Your New Renters’ Rights Act Tenancy Agreement – Now Available for Members

With the implementation of the Renters Rights Act pending, one of my most important tasks was to create a new Renters Rights Act compliant tenancy agreement.

After quite a lot of work (discussed in my blog posts from here) I finally have the first iterations of these up and online for members to use.

This is now the main tenancy agreement members should be using going forward.

This APT is designed to keep landlords safe, bearing in mind the new, often technical, rules and the fact that Local Authorities can fine you up to £7,000 if you get things wrong.

There are a few things I need to say about it.

Structure

The new Assured Tenancies (Private Rented Sector) (Written Statement of Terms etc and Information Sheet) (England) Regulations 2026 require landlords to provide tenants with a ‘written statement of terms’ which can either be separate from or incorporated into the tenancy agreement.

In view of this, I now have a long section at the beginning of the APT, headed ‘Key Information about this tenancy’, which includes all the things we need to tell tenants about their tenancy.

It is differentiated from the rest of the document by a subtle grey line running down the left-hand side.

The rest of the document structure is similar to the old tenancy, having:

• A notices section
• A section with important notices
• A section with some definitions
• The main terms and conditions, and
• The Procedures (if they are being used)

There is also a reference to ‘appendices, if any’, which I will discuss later.

The Guarantee

I have had a lot of questions about this. This new APT does not provide for an inclusive guarantee.

The reason for this is that the in tenancy guarantee was fairly short and unsophisticated, and was unlikely to survive a rent increase.

Up to now, landlords have had the benefit of an implied threat that if tenants don’t sign a new guarantee after a rent increase, the landlord will use section 21 to evict them.

However, after 1 May 2026, there will be no section 21. Meaning that there will be no way to force tenants to get a replacement guarantee.

So the landlord may be without a guarantee after the first rent increase.

Our new standalone guarantee deed is designed to overcome this problem. But it is too complex to include as part of the tenancy. It needs to be a separate document.

Members, can you please read here to find out more about it.

A student APT

Speaking to one of our student landlords, we decided that an in-tenancy guarantee for student lets could be appropriate as they will normally only stay for under a year (particularly once they can give notice to quit to save rent over the summer).

So I am developing a new student APT, which will be launched shortly.  This WILL include an option for a guarantee.

The tenancy period

As this is a periodic tenancy, the agreement gives tenants specific details on when the periods of their tenancy will start and end.

If you want tenants to pay rent on a certain day in the month (or week) and they want to move in on a different day, the agreement also allows you to have a short correcting period at the start of the tenancy.

So if you want rent to be paid on the first day of the month and they move in on the 10th, the first period will run from the 10th to the last day of the month.  The periods will then run on from the first day of the month.

The payment of bills

The tenancy now provides three options for bills:

• Landlord pays and includes in the rent
• Landlord pays and invoices the tenants, and
• The tenants pay.

Note that some of the ‘fields’ in the document generator form will only appear if you click ‘yes’, for either of the first two of these.

I have done a member FAQ which explains these options in more detail.

I am quite pleased at the way bills are dealt with in this new tenancy agreement, which I think is neater than in the old AST.

Notices

For certain possession grounds, landlords need to provide a notice in the tenancy agreement as a condition of using them.

The main ones likely to affect members are

Ground 4A – the student ground (FAQ here), and
Ground 5C – the employee ground (FAQ here)

The tenancy provided notices for both of these (although after the new Student APT is online, student landlords will probably want to use that).

If there are any other notices you want added, let me know.  See all the grounds for possession here.

Deposit / alternative scheme

The new APT now provides for landlords to give details of an alternative scheme if this is used.

Which makes it more complete and informative.

Terms and conditions

These are pretty much as they were in the old AST, although some of the wording has been amended.

This is to make the document more compliant with the new tenancy rules.

Landlord’s own clauses

As in the old AST, landlords can amend the tenancy or add their own clauses via section 12.

So, for example, if your property is a flat and your lease has an absolute prohibition against pets, you can put a clause (which I give you in the form) here saying that, and also saying that it replaces clause 5.8, which is the clause saying tenants can apply for leave to keep a pet.

We have a number of additional clauses available on this page, and this help page explains how to use them.

Members can always ask me in the forum to help draft any new clauses you may wish to add here.

The Procedures

I discussed these here, and members will find them explained here.

Members now have the option to include all, some or none of the procedures as you wish.

However, I decided not to include the forms that go with the procedures, as I was worried that this would make the document too long (already pretty hefty).

I am hoping to find time to get some pdf forms prepared for members to use and give to their tenants.

In the meantime my draft form wording can be found in the procedures section.

Appendices

This will be where the landlord wants to include another document with the tenancy agreement to be incorporated into it.  This could be:

• The landlord’s headlease (or a relevant extract)
• Details (or an extract) of the landlord’s insurance (so tenants know what not to do), or
• The landlords House Rules

If you want to have an appendix, then this should be stated in the additional clauses section.

What members should do now:

Use the new APTs!
Review the new guarantee deed
Read the Bills FAQ, and
Consider which, if any, procedures you will be including.

And finally

There are two new standard APTs:

• One for sole and joint tenants renting a whole house or flat, and
• One for tenants renting a room in a shared house or flat

They are now online and available to use.

I assume those who have trialled them are happy with them, as there have been very few entries in the survey I set up for members comments!

I’ll post here again when I have done the new student forms.