Excess Heat Is Now a Landlord Problem: Maximum Temperature Rules 2026

Every summer, a version of the same question circulates in landlord forums and tenant advice threads: what is the maximum legal temperature for a rented home? The question is usually asked with confidence, as though there is a number sitting in a regulation somewhere, and the answer is simply hard to find. There isn't one. No statute, regulation or approved document sets a maximum indoor temperature for rented housing in England, and any article that gives you a figure is either inventing it or repeating a health-guidance threshold that was never written as a legal limit.

That is not the same as saying heat is not a landlord problem. Excess heat is one of the 21 hazards assessed under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), the statutory risk-assessment framework local councils use under Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004. A council can inspect, score the hazard, and serve an enforceable notice — and if it scores highly enough, the council has a legal duty to act, not a choice. The mechanism is risk assessment rather than a threshold, which makes it harder to plan around but no less real.

Two things changed in 2026 that make this worth your attention now rather than next summer. The government published a completely rewritten HHSRS operating guidance on 23 June 2026, the first substantial overhaul since 2006. And from 30 November 2026, excess heat becomes one of the hazards covered by Awaab's Law Phase 2 in the social rented sector, with fixed investigation and repair deadlines attached. Private landlords are not in scope of that yet, but the power to extend it sits in section 60 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, waiting on commencement. This guide covers what the guidance actually says, which properties carry the real risk, and what to fix and record.

Is There a Legal Maximum Temperature for Rented Homes?

No. There is no maximum temperature for rented housing in England set by any statute, regulation or approved document. There is no figure above which a home is automatically unlawful to let, and no temperature a tenant can point to and say the landlord is in breach. This applies to social and private lettings alike.

What exists instead is the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, a risk-assessment framework given statutory force by Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004. A trained council assessor inspects the property, identifies deficiencies in the building, allocates them to one or more of the 21 hazards, and scores the risk to health over a 12-month period. Excess heat is hazard 14 on that list, defined in the guidance as covering "threats to health from excessively high indoor air temperatures".

The score, not the temperature, carries the legal weight. Hazards scoring 1,000 or more are Category 1, and the council has a legal duty to take enforcement action. Below 1,000 they are Category 2 and action is discretionary. Two identical thermometer readings in two different properties can produce very different scores, because the score reflects the likelihood and severity of harm, not the reading.

What Temperature Is Too Hot for a Rental Property?

There is no single answer, and the guidance deliberately avoids giving one — the excess heat hazard profile contains no temperature threshold at all. What it contains instead is a description of who gets hurt, why, and which building features make it more likely.

The vulnerable group for excess heat is people aged 65 and over, and scoring is calibrated against that group regardless of who actually lives there. The guidance identifies others at greater risk too: very young children, people with pre-existing physical or mental health conditions, obese people, those on certain medications, people with mobility difficulties, those misusing drugs or alcohol, and people from lower socio-economic groups. Those who spend more time inside the home are more exposed, and the guidance notes evidence that people living alone are at greater risk.

On measurement, the guidance is practical rather than prescriptive: "Capturing measurements of indoor living temperatures at the time of inspection (or over a period of time using a data logger) may be helpful to capture evidence of living conditions." The assessment must then consider expected fluctuation across a whole calendar year, alongside ventilation, thermal mass, insulation and solar gain. A single hot afternoon reading proves very little on its own.

Some perspective on likelihood is fair. The national average score for excess heat across all dwelling types sits in the Low band, so a typical property on a typical day is not going to generate a Category 1 heat hazard. The risk is concentrated in specific building types and specific occupants — which is where a landlord should look. One figure worth knowing: urban heat islands raise prevailing temperatures in large urban areas "by as much as 4°C".

What Changed for Excess Heat in 2026?

Two developments, and they pull in the same direction: heat is becoming a live enforcement topic rather than a theoretical hazard.

First, the HHSRS was overhauled. New HHSRS operating guidance was published on 23 June 2026, replacing guidance in place since 2006. Following a stakeholder engagement exercise, several hazard categories were amalgamated, cutting the total from 29 to 21. Excess heat was not merged away — it survived as its own hazard with an updated profile. The scoring was reworked too: the original ten bands lettered A to J became three (Low, Medium and High) with colour coding, specifically to reduce the focus on raw numbers. The Category 1 and Category 2 enforcement split was left unchanged. The underlying instrument is SI 2026/571, and it carries a transitional rule worth knowing: the new system applies only to inspections commenced on or after 23 June 2026.

Second, and more consequential, Awaab's Law is coming for heat. It came into force for the social rented sector on 27 October 2025, initially covering emergency hazards plus damp and mould. From 30 November 2026, Phase 2 extends it to further hazards "where they present a significant risk of harm", and excess heat is explicitly on that list alongside excess cold, falls, structural collapse, fire and explosions, electrical hazards and domestic hygiene. Phase 3 is planned to cover all remaining HHSRS hazards apart from overcrowding.

The Phase 2 timescales are firm, and worth knowing even as a private landlord because they set what "reasonable" is starting to look like sector-wide. A social landlord must investigate a potential significant hazard within 10 working days of becoming aware of it, give the tenant a written summary within 3 working days of the investigation concluding, and carry out the safety work within 5 working days of that conclusion. Emergency hazards must be investigated and made safe within 24 hours. If the work cannot be done in time, the landlord must arrange suitable alternative accommodation at its own expense.

We cover the detail of the reformed hazard framework in our guide to the 2026 HHSRS changes and the full list of 21 hazards, and the private-sector extension question in our guide to Awaab's Law, section 60 and the private rented sector.

Which Rental Properties Are Most at Risk of Excess Heat?

The guidance is specific about the building features that drive the hazard, which makes it possible to triage a portfolio without inspecting every property. These are the profiles that should go to the top of the list.

What Can Tenants Demand, and What Can Councils Do?

A tenant cannot demand a specific temperature, because no such standard exists. What a tenant can do is report the problem to the landlord and, if it is not resolved, complain to the environmental health team at the local council. That complaint starts the formal process.

The council can then inspect, following a tenant complaint or a referral from another agency such as social services or a GP. A trained assessor carries out an HHSRS assessment, scores the hazard, and the council decides what to do. One procedural change is worth flagging: under the Renters' Rights Act 2025, councils notify the owner within a reasonable period after entry rather than giving 24 hours' notice beforehand, so an inspection may be the first you hear of a complaint.

If the council acts, its main options are a hazard awareness notice (advisory, creating no legal obligation), an improvement notice (requiring specified work within a set timeframe), a prohibition order (restricting use or occupation of all or part of the property), or emergency remedial action where there is imminent risk of serious harm. Councils can also demand documents by serving notice under section 235 of the Housing Act 2004.

There is also a power that catches landlords out, because it does not wait for you to ignore a notice. Under section 6A of the Housing Act 2004, where a Category 1 hazard is found the council may — when first taking action — impose a civil penalty on the responsible person, if in its opinion it would have been reasonably practicable for that person to secure removal of the hazard. The statutory maximum is £7,000 per section 6A(6), there is no statutory minimum, and the HHSRS enforcement guidance — which is statutory and binding on councils — sets a national starting point of £6,000. A council may impose a separate penalty for each Category 1 hazard in the same property, or a single penalty covering several.

Ignoring a notice compounds it. The enforcement guidance lists the consequences of non-compliance as the authority carrying out works in default and recovering the cost, prosecution (which councils are encouraged to publicise), a financial penalty as an alternative to prosecution, a rent repayment order, and a banning order or entry on the rogue landlord database.

Can Tenants Demand Air Conditioning?

No. There is no right to air conditioning in a rented home in England, and no council notice is going to simply order a landlord to install it as a default. Air conditioning appears in the HHSRS guidance as one option among many for reducing risk, and notably not as the preferred one.

The guidance ranks approaches by energy efficiency and says so directly: air conditioning or other cooling technologies "may be provided, but passive approaches such as purge ventilation through openable windows and structural insulation are more energy efficient, so should be considered before relying on more energy intensive solutions". Mechanical cooling is positioned as the answer where windows realistically cannot be opened — high external noise, air pollution, or security and falls risks — not as a general remedy.

Where mechanical systems are installed, the guidance attaches conditions worth noting: they must suit the size and design of the rooms they serve, not be too noisy, be well maintained, and be controllable by the occupier. It also warns that mechanical heat recovery ventilation is unlikely to provide sufficient cooling in very high temperatures unless specifically designed for it — relevant if you have a new-build flat and assumed the MVHR unit covers you. Portable fans help but are not a compliance answer: the guidance says they only cool effectively where air temperature and humidity are low enough, and "do not replace the need for adequate ventilation".

Landlord Fixes That Actually Count

The hazard profile lists its own risk reduction measures, which is effectively a menu of what an assessor looks for: external shading, structural insulation, high thermal mass components, adequate ventilation and particularly cross-ventilation, mechanical ventilation where windows cannot be opened, ventilation and heating controls, air conditioning, and finishes that reflect solar radiation. Here is how those translate into work you might commission.

One planning note. If you are already scheduling energy-efficiency work to meet EPC targets, this is the moment to think about heat as well as cold, because the same fabric decisions drive both. Our guide to EPC requirements for landlords in 2026 covers the efficiency side, and the overlap between retrofit and overheating is exactly what the guidance is warning about.

What About Building Regulations Part O?

Approved Document O covers overheating and is often raised here, but its scope is narrow: it applies to new residential buildings. Published in December 2021, it requires measures to limit unwanted solar gains in summer and to remove excess heat. It does not apply retrospectively, so it is not a standard your Victorian terrace or 1970s flat can be judged against. The excess heat hazard profile lists it under further reading as background, not as an obligation on existing lets.

What to Document When a Tenant Complains About Heat

Because there is no threshold to point at, a heat complaint is resolved on the evidence of what was reported, what you did, and how quickly. That makes your response log the single most useful thing you can build. If a council assessor turns up months later, a dated record of the complaint and your response is what separates a landlord who acted from one who did not.

• The complaint itself, dated. What was reported, by whom, which rooms, at what times of day, and how it arrived. The clock in every hazard framework starts when the landlord became aware.
• Any temperature evidence. Readings the tenant supplies and ideally your own — the guidance points to data loggers over a period rather than one-off readings. Record the outdoor temperature alongside, because the comparison is what makes an indoor reading meaningful.
• Occupant vulnerability, handled sensitively. Whether anyone in the household is in a higher-risk group matters to the assessment. Note what the tenant volunteers, do not interrogate, and keep it secure under data protection rules.
• Your inspection findings. Roof insulation, glazing orientation, whether windows open and fix in the open position, trickle vents, shading, ventilation working. Photographs with dates.
• What you decided and why, including options you rejected. A documented decision to fit external shading rather than air conditioning is defensible; silence is not.
• Contractor quotes, instructions and completion dates. The gap between deciding and doing is what gets scrutinised, so record when you instructed as well as when work finished.
• Follow-up with the tenant — confirmation the work resolved it, or that it did not and what happens next. Interim advice counts too.

Disclosure: we build Latch, so treat this as a description of our own product rather than neutral advice. This is the kind of record that is easy to intend and hard to keep in an inbox. In Latch, tenant messages and maintenance issues log against the property with timestamps, and contractor jobs, quotes and photographs attach to the same record, so the response timeline assembles itself. Any system producing a dated, complete trail does the job — a spreadsheet updated honestly beats software you do not use. The point is that the trail exists before you need it.

For what else needs recording across the year, our landlord compliance checklist for 2026 covers the certificate and inspection cycle. The habits that work for heat are the same ones that work for damp and mould complaints, which is where most landlords first learn this lesson.