What to put in a tenancy agreement after the Renters' Rights Act

General information only, not legal advice. Consult a qualified solicitor for advice specific to your circumstances.

For twenty-odd years, the assured shorthold tenancy was the backbone of English private renting: a fixed term, a Section 21 notice waiting in the wings, and a market-rate rent baked into a contractual review clause. As of 1 May 2026, all three of those pillars are gone.

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (which received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025) didn’t merely tweak the rules — it replaced the entire tenancy framework. Fixed terms no longer exist in law, Section 21 has been abolished, and any contractual rent-review clause you put in an agreement is automatically void. If you’re a landlord or letting agent drawing up a new tenancy — or reviewing an existing template — this guide tells you what to include, what to strip out, and what the Act requires you to hand over alongside the keys.

The new default: assured periodic tenancies

Every new assured tenancy granted in the private rented sector is now a periodic tenancy from day one. Tenants have an ongoing right to occupy until they choose to leave or you successfully recover possession through the courts. There is no fixed-term expiry date, no end-of-tenancy “cliff edge”, and no need for a renewal agreement.

For landlords and agents, this simplifies drafting in one respect: you no longer need break-clause logic or fixed-term renewal provisions. What you do need is a clean, unambiguous periodic agreement that accurately states the rent, the payment cycle, and each party’s obligations.

Mandatory contents: the written statement of terms

For new tenancies granted on or after 1 May 2026, the Act requires landlords to give the tenant a written statement of terms before the tenancy is entered into — the compulsory information the tenant needs before committing. A compliant agreement should clearly set out:

• Full names and a service address for all parties (all adult occupiers should be named)
• Property address and any included fixtures, furnishings or parking
• Rent amount, payment frequency and due date — the rent period must be no longer than one calendar month
• Start date of the tenancy
• Deposit amount and the name of the approved tenancy deposit protection scheme holding it
• Landlord’s correspondence address
• Repair and maintenance obligations — statute implies most of these under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, but spelling them out reduces disputes
• An explanation of how rent can lawfully be increased (the Section 13 process — see below)
• Pet-request wording (see below — a blanket ban is unenforceable)

What you must not include (void and prohibited clauses)

Several terms that were commonplace before 1 May 2026 are now either automatically void or prohibited outright.

Fixed-term clauses. Any clause that purports to create a tenancy for a fixed term is of no effect. The tenancy is periodic in law regardless of what the agreement says.

Contractual rent-review clauses. A clause that increases rent at a set date or by a set formula — for example, “rent shall increase annually in line with CPI” — is void. The only lawful mechanism is the Section 13 statutory process: serving Form 4A with at least two months’ notice, no more than once in any 12-month period, to no more than the open market rate. Tenants can challenge the proposed increase at the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber), which cannot set a rent higher than the figure the landlord proposed.

Blanket pet bans. A clause categorically prohibiting all pets is unenforceable where a tenant makes a written request. Tenants have a statutory right to request a pet in writing, and you must respond within 28 days (or, if you reasonably ask for further information, the later of the rest of the 28 days or seven days after you receive it). You may only refuse for a good reason.

No-DSS or no-children clauses. The Act introduces an express statutory prohibition, from 1 May 2026, on refusing a tenancy to people receiving benefits or to families with children. Any such term has no effect, and breaches can attract a civil penalty.

Rent in advance beyond one month. Requiring a tenant to pay more than one month’s rent before the tenancy agreement is entered into is now unlawful.

Deposit rules: still essential to get right

The tenancy deposit cap remains five weeks’ rent where annual rent is under £50,000, or six weeks’ rent where annual rent is £50,000 or more. You may also take a holding deposit of up to one week’s rent before signing; this is a separate payment with its own cap, and once the tenancy is agreed it is either refunded, applied to the first rent, or put towards the deposit (it does not sit on top of the deposit cap).

Deposit protection rules are unchanged in their essentials: the deposit must be registered with a government-approved scheme (DPS, MyDeposits or TDS) and the tenant given the prescribed information within 30 days of receipt. Crucially, an unprotected deposit blocks possession on most Section 8 grounds — including mandatory ones such as Ground 8 (the main exceptions being Ground 7A and Ground 14) — so this remains one of the most expensive compliance mistakes you can make. PropertyGoose’s tenant referencing and tenancy agreement service handles the process end-to-end, with compliant periodic agreements generated automatically.

How possession works now: Section 8 grounds

Because Section 21 is abolished, every possession claim must be brought under Section 8 using one of the specified grounds (the Act sets out 29 in total). The key ones:

• Ground 1 (landlord/family occupation) and Ground 1A (sale): Mandatory. You cannot use either within the first 12 months of the tenancy. Notice period: four months.
• Ground 6 (redevelopment): Mandatory. Notice period: four months.
• Ground 8 (serious rent arrears): Mandatory. The threshold has risen from two months to three months’ arrears (or 13 weeks for weekly/fortnightly rent). The tenant must be in arrears both when notice is served and at the hearing. Notice period: four weeks.
• Antisocial behaviour (Ground 14): Discretionary. Court proceedings can begin immediately — there is no minimum notice period.
• Most other grounds: Four months’ notice.

Referencing the Section 8 grounds in your agreement won’t change the law, but it reduces “I didn’t know you could do that” disputes later.

Handling pet requests in your agreement

Rather than a blanket ban, include a clause that:

1. States that tenants may request permission to keep a pet in writing
2. Confirms you will respond in writing within 28 days
3. Notes that you may refuse only for a good reason (for example, the type or number of pets being unsuitable for the property)
4. Confirms the deposit cap remains five/six weeks’ rent — you cannot charge a separate “pet deposit”, and you cannot require the tenant to take out pet damage insurance (the pet-insurance provision was dropped from the Bill, and requiring it would breach the Tenant Fees Act)

Any damage caused by a pet is recovered through the existing tenancy deposit or, if it exceeds the deposit, via court action.

Documentation to provide alongside the agreement

The “How to Rent” checklist has been discontinued. For existing tenancies that converted on 1 May 2026, landlords had to serve the government’s official Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 (downloadable from GOV.UK) by 31 May 2026. For new tenancies, the equivalent requirement is the written statement of terms described above, provided before the tenancy begins.

You must also still provide:

• A valid Gas Safety Certificate (if there are gas appliances)
• A current Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
• An Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)
• The deposit prescribed information (within 30 days of receiving the deposit)

Failing to serve the Information Sheet on existing tenants carries a civil penalty of up to £7,000. Serious, persistent or repeat breaches can attract penalties of up to £40,000, with prosecution as an alternative. Rent repayment orders — available where a landlord has committed a relevant offence — now cover up to 24 months’ rent, double the previous maximum.

Getting the agreement right from the start

Drawing up a compliant periodic agreement from scratch is more involved than it sounds if you’re working from an old fixed-term template. The common errors we see are rent-review clauses that were never removed, pet-ban clauses in boilerplate language, and rent-payment periods set to quarterly. All three are either void or unlawful under the new framework.

PropertyGoose generates RRA-compliant tenancy agreements as part of its full tenancy lifecycle service — periodic by default, with void rent-review clauses removed and pet-request wording built in. You can see how our pricing stacks up, or book a demo if you’d like to see the agreement workflow in context. For landlords self-managing a small portfolio, our flat-fee approach at £29.50 per tenancy per year covers the agreement and the ongoing compliance paperwork, without the per-document agency mark-up.

The Act changed a lot. The paperwork doesn’t need to be the hard part.

As of June 2026. General information only — not legal advice.