The Landlord Law Pre Renters’ Rights Act Tenancy Agreements

As you should be aware by now, the main parts of the Renters Rights Act 2025 are due to come into force on 1 May 2026.

This includes the new rules for tenancy agreements which include:

• A requirement for all landlords to provide tenants with a tenancy agreement (described in the act as a ‘statement of terms’) before the tenancy is entered into.
• These must include new ‘prescribed clauses’ which we are told will be published in January 2026
• Landlords who fail to comply with the rules will be vulnerable to a fine of up to £7,000

What do we know about the terms in the post Renters Rights Act tenancy agreements?

Even though the new prescribed terms have not yet been published, we do know a certain amount about what the new agreements should and should not include:

• As all tenancies on commencement will convert to assured periodic tenancies, they should not give an end date for the tenancy.  Fixed terms will not only be abolished but will also attract a fine of up to £7,000
• They must not include any rent review clauses (or any that are there will be unenforceable) as landlords will only be able to increase rent via the section 13 notice procedure
• They must not ask tenants to pay any rent in advance – as the new rules will prohibit this (although once the tenancy has started, tenants can pay in advance if they want to)
• They must include notices for those possession grounds which require this – for example, the new student ground 4A
• They must not stipulate the form that tenants’ Notices to Quit must take – other than perhaps reducing the notice period from the new statutory 2 months notice period (which will come into effect on commencement).  For example if may be easier to provide for a straight two month notice rather than a notice which ends at the end of a period of the tenancy.

Presumably, existing clauses which do not contradict the new prescribed clauses can remain.

The government has made it clear that they will not require landlords of existing tenancies at commencement to issue new tenancy agreements.  However, they WILL need to serve a form of notice, yet to be provided, on all existing tenants within 1 month of commencement.

What should landlords do in the meantime?

At the time of writing (November 2025) it is not possible to create Renters Rights Act compliant tenancy agreements as the prescribed clauses have not yet been published.

The government’s roadmap says that a draft will be published in January 2026.

However, new tenancies being issued before 1 May will in due course (unless the tenants move out before 1 May) become subject to the new rules so ideally their tenancy agreement should tell them this.

There is also not a lot of point in including things, such as rent review clauses, which are clearly not going to be enforceable after 1 May, or indeed break clauses.

I have therefore drafted up some new tenancy forms for Landlord Law members to use in the run-up to the Renters Rights Act commencement.

The new Pre-Renters Rights Act tenancy agreements

There are two:

• A standard AST, and
• An agreement for an AST of a room in a shared house

Changes from the old agreement include:

• A statement that the tenancy will convert to a periodic assured tenancy on the commencement of the Renters Rights Act 2025.  I have not put the date of 1 May as it is always possible that the government could put back the commencement date as they did in Wales.
• The notes for tenants on the ending of a joint tenancy include notes on what will happen after commencement
• The option to  inlcude a Ground 1 notice has been removed as after commencement this will no longer be needed
• The rent review clause has been removed, as it will no longer be enforceable after commencement
• It notifies tenants of their right to serve a two-month notice to quit after commencement.

I have also tidied up a few other items.  Full details can be found (by members) on the Changelog page.

Note by the way that I have left the old ASTs online as they are still valid, but landlords should use the new forms.

The special student forms that we have had been removed, though, (as discussed here) as most of the provisions (which involved higher rents if they stayed on after the expiry of the fixed term) will no longer be enforceable after commencement.

If any members have any thoughts on or questions about the new forms, let me know on the members’ forum.