Managing a tenancy - information for landlords

Contents

• Overview
• Starting a tenancy
• During a tenancy
• Ending a tenancy and eviction
• Support for landlords

Overview

This guide is for landlords in the private rented sector to help you understand your rights and responsibilities when managing a tenancy.

It provides detailed information on each stage of the process, including tenancy agreements, fees, legal requirements, rights of the tenants, how to end a tenancy and eviction.

Renters' Rights Act 2025

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 will change the way that landlords manage tenancies. It changes the type of tenancy agreement that can be used, how to increase rent and how to end a tenancy. It places additional duties and powers for local authorities to investigate and enforce action against landlords and lettings agents in breach of the new legislation. You can find out more about the Renters’ Rights Act on the Government’s Housing Hub.

A number of the changes to the rights for tenants and landlord responsibilities take place on 1^st May 2026. These include:

• Abolishing section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions (the current way of ending a fixed term agreement with two months’ notice and no reason required)​ .

• Introducing Assured Periodic Tenancies​ (tenancies which run on indefinitely, instead of fixed term agreements)

• Updating possession grounds​ (Landlords will only be able to evict tenants if they have a valid reason)

• Limiting rent increases to once a year​

• Banning rental bidding and rent in advance​

• Making it illegal to discriminate against renters who have children or receive benefits​

• Requiring landlords to consider tenant requests to rent with a pet​

Other parts of the Act, such as a database for landlords and a redress scheme for tenant complaints will roll out a later date. You can view the Government's timetable for implementation: Implementing the Renters' Rights Act 2025: Our roadmap for reforming the Private Rented Sector - GOV.UK

There are some actions that the landlord must complete to be compliant with the new law, specifically:

• Ensuring that all existing tenants are given the Government’s Information Sheet to explain the tenancy changes by 31 May 2026. Failure to do so could result in a Civil Penalty Fine
• All new tenancies from 1 May onwards are Assured Periodic Tenancies which include or are accompanied by the Government’s Written Statement of Terms. You must also provide the written statement of terms if the tenancy began before 1 May and the tenancy agreement was verbal. Failure to do so could result in a Civil Penalty Fine

The government has produced a checklist for landlords to help to prepare for the changes. We will update this guide for the 1 May when the first the changes to the law take place.