home.
Save the right contact details
Record the landlord or managing agent's contact details, routine repairs route and emergency repairs number.
Also ask:
- How will repair reports be acknowledged?
- Where will appointment updates arrive?
- Who should you contact about communal areas?
- Is there a tenant handbook or repairs policy?
- How do you report changes to your contact details?
Keep these details somewhere accessible if your phone is unavailable. Our repair-reporting guide explains the information to include when a problem arises.
Check the starting condition record
If you receive an inventory or check-in report, compare it with the home. Note missing items, existing damage or descriptions that do not match what you can see.
Camden Council's inventory guidance explains why an accurate starting record and photographs can be useful. An inventory is not universally required by law, and arrangements vary.
Raise discrepancies promptly through the landlord or agent's process and keep the version you agreed. If no inventory is supplied, ask how the home's starting condition is recorded.
Take useful photographs
Photograph relevant rooms and any existing marks, damage or defects while the context is clear. Combine an overview with closer details where helpful, and label the room and date.
For example, “small stain beneath bedroom window at move-in” is more informative than an unlabeled close-up. Do not infer the cause from a photograph.
Keep the original files securely. Avoid including identity documents, other people's belongings or sensitive household information unnecessarily.
Photographs supplement a report; they do not replace telling the landlord about an active problem.
Record meters and understand the bills
Where you can safely access them, note the gas, electricity and water readings that apply, along with the date. Check that each meter serves your home, particularly in a shared meter cupboard.
Shelter's utility-bills guidance recommends recording meter readings and photographs when moving in and out, and sharing the readings with the relevant suppliers.
Ask who supplies and pays for energy. Ofgem's guidance for rented homes explains why the agreement and billing arrangement matter. Communal heating can work differently from an individual gas or electricity account.
Our home running-costs guide helps you organise the bills that are actually your responsibility.
Ask how the home's equipment works
Request instructions for heating, hot water and ventilation. Find out how to report a fault, rather than experimenting with unfamiliar equipment.
Ask about any safety checks or demonstrations included in the handover. Do not assume a recorded check guarantees that nothing can go wrong later.
Your EPC can provide energy information, but it is not a live inspection of every system.
Report existing problems separately
An entry on an inventory may describe damage without creating a repair request. If something needs attention, report it through the repairs service and keep the reference.
Explain that the issue was present when you moved in, where it is and how it affects the household. For an immediate safety concern, use the urgent or emergency route without waiting to finish the checklist.
Build on the starting record
Add later repairs, inspections and changes to the same home history. This makes it easier to distinguish an existing issue from something that appeared afterwards.
House Krowd can help you organise that information. Keep reporting concerns through the landlord's channels; saving a photograph or observation in your own record does not itself notify them.
Sources and review date
Sources checked on 2 November 2026. Check the documents and arrangements that apply to your own tenancy.