How to Write a Tenancy Agreement (Post-RRA 2025)

What changed under the Renters' Rights Act 2025

Section 21 is abolished. Fixed-term assured tenancies are abolished — every new letting is an open-ended assured periodic tenancy. Ground 8 (mandatory rent-arrears possession) now needs three months' arrears, not two. New tenants must be given written information about the key terms of the tenancy before they sign — not the government Information Sheet, which is a separate, one-off document for tenancies that already existed on 1 May 2026. Read the full Renters' Rights Act 2025 guide.

Drafting a tenancy agreement for a letting granted today is a different exercise from drafting an AST before 1 May 2026. Several once-standard clauses — a fixed term, a rent-review formula, a blanket pet ban — are now void by operation of law. New statements are legally required, and the agreement itself now doubles as the tenant's statutory written record of the tenancy's key terms. This guide sets out, step by step, what a compliant assured periodic tenancy agreement must contain, what it must not contain, and where landlords most often get it wrong.

Key takeaways

• For new lettings from 1 May 2026, the only form of assured tenancy is the assured periodic tenancy — open-ended, with a rent period of one month or less, and no fixed term.
• You must give the tenant written information about the key terms before they sign or otherwise agree to the tenancy. This is a different, ongoing requirement from the one-off government Information Sheet, which applied only to tenancies with a written record that already existed on 1 May 2026.
• A compliant agreement must include specific statutory statements — on rent increases (Section 13), the tenant's notice period, repairing obligations, electrical and gas safety duties, fitness for human habitation, and the tenant's right to request a pet — not just the commercial terms.
• Certain clauses are now void: any fixed term, any contractual rent-review formula, blanket pet bans, more than one month's rent in advance for a new letting, and anything resembling a Section 21 clause.
• Getting the written information wrong is not a paperwork technicality — it carries a civil penalty of up to £7,000, rising to £40,000 for a continuing or repeated breach.

Before you start: choose the right form of tenancy

For most private rentals in England, the only available form is an assured periodic tenancy. Three categories sit outside this regime and need a different document entirely:

• If you are letting a room in your own home to a lodger, use a lodger agreement, not a tenancy agreement — see our lodger guide. A lodger with a resident landlord does not have the same statutory protections as an assured tenant, and using a tenancy agreement by mistake can hand away rights you did not intend to grant.
• If you are letting to a limited company, use a company let agreement. A company cannot hold an assured tenancy, whatever the agreement is called.
• If you are letting in Wales, use an occupation contract under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, not an assured tenancy agreement — see our Wales guide. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 applies to England only.

If your let is a standard residential tenancy in England, read on.

Step 1 — The required written information

Since 1 May 2026, if you create a new tenancy you must give the tenant written information about the key terms before the tenancy agreement is signed, or before the tenancy is otherwise agreed if it is a verbal arrangement. This is a distinct, ongoing legal requirement for every new letting — it is not satisfied by the one-off Information Sheet, which was a transitional document for tenancies that already had a written record in place before 1 May 2026.

Government guidance is explicit that you are expected to build this information into the written tenancy agreement, and most landlords will do exactly that. At a minimum, the agreement (or an accompanying document) must cover:

• Landlord's name and address. Your name (or the letting agent's, if one is acting for you) and a postal address in England or Wales where the tenant can send legal notices.
• Tenant's name(s). Every named tenant, including joint tenants.
• Property address and the tenancy start date — the date the tenant is first entitled to move in.
• Rent amount and when it is due.
• A statement on rent increases — that any future rent rise will be proposed by a notice served in accordance with Section 13 of the Housing Act 1988.
• Bills covered by the rent, if any, and details of any separate bill payments the tenant must make to you.
• Deposit amount, if one is taken, and the protection scheme used — see our deposit protection guide for the separate 30-day service requirement.
• The tenant's notice period to end the tenancy — any length up to a maximum of two months. If you say nothing, it defaults to two months.
• A statement on how the tenancy can be ended — that in most cases you can only recover possession through a court order for possession, following a valid Section 8 notice citing a statutory ground.
• Fitness for human habitation — a statement that section 9A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 applies.
• Repairing obligations — a statement that section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires you to keep the structure, exterior, and the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation, and heating in repair.
• Electrical safety — a statement that regulation 3 of the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations 2020 applies.
• Gas safety, if there is a gas fitting — a statement that regulation 36 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 applies.
• Disability adaptations — a statement referencing section 190 of the Equality Act 2010, on not unreasonably withholding consent to disability-related improvements.
• The tenant's right to request a pet, and that you cannot unreasonably refuse consent — see handling pet requests under the RRA 2025.

If the letting is for student accommodation, supported accommodation, or another category that may rely on a possession ground such as 2ZA–2ZD, 4, 4A, 5–5H, or 18, you must also give the tenant prior notice in writing that you may use that ground — normally within the agreement itself. Skipping this does not prevent you relying on most of those grounds later, but it does expose you to a civil penalty, and for the student-letting ground (4A) it rules the ground out altogether.

You do not need to use the exact statutory wording — the government guidance is clear that you only need to cover the substance of each point — but every item on this list needs to be in the document the tenant signs, or in something you hand them alongside it.

Step 2 — Drafting the operative terms

Beyond the required written information, the agreement should set out the working rules of the tenancy. Cover:

• Use of the property. Confirm it is for residential occupation only by the named tenants and any permitted occupiers (for example, children).
• Rent payment mechanics. The date due, the method of payment, and the consequence of late payment — reasonable interest on arrears is permitted; a flat penalty fee is not.
• Access. Reasonable notice for inspection and repair — 24 hours in writing is standard practice, except in a genuine emergency. Do not include a clause permitting access without notice.
• Alterations and decoration. Restrictions on structural alteration are normal. An outright ban on minor decoration sits uneasily against the tenant's statutory right to request reasonable improvements, particularly a disabled tenant's right under the Equality Act 2010.
• Sub-letting and assignment. Prohibition is standard, subject to the tenant's statutory right to take in a lodger.
• Insurance. Confirm the landlord insures the building; the tenant is responsible for their own contents.
• Utilities and council tax. State who is responsible, consistent with the bills statement in Step 1.
• End of tenancy. Inventory check-out, return of the deposit, and the tenant's forwarding-address obligation.

Step 3 — What you must NOT include

The following provisions are void for a tenancy entered into on or after 1 May 2026. Including one does not invalidate the whole agreement, but the clause itself has no legal effect, and using it signals the document was not drafted for the current regime — which can itself attract a civil penalty of up to £7,000 for purporting to grant a fixed term.

• Any fixed term. Wording such as "for a term of twelve months" has no effect. The tenancy is periodic and open-ended regardless of what the document says.
• Contractual rent review clauses, in any form — index-linked, agreed-formula, "as the landlord may notify". Rent increases must go through Section 13 only.
• More than one month's rent in advance, for a tenancy entered into on or after 1 May 2026.
• Blanket "no pets" clauses. A reasonable, specific refusal is permitted; an outright ban is not, and you cannot require pet insurance as a condition of consent — that requirement was dropped before the Act was passed.
• Any notice requirement longer than two months from the tenant.
• Section 21 references, or any clause purporting to allow termination without a statutory ground.
• Rental bidding clauses. Any provision requiring or inviting offers above the advertised rent.
• Penalty late fees. Reasonable interest on arrears is permitted; a flat penalty fee is not.
• Discriminatory selection criteria — including any term premised on the tenant having children, or on their benefits status.

Step 4 — Schedules and supplementary documents

Several documents should accompany the tenancy agreement at the point of signing or shortly after. Treat them as part of the agreement pack:

• How to Rent guide — the current government version, given to the tenant before or at the start of the tenancy.
• Energy Performance Certificate, where required.
• Gas Safety Record (CP12), if there is gas at the property.
• Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR), valid within the past five years.
• Deposit prescribed information from the protection scheme, served within 30 days of receiving the deposit — see tenancy deposit protection.
• Inventory and schedule of condition, ideally photographed and signed by the tenant. See our inventory template.

Note that the government Information Sheet is not part of this pack for a new tenancy — it applies only where you already had a written tenancy in place before 1 May 2026, or a wholly verbal tenancy that pre-dates that date. See verbal tenancy agreements under the new regime if that applies to you.

Step 5 — Execution

Two executed copies — one for each party — should be signed and dated by all parties. Where a guarantor is involved, the guarantor signs a separate deed of guarantee, which has additional formalities beyond an ordinary signature. Electronic signature is generally acceptable for the tenancy agreement itself; deeds require more care.

Critically: the agreement and the supplementary documents must be given to the tenant before they take occupation, and the written information in Step 1 must be given before they sign or otherwise agree to the tenancy at all. Late or missing service of the gas safety record, the EPC, the electrical certificate, or the deposit prescribed information has consequences for your ability to rely on certain possession grounds later, quite separately from the civil penalty risk for the written information itself.

Worked examples

New letting, no complications. A landlord is letting a two-bedroom flat to a new tenant from 1 September 2026. There is no gas supply, no history with the tenant, and no pet request at this stage. The agreement needs: full written information (Step 1), operative terms (Step 2), no void clauses (Step 3), and an EPC, EICR, How to Rent guide, deposit prescribed information, and inventory (Step 4) — but no gas safety record, since there is no gas fitting.

Re-letting after a converted AST ends. A landlord's former AST — now a periodic tenancy since 1 May 2026 — ends when the sitting tenant gives two months' notice. The landlord re-lets the same property to a new tenant in October 2026. This is a new tenancy, not a continuation, so the one-month rent-in-advance cap applies even though the landlord took two months' rent up front from the previous tenant without issue, and the full Step 1 written information must be given afresh — the old tenant's paperwork does not carry over.

Tenant requests a pet mid-tenancy. Six months into a periodic tenancy, the tenant asks in writing to keep a cat. The tenancy agreement's pet statement (Step 1) already told the tenant this right exists. The landlord cannot rely on a "no pets" clause to refuse outright, cannot demand pet insurance as a condition, but can ask reasonable follow-up questions about the animal and make its consent conditional on reasonable terms connected to the specific pet and property.

Common drafting mistakes

• Re-using a pre-2026 AST template. Almost every off-the-shelf AST contains void clauses — a fixed term, a rent-review formula, a blanket pet ban — and is missing the statutory statements Step 1 now requires. Cut-and-paste from an old template is the single most common error.
• Confusing the Information Sheet with the written-information requirement. The Information Sheet was a one-off document for tenancies that already existed on 1 May 2026. A tenancy created after that date needs the ongoing written-information statements built into the agreement — giving a new tenant the Information Sheet PDF does not meet this requirement.
• Missing the prior-notice statements for grounds like student lettings (Ground 4A) or supported accommodation. For Ground 4A specifically, missing this notice rules the ground out entirely — there is no way to cure it later.
• Including Section 21 references. A clause stating "the landlord may serve a Section 21 notice" is void, and it is also a clear sign the agreement predates the reform.
• Listing the tenancy as a "fixed-term assured shorthold tenancy". This description is wrong for any letting granted on or after 1 May 2026. The correct description is "assured periodic tenancy".
• Serving supporting documents late. A gas safety record, EPC, or deposit information served after the tenant has already moved in can prevent reliance on certain Section 8 grounds later, even though the tenancy itself remains valid.

Using a professionally drafted template

For most landlords, a properly drafted template is the right starting point. A good template already contains the statutory statements Step 1 requires and avoids the void-clause traps in Step 3, leaving you to focus on the property-specific terms — rent, deposit, pet status, parking. See our tenancy agreement template.

For complex lets — high-value properties, multiple occupancy, or unusual clauses — bespoke drafting from a regulated, practising solicitor is the right call. The cost of getting the drafting right is a fraction of the cost of an unenforceable possession claim or a civil penalty of up to £40,000.

Need a document?

Template Tenancy Agreement Assured periodic tenancy template, drafted for RRA 2025. View template →Template Lodger Agreement For resident landlords renting a room in their own home. View template →Court forms Court Forms N5, N5B, N9, N11R and other forms for landlord proceedings. View court forms →