Many landlords may be aware of the Renters Rights’ Act 2026 that achieved Royal Assent on 27th October 2025, and which becomes law on 1st May 2026. With the implementation date coming round the corner fast, this note sets out the two key mandatory requirements that residential landlords must ensure they comply with by the deadline of 31st May 2026.
Mandatory changes for Landlords and Agents under the Renters’ Right Act
- Government Information Sheet
The Government have now published its official Information Sheet. The purpose of the Information Sheet is to help tenants understand the changes to the tenancy in line with the Renter’s Right Act. In line with the Renters’ Rights Act 2026, private landlords (and agents on their behalf) must give their tenants the official Information Sheet. You can find the Information Sheet on the Government’s website here.
a) Who needs to be provided with the Information Sheet?
All private landlords in England must provide a copy of the Information Sheet to each person named on the tenancy agreement if it is an assured shorthold tenancy, the tenancy was created before 1st May 2026 or there is a written record of terms including a written tenancy agreement (rather than a verbal agreement).
Where there is a clause in the tenancy agreement that allows the landlord to serve documents on the tenant by email, a landlord is able to provide the Information Sheet by email. If there is not such a clause in the tenancy agreement, landlords will need to ensure that they post or hand deliver a hard copy to the tenants and it is strongly encouraged that proof of posting/proof of delivery is obtained.
b) Deadline to provide the information sheet
Landlords are encouraged to give the Information Sheet to all private tenants as soon as possible however, the deadline for doing so is 31st May 2026.
c) Penalties for failing to provide the Information Sheet by the deadline
If landlords do not provide the Information by 31st May 2026, landlords could face significant penalties which include fines of up to £7,000 for a first offence. If the breach continues for more than 28 days after a penalty is imposed, then the landlord may be committing a criminal offence, and this could lead to further penalties of up to £40,000. It should be noted that if your property is managed by a letting agent, the agent must also serve the Information Sheet, even if you have already done so.
- Written Statement of Terms
In addition to the above, the other key requirement is that if landlords have any existing tenancies that are not at least partially in writing, they must not give tenants the Information Sheet. Instead, landlords need to provide a written statement that sets out the mandatory information required by the Government (i.e., the landlord’s name and address, the rent amount/rent due date, deposit amount for a repair and responsibilities and what bills the tenant must pay).Alternatively, a landlord can formalise the current tenancy agreement in writing before 1 May 2026. This has the benefit of clearly setting out expectations for the tenancy and once it's in writing, landlords will need to issue the Information Sheet rather than a written statement.
The purpose of this is to ensure that moving forward all tenants and landlords have clear, written records of the key terms of the tenancy, helping both to understand their rights and responsibilities and to assist in resolving or avoiding disputes.
a) Deadline for compliance
The deadline to comply with this requirement is 31st May 2026.
b) Penalties for failure to formalise existing tenancy agreements by 31st May 2026
If landlords do not provide the Written Statement of Terms (or a formal written tenancy agreement) to all private tenants by 31st May 2026, landlords could face significant penalties which include fines of up to £7,000 for a first offence. If the breach continues for more than 28 days after a penalty is imposed, then the landlord may be committing a criminal offence, and this could lead to further penalties of up to £40,000.In addition, the absence of providing a written statement of terms/a formal tenancy agreement does also mean landlords may be prevented from using certain grounds for evicting under the Housing Act 1988.
In summary, the below actions need to be completed by 31st May 2026.
- For wholly oral/verbal agreements – If a residential tenancy is entirely oral (no written agreement exists), the landlord must provide a written statement of terms or have a formal tenancy agreement put in place.
- For existing written tenancies – if there is a written agreement in place (which was signed before 1st May 2026) a landlord does not need to issue a new contract. Instead, they must serve the tenant with the Government’s official Information Sheet by the deadline.
If you require assistance with understanding your requirements above, please do not hesitate to get in touch.