A Renter's Guide To Spring

Spring is the useful season for renters, and almost nobody uses it that way.

Winter has just shown you every fault the property has. The landlord isn't dealing with a queue of emergencies. Contractors have availability. And anything you report now gets fixed properly rather than patched in a hurry in December.

The short version

• Report winter's damage now, while there's evidence and no queue.
• Deal with mould properly, and report the cause rather than just wiping it.
• Spring is when to raise insulation and heating, not October.
• Check your paperwork. Gas certificate, deposit protection, electrical report.

Walk the property and write it down

An hour with your phone, room by room, before the evidence fades.

Damp and mould. Corners of external walls, behind furniture, around window frames, inside wardrobes on outside walls, the ceiling of the top floor. Photograph it now, because by July it will have dried out and be much harder to prove.

Water ingress. Stains on ceilings, tide marks on walls, blistered paint, damp patches around windows. A stain that appeared in January is evidence of something that will happen again in October.

Windows and doors. Failed double glazing that's misted, rotten frames, seals gone, anything that didn't close squarely all winter.

Outside. Gutters and downpipes, slipped roof tiles, cracked render, blocked gullies, fence panels that came down in a storm.

Report all of it in one email, with dated photographs, and ask for a timescale. Spring reporting is the whole trick: the same list in November competes with everyone else's boiler. What your landlord must fix.

Mould, done properly

The classic spring job, and the classic argument.

Clean what's there, and then deal with the cause, because mould that reappears every winter is a building problem rather than a cleaning problem.

Government guidance is explicit that it is "totally unreasonable to blame damp and mould in the home on 'lifestyle choices'", and identifies the causes as building deficiencies, inadequate ventilation, inadequate heating and poor energy efficiency. Awaab's Law sets statutory timescales for investigating and acting.

So report it in writing with the photographs you took in February, say who lives in the property, and don't accept "open a window more" as the answer. Damp and mould.

The paperwork check

Twenty minutes, once a year, and it occasionally turns up money.

• Gas safety certificate. Annual. If you haven't seen one in over twelve months, ask in writing. It's a criminal matter, not admin.
• Electrical installation condition report. At least every five years, marked satisfactory.
• Deposit protection. Check it's still held with the scheme, free, on the scheme's website. If it was never protected, the penalty is one to three times the deposit. Your deposit rights.
• Licensing. Check the council's public register for the address. An unlicensed licensable property supports a rent repayment order of up to twelve months' rent.
• Any fees you were charged. Admin, referencing, renewal and inventory fees are prohibited payments and recoverable. Claiming money back.

Test the alarms and undo the winter draught-proofing

Press and hold the test button on every smoke and carbon monoxide alarm. Report anything that doesn't sound with a new battery.

Then take down the shrink-fit window film, keep the draught excluders for next year, and open the trickle vents you may have closed. If you covered anything you shouldn't have, uncover it now.

Ventilate, now that it's easy

The one season when airing the flat costs you nothing.

Open windows properly on dry days. Pull furniture away from external walls and check behind it. Air wardrobes and cupboards on outside walls. Wash and dry curtains and soft furnishings that took a winter of condensation.

It genuinely resets the property, and it makes the autumn much easier.

The spring clean that matters

Not for its own sake, for your deposit.

The places that get charged for at check-out are the places nobody cleans during the tenancy: inside the oven, the fridge seals, extractor filters, window tracks, behind the toilet, the inside of kitchen cupboards, limescale on shower screens and taps.

Doing these annually is much easier than doing three years of it in one week while moving out. And limescale left for years becomes damage rather than fair wear and tear. Getting your deposit back.

The garden

Check your tenancy agreement, because routine upkeep is usually yours and structural work usually isn't.

Normally yours: mowing, weeding, keeping it tidy, clearing accessible gullies and drains.

Normally theirs: trees, boundary walls and fences, paths and steps that have become unsafe, drainage, and anything structural.

Ask before removing plants, cutting anything substantially back or changing the layout. And report unsafe paving or a leaning fence now rather than in November. Who looks after the garden.

Sort the energy side

• Submit a meter reading at the end of the heating season, so your account reflects real usage.
• Review your tariff. Spring is a sensible time to switch, and it's easier to think about than in January.
• Look up the EPC and read the recommendations. It names the specific improvements the property needs.
• Raise insulation and heating now. A landlord asked about loft insulation in April has months to sort it. Asked in October, they'll defer it. And the minimum standard rises to EPC C by 1 October 2030, which is a reasonable thing to mention.

Sustainable living when you rent.

The annual think

Since tenancies are periodic now, with no renewal date to force the question, spring is as good a moment as any to ask it deliberately.

Is the property working? Was it warm enough? Are repairs dealt with, or chased three times? Is the rent right against what's advertised nearby? Do you want to be here next winter?

If the answer is no, you can give two months' notice whenever you like, and moving in summer is considerably easier than moving in January. Staying or moving on.

The honest summary

Walk the property, photograph what winter did, and report it all in one email now while there's evidence and no queue.

Check the gas certificate, the deposit protection and the licensing register. Test the alarms, open the vents, and clean the things that get charged for later.

And raise insulation and heating in spring, because that's the only time of year anyone will actually do something about it.

And if the winter was bad, review the property. Someone will view it in July, in the sunshine, and have no way of knowing what February was like.

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This guide covers England and reflects the position at August 2026. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland differ. General information rather than legal advice. Sources: GOV.UK, private renting repairs, GOV.UK guidance on damp and mould.