Can a landlord control the heating? It is one of the most common questions landlords and tenants ask, and it is usually answered badly online. A landlord controlled thermostat is not automatically unlawful, and a tenant’s right to warmth is not unlimited. The line sits somewhere in between, and knowing where it falls is the difference between a sensible energy strategy and a dispute you will lose.
Short answer: Yes, a landlord can set schedules and temperature limits on a rental property's heating. What a landlord cannot do is leave the property without adequate heating. Control that keeps rooms within a safe, comfortable band is lawful; control that leaves a home cold risks breaching your repairing and fitness obligations.
Three obligations do most of the work here.
Notice what none of these say: none of them give the tenant an absolute right to set any temperature they like. They give the tenant a right to a home that is not cold. That distinction is the whole answer to the question.
There is no single statutory number that a private rented home must be heated to. What exists is guidance derived from the assessment of excess cold, commonly expressed as being able to reach around 18°C in bedrooms and 21°C in living rooms when it is roughly 1°C outside. The World Health Organization has long used 18°C as the reference point for a healthy indoor temperature.
The practical reading for a landlord is that the property must be capable of reaching those temperatures and the occupant must be able to achieve them. A control scheme that caps the property below that range is where risk starts.
Separately, privately rented properties in England and Wales must meet a minimum energy efficiency standard of EPC band E, with limited exemptions, which is about the fabric and systems rather than the thermostat setting.
Within those obligations, there is a great deal you can legitimately do:
All of this is normal practice in HMOs and student accommodation, and it is how most bills-included lets are run sensibly.
The following are where landlords get into difficulty:
Underheating carries a second, slower cost. Cold surfaces plus everyday moisture produce condensation, and condensation produces mould. A control policy that saves a little on gas and produces a mould claim is a poor trade.
If you are a social landlord, the position has changed. Awaab’s Law came into force for the social rented sector on 27 October 2025, setting fixed timescales for investigating and fixing hazards: emergency hazards within 24 hours, significant damp and mould hazards investigated within 10 working days, with relevant safety work completed within 5 working days of the investigation concluding, and a written summary to the tenant within 3 working days.
Its 2026 phase extends the same framework to further hazards including excess cold, which puts heating performance squarely inside a statutory timescale rather than a general obligation.
Current government guidance states there are no plans to extend Awaab’s Law to the private rented sector at this time, so private landlords should be careful about content online that claims otherwise. Under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, whose main tenancy reforms took effect on 1 May 2026, the Decent Homes Standard is scheduled to apply to the private rented sector by 2035.
We look at what this means operationally in our guide to smart heating controls for social landlords.
In practice, the arrangements that hold up over a tenancy tend to look like this: an upper cap around 21 to 22°C, a floor around 16 to 17°C so the property never gets cold enough to risk damp, a schedule matched to how the property is genuinely occupied, and local adjustment for the tenant within that band.
That combination removes the expensive extremes without giving anyone grounds for complaint. It also produces a record. If a tenant later says a room was cold, temperature history answers the question in minutes rather than becoming one person’s word against another’s.
Our landlord thermostat guide covers how to compare systems on these capabilities, and you can see the approach running across a portfolio in our work with Real Property UK.
Can a landlord legally control the thermostat in a rented property?
Yes. Setting schedules and temperature limits is lawful. The constraint is the outcome rather than the mechanism: the property must remain adequately heatable and fit to live in throughout the tenancy.
What is the minimum temperature a landlord must provide?
There is no single statutory figure for private rentals. Guidance derived from the excess cold hazard assessment points to around 18°C in bedrooms and 21°C in living rooms when it is about 1°C outside, and the property should be capable of reaching those levels.
Can a landlord turn off the heating remotely?
Turning heating off to a schedule is normal. Turning it off so the property becomes cold, or using it as leverage in a dispute, is not, and risks breaching your obligations and potentially amounting to harassment.
Does Awaab’s Law apply to private landlords?
Not currently. Awaab’s Law applies to the social rented sector from 27 October 2025, with a 2026 phase covering excess cold. Government guidance states there are no plans to extend it to the private rented sector at this time.
This article is general information about heating controls, not legal advice. Housing legislation changes and individual circumstances vary, so check current government guidance or take professional advice before relying on any of it.
If you want heating settings that protect your property and stand up if a tenant ever challenges them, we can configure the limits and show you the temperature record they produce.
Social landlords: a different and stricter picture