Landlord documents for England

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 is the largest change to English tenancy law in a generation, and it landed all at once rather than in stages. Every assured shorthold tenancy in the country converted to an assured periodic tenancy on the day, automatically, whether or not the fixed term had run out.

Four things in the average pre-2026 tenancy agreement stopped working that morning: the fixed term, every reference to Section 21, any contractual rent review mechanism, and any blanket ban on pets. None of them were struck out of the document — they simply stopped having effect, which is why so many landlords are still holding paperwork that contradicts the law.

Advance rent was capped at one month. The deposit cap of five weeks stayed as it was, and is now the only protection against pet damage, because both the pet insurance requirement and the separate pet deposit were removed as the Bill went through the Lords.

Before a tenant moves in you need an Energy Performance Certificate of band E or better, a Gas Safety Certificate if there is a gas supply, an Electrical Installation Condition Report no more than five years old, and a completed Right to Rent check on every adult occupier.

Within 30 days of taking the deposit it must be in one of the three approved schemes and the prescribed information must have reached the tenant and anyone else who contributed to the deposit. Both halves matter: protecting the money late and serving the information late each carry a penalty of one to three times the deposit.

The Government Information Sheet replaced the How to Rent guide. It goes to new tenants before the tenancy begins, and landlords with tenancies that pre-dated 1 May 2026 had to serve it on existing tenants by 31 May 2026. If you missed that deadline, what to do now sets out how to serve it late and what the penalty risk actually is.

There is one route now, and it is Section 8 on Form 3A. The Act restructured Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 into 37 grounds — 26 mandatory and 11 discretionary — and set a different notice period against each.

The ones that come up most: four weeks for rent arrears under Grounds 8, 10 and 11, with the serious-arrears threshold raised from two months to three; four months for Grounds 1 and 1A where you want to move in or sell, neither usable in the first 12 months; and immediate proceedings under Ground 7A for serious anti-social behaviour.

Grounds 1 and 1A carry a sting. Re-letting or re-marketing the property within 12 months of taking possession on either is an offence, with a civil penalty of up to £40,000.