How I Spent My Renters’ Rights Act Bank Holiday Weekend

On 1 May 2026, the law changed, and phase 1 of the Renters Rights Act came into force.

This is a very big change.  It also rendered large parts of Landlord Law redundant and in need of updating to reflect the new legal rules.

For many months, I had been preparing replacement content, updating FAQ, revising checklists, new articles and preparing our new Assured Periodic Tenancy agreement (which I discussed here).

However, I always knew that switching the site over to the new legal regime would be a major task.

The best way to do it, I decided, would be to close Landlord Law down for a few days while I sorted things out and changed over the new content for the old.

Closing down Landlord Law

So, after warning members several times in the bulletin and by email, the site was temporarily closed over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Allowing me and Gill, my web developer, to get to work.

Changing the site

It took even longer than I had anticipated.

Fortunately, it was a bank holiday weekend, so I could justify keeping it closed until Tuesday.  I needed all that time!

Gill’s main job was to refresh the site design slightly, which was done on the Thursday.

She also removed the ability to edit and duplicate the old AST document generator tenancy agreements.  Members can download their existing agreements, but cannot make new ones.

As ASTs are no longer possible, issuing a new one would make landlords vulnerable to Local Authority fines.

So what did I do?

The FAQ

First, I checked over all the FAQ that needed to be replaced and dealt with that (which took a while, as there are a lot of them).

I decided to read them while doing this – which turned out to be a good idea as many needed tweaking.

The Checklists

The Checklists are a big part of Landlord Law now and an important guide for landlords.

I had already written new replacement Checklists 4 and 5.  But checklists 1 to 3 needed to be carefully checked over, as did the special Renters Rights Act checklist.

Possession Notices

The possession notices page needed to be updated with the removal of any reference to section 21 (other than to say that it had been abolished) and links to the new form, form 3A.

I decided not to create a section 8 document generator form for ground 8 evictions, but instead drafted up some guidance notes for members.

I also checked over and removed some of the covering letters for service on tenants (for example, those serving section 21 notices!).

The Articles

I first reviewed our page on the Mandatory and Discretionary grounds for possession.  This is a very useful page listing all the grounds with notes, which had already largely been rewritten.

It was now made live and updated with extra guidance and links to FAQ.

Quite a few of the site articles had been rewritten, so the old articles were now removed.  I also read over many of the articles and did some tweaking and updating.

For example, in view of the length of our tenancy agreement now, I added a section to the Preparing a tenancy agreement article, discussing how to bind them up so they do not fall apart.

The Additional Tenancy Forms

These are the various forms you can use to amend a tenancy – for example, if you are allowing your tenant to keep a pet or run a home business at the property.  These needed to be amended to remove the option to increase the rent as a condition.

The ‘renewal form’, being now redundant, was removed completely.

The Tenancy Agreements page

This page had quite a lot of amendments, with the removal of the AST forms.

I also checked over the guidance notes, rewriting some of it.

The Trails

The Tenancy Trail, the Which Tenancy Agreement, and the Which Possession Proceedings trails were all updated, which took some time.

I also read over the Problem Letting Agents trail, although this did not need much amending.

I decided I did not have enough time to update the deposits guide, so this has been left for another day.

The Kits

The Property Audit and Inspection kits were checked over carefully and updated.

I also did a bit of work on the Dealing with Local Authority Enforcement Kit, although this did not need much change.

In view of the time limits (as by now I think it was Sunday) I decided not to update the Property Access Kit as it had been reviewed fairly recently.

Top Tips

These are our free tips on various topics.

They were all checked over and updated.

Documents

The main documents updated were the new tenancy receipt form and the link to the Section 13 form, which is now Form 4A.

I also had a look at the Landlord’s Letters.

The Rent Arrears Action Plan

Most of this needed updating, and much of it had to be rewritten.

As it had formerly relied quite heavily on the section 21 route for eviction.

The Videos

These can all be found here.  Although I watched some of the shorter videos (many of which I decided could remain) I did not have time to watch them all.

So quite a bit of time was spent adding a warning at the top of the page saying that its contents should be treated with caution.

Video and Bulletin

By this time it was Monday and I was beginning to flag!  I always do the bulletin on a Monday so this was done in the afternoon, and the short video welcoming members to the new refreshed site.

So that was my Bank Holiday weekend.

I hope I never have another one like it!  Most of the site has now been reviewed and updated for the new legal regime, although there is still some further work to do over the coming weeks.

If you spot anything that still needs attention, please let me know. Or post a message on the members forum