rentready / Landlord database guides

How many rental EPCs expire before your landlord database deadline

Written by GenZAgents, reviewed 29 October 2026. Our own analysis of government data. Method and sources below.

About 243,000 energy performance certificates (EPCs) lodged in England for a rental reach their ten-year expiry between 1 November 2026 and their region's landlord database deadline. About 76,000 of them lapse inside the region's own three-month registration window. A lapsed EPC does not stop you registering: you upload it and give the start date of the current tenancy. But any new tenancy needs a valid EPC, so a landlord re-letting in the next year should check the date first.

By region

Each region has three months to register, from the dates in the deadline guide. The West Midlands goes first: about 9,100 rental EPCs there reach ten years before its 14 March 2027 deadline. Later regions have longer to wait, so more of their certificates lapse first. London has the most.

Rounded to the nearest 100. * The North East figure includes a one-off quarter: 27,114 rental EPCs were lodged there from April to June 2017, about four times its usual quarter, which looks like a bulk lodgement by a large landlord. Download the table (CSV).

By council

The same count for each of England's 296 councils, placed in the region that sets its deadline. Leaving aside Sunderland, where a single bulk quarter gives about 25,880, the most are in Hackney (4,400), Somerset (4,050), Liverpool (3,630), Brent (3,520), Lambeth (3,480). In the West Midlands, which registers first, the most are in Birmingham (2,040), Sandwell (660), Shropshire (620).

"Before deadline": rental EPCs reaching ten years between 1 November 2026 and the region's deadline. "2028 to 2030": those reaching ten years in those three years. Rounded to the nearest 10. * Includes a one-off quarter of at least 500 certificates and over three times the council's usual quarter, likely a bulk lodgement by a large landlord. Councils abolished since 2019 are counted in the council that replaced them (for example Harrogate in North Yorkshire). Download the council table (CSV).

The bigger wave: 2028 to 2030

Rental EPC lodgements rose sharply from 2018, the year the E minimum started to apply to new lettings (1 April 2018). Ten years on, those certificates come due together: about 467,000 in 2028, 625,000 in 2029 and 548,000 in 2030, against 305,000 in 2026. That lands just before 1 October 2030, when the government plans to require a C rating for all private tenancies. The C minimum still needs legislation and will be measured on new EPC metrics (see the EPC guide).

Rental EPCs in England reaching ten years, by year (thousands)

Method and limits

• Source. Table D4(b) of the government's live tables on Energy Performance of Buildings Certificates (published 29 October 2026, data to 30 September 2026): domestic EPCs by region and by council, quarter and type of transaction. We use the "Rental" transaction type, England's nine regions and its councils.
• Councils. The council sheet keeps abolished districts under their old names for the quarters before each reorganisation, so we add them into today's council (Buckinghamshire, North and West Northamptonshire, Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness, North Yorkshire, Somerset). Each council's figure uses its region's deadline. The council figures add up exactly to the regions.
• Expiry. An EPC is valid for ten years, so a certificate lodged in a quarter reaches ten years in the same quarter a decade later. Where a date range cuts a quarter, we count that quarter's certificates in proportion to its days.
• These are certificates, not homes. A home may have had a newer EPC since, so the number of let homes with a lapsed EPC is lower. Certificates lodged for a sale and later used for a let are not counted, which pulls the other way.
• Private and social lettings. The table does not split rental EPCs by landlord type, so housing association lettings are included.
• Revisions. The government aligns these tables to its address-level data, and opt-outs are removed, so figures can fall slightly between publications.
• Reproduce it. The input and the script are in the rentready repository (tools/gen_epc_story.py).

Journalists and landlord bodies may use these figures with credit to rentready by GenZAgents. Questions: GitHub issues.

Related guides

• EPC ratings and the landlord database
• Deadlines by region
• What you need to register

Sources

• Live tables on Energy Performance of Buildings Certificates, table D4(b) (gov.uk)
• Domestic private rented property: minimum energy efficiency standard, landlord guidance (gov.uk)
• Get ready to register: Register your rental property (official guidance, housinghub.campaign.gov.uk)
• Draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 (legislation.gov.uk; not yet made)

Not legal advice. Check gov.uk before relying on this. Last checked 29 Oct 2026.