What Should a Tenancy Agreement Include?

What must the written statement of terms contain?

You must give every tenant a written statement covering the 18 items set out in regulations, from the rent day to the pet request procedure. Miss it and the council can impose a civil penalty of up to £7,000.

The items the regulations specify

The list sits in the Schedule to the Assured Tenancies (Written Statement of Terms etc and Information Sheet) (England) Regulations 2026. Section 16D of the Housing Act 1988, inserted by the Renters’ Rights Act, is the duty those regulations sit under.

• Names of the landlord and every tenant, plus an address for serving notices on the landlord.
• The property address and the date the tenant is first entitled to possession.
• The rent, the day it falls due, and an explanation of how rent is increased under section 13 of the Housing Act 1988.
• Who pays council tax, utilities, the TV licence, communication services and any green deal charge.
• The deposit amount, where you take one, and the minimum notice the tenant must give to quit.
• Statements on security of tenure and possession, fitness for human habitation, and your repairing duties for structure, water, gas, electricity and heating.
• Statements on electrical safety inspections and gas safety maintenance.
• The tenant’s right to request a pet, and the right of a disabled tenant to request improvements under the Equality Act 2010.

Nothing stops you putting all of this inside the tenancy agreement itself, and that is what most letting agents now do. One signed document is easier to evidence than a contract plus a covering letter.

When you have to hand it over

For a new tenancy the statement has to be given before the tenancy is entered into, so before signing rather than on moving-in day. Where a tenancy passes by succession or the landlord changes, you get 28 days.

Tenancies already running on 1 May 2026 needed the government’s Renters’ Rights Act information sheet within one month, so by 31 May 2026, as the guide to the Renters’ Rights Act sets out. Wholly oral tenancies needed the required terms put in writing by the same date.

Which terms are now void or unenforceable?

Fixed terms, rent review clauses, blanket pet bans, no children and no benefits clauses, and any demand for more than one month’s rent up front all fail on the page. Leaving them in does not make them enforceable, but it does hand a tenant evidence.

Fixed terms and rent review clauses

A fixed term of any length can no longer create an assured tenancy. Every agreement runs periodically with a rent period of a month or less, and existing fixed terms converted automatically on 1 May 2026.

A rent review clause that raises the rent on a set date has no effect. The only route to a higher rent is the statutory section 13 notice, whatever the agreement says.

Money clauses that no longer work

You cannot ask for any rent before the agreement is signed. Once it is signed you may take up to one month’s rent in advance, or 28 days’ rent where the rent period is shorter than a month.

A term requiring rent further ahead than that is void, and asking for it is a prohibited payment under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, carrying a civil penalty of up to £5,000 for a first breach.

Pets, children and benefits clauses

A blanket pet ban is overridden by an implied term that consent will not be unreasonably refused. You must reply in writing within 28 days, with seven more days if you reasonably ask for further information.

Terms barring children or tenants claiming benefits are of no effect under section 35 of the Act. Advertising on the same basis carries its own financial penalty.

What rent and payment terms can you still include?

You can still set the rent, the payment day, the method and a late payment fee within the statutory cap. What you cannot do is build in an automatic increase or take a deep advance payment.

The rent clause itself

State the amount in pounds, the frequency, the exact due date and the payment method, with a reference the tenant can quote. A rent period longer than a month is not permitted.

The rent in the agreement cannot exceed the rent you advertised. Since May 2026 it is an offence to invite, encourage or accept a bid above the stated figure.

Late payment and default fees

A late payment charge is only lawful if the rent is more than 14 days overdue, the charge is capped at 3% above the Bank of England base rate on the outstanding amount, and the agreement says so. Anything outside that is a prohibited payment.

Renewal fees, admin fees, inventory fees and charges for the agreement itself are all banned. The only permitted payments are rent, a capped deposit, a holding deposit of one week’s rent, bills and limited default fees.

How rent increases work now

You can raise the rent once in any 12-month period by serving the prescribed section 13 notice with at least two months’ notice. The tenant can refer it to the First-tier Tribunal.

The tribunal cannot set the rent above the figure you proposed, and increases are no longer backdated. That removes the incentive to pitch high and negotiate down.

Arrears are where the money actually goes missing, because the mandatory arrears ground now needs three months of unpaid rent before you can serve notice. Rent guarantee insurance pays the rent while a possession claim runs.

How should the deposit and inventory clauses be written?

The deposit clause needs the amount, the scheme, the permitted deductions and the return timetable. The inventory belongs in a separate document that the agreement refers to by date.

What the deposit clause must say

The deposit is capped at five weeks’ rent below an annual rent of £50,000, and six weeks’ rent at or above it. You must protect it within 30 days and serve the prescribed information, as government guidance on tenancy deposit protection confirms.

Name the scheme you use, whether that is the Deposit Protection Service, mydeposits or the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. Deposit protection now applies to every assured tenancy, not only former shortholds.

A court cannot make a possession order on most grounds while a deposit sits unprotected. Failure to protect or to serve the prescribed information also exposes you to compensation of one to three times the deposit.

• Permitted deductions: unpaid rent and unpaid bills left in your name.
• Damage beyond fair wear and tear, valued after deducting for age and use.
• Missing items listed in the inventory, and cleaning to the check-in standard.

Once the figure is agreed or the scheme adjudicator has decided it, the balance goes back within 10 days. Say that in the clause so the tenant knows the timetable.

Why the inventory sits outside the agreement

An inventory changes with every tenancy, so cross-reference it by date and require a signed copy back within seven days of move-in. Dated photographs of every room win more adjudications than any wording you can draft.

List the items you actually provide, because your landlord contents cover insures those and nothing the tenant owns. Damage that goes past the deposit is where accidental damage cover earns its place.

What should the repairs and access clauses say?

Set out how repairs are reported, how quickly you will respond, and the 24 hours’ written notice you will give before entering. Your statutory repairing duties stay with you whatever the agreement says.

The duties you cannot contract out of

Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 makes you responsible for the structure and exterior and for the installations supplying water, gas, electricity, sanitation and heating. That is why landlord buildings insurance is the section of the policy most landlords claim on.

A clause transferring those duties to the tenant is void without a county court order. The same goes for anything cutting across the fitness for human habitation standard.

Give a reporting route and an out-of-hours number for gas leaks, floods and total loss of heating. Landlord home emergency cover is what makes that promise deliverable at 11pm on a Sunday.

Access and inspection

Section 11(6) of the same Act gives you a right to enter and view the state of the property on 24 hours’ written notice at reasonable times. Write that into the agreement rather than a wider right of entry.

A clause allowing entry without notice, or letting you keep keys for unannounced visits, breaches quiet enjoyment. It is also the kind of term a court will strike out as unfair.

Set a realistic inspection interval, usually every six months, and record what you find. Those records are what defend a personal liability claim if a tenant is injured by disrepair.

How does joint and several liability work now?

A joint and several clause still makes every tenant liable for the whole rent, and it remains enforceable. What has changed is that any one of them can end the tenancy for all of them.

What the clause does

All the tenants sign one agreement, so you can pursue any of them for the full arrears rather than chasing shares. It is the standard arrangement for student and sharer lets, which is also why those properties usually need HMO insurance.

Spell out that liability is joint and several in plain words, not just in the heading. A tenant who did not understand it can argue the term was not transparent.

One tenant’s notice ends it for everyone

Under the new section 5A of the Housing Act 1988, a notice to quit given by only one of the joint tenants is valid. The tenancy ends for the whole household on that date.

Withdrawing that notice needs the written agreement of every tenant and of you. There is no route for the remaining sharers to override the person who served it.

Build a replacement tenant process into the agreement so a departing sharer can be swapped out instead. A surrender and re-grant keeps the other tenants housed and keeps your rent running.

Guarantor clauses and their new limits

For guarantees signed on or after 1 May 2026, a guarantor is no longer liable for rent falling due after the tenant’s death. Where the guarantor is a family member of one joint tenant, liability ends when that tenant dies.

Say exactly what the guarantee covers, for which tenant, and for how long. An open-ended guarantee across a whole sharer group is the first term a judge will test, and defending it is what legal expenses cover pays for.

How do the unfair terms rules affect your agreement?

A tenancy agreement is a consumer contract, so every term has to pass the fairness test in the Consumer Rights Act 2015. An unfair term is not binding on the tenant, although the rest of the agreement survives.

The fairness test and the grey list

Section 62 treats a term as unfair if, contrary to good faith, it creates a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights to the tenant’s detriment. Schedule 2 adds an indicative list of terms that are likely to fail.

The Competition and Markets Authority sets out how it applies that test in its unfair contract terms guidance, updated in July 2026. Trading standards can enforce it against a landlord or an agent.

Terms that regularly fail

• A blanket professional cleaning clause that applies however the property is left.
• Fixed charges beyond your actual loss, such as £50 for a missed appointment.
• A right for you to vary the terms or the rules of occupation unilaterally.
• Entry at any reasonable time with no notice period attached.
• Making the tenant pay for repairs that are yours by statute.
• Charging the full price of a new item where only wear has occurred.

Each of these shifts a risk onto the tenant that the law puts on you. Removing them costs nothing and takes away a tenant’s best counterclaim in a possession hearing.

Plain language and transparency

Section 68 requires written terms to be in plain, intelligible language and to be legible. Ambiguity in a consumer contract is read in the tenant’s favour.

Number your clauses, keep sentences short and avoid blocks of capitals. Give the tenant time to read the agreement before signing rather than presenting it at the keys handover.

What else belongs in the agreement?

Beyond the statutory list, the clauses worth having cover pet conditions, subletting, smoking, bills, insurance and the handover at the end. None of them can cut across a statutory right.

Pets, subletting and short lets

You can attach reasonable conditions to pet consent, such as keeping the property clean and making good pet damage at the end. You cannot take a separate pet deposit or require the tenant to buy pet insurance.

Prohibit subletting without your written consent, and say plainly that short-term listing is not permitted. Letting on a nightly basis needs Airbnb insurance rather than a standard let policy, and a head lease on a flat will usually forbid it outright.

Bills, council tax and insurance

Confirm that the tenant is liable for council tax for the whole of the tenancy, which the Act now puts beyond argument. In a licensable house in multiple occupation the liability sits with you instead.

List which utilities the tenant must put in their own name and which, if any, are included in the rent. Give the meter locations and the supplier at the start date.

Add a clause saying the tenant must not do anything that invalidates your landlord policy, and note that their own belongings need tenant contents insurance.

If the property is mortgaged, your buy-to-let lender will require buildings cover in force for the whole tenancy. Cover for rent lost after insured damage sits in a let property policy rather than in the agreement.

Ending the Tenancy and the Handover

The tenant can give two months’ notice at any time, and you cannot write in a longer period. A shorter period is possible only if you agree it in writing with every tenant.

You can only seek possession on a section 8 ground, with four months’ notice for the selling and moving-in grounds and four weeks for serious rent arrears. There is no section 21 route.

Set out the handover: all keys returned, belongings removed, the property left at the check-in standard and final meter readings taken. Ask for a forwarding address for the deposit and any post.