Landlords, act immediately or face a £7,000 fine 

The Renters’ Rights Act’s main provisions came into force at the beginning of May and the government, in its wisdom, gave landlords just 31 days to provide every tenant with an Information Sheet explaining how the Act affects them.

The deadline is this weekend

The government’s mandatory Information Sheet must be in tenants’ hands by 31 May 2026

Yet many small-scale landlords will be lucky if they are hearing about this for the first time. In my view, given the difficulty of communicating with these small landlords, 31 days is far too little time to get this message out.

In this reminder article, Tom Entwistle sets out what you must do, why and when, and he argues the window has been far too short.

This deadline has crept up far too quickly

The 31 May 2026 deadline comes in just a couple of days’ time. That’s for all residential landlords and their agents in England to serve the government’s official Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet. It falls this Sunday. 

It arrives just 31 days after the main provisions of the Act came into force on 1 May 2026. For a significant proportion of England’s private landlords, this news must come as an unwelcome surprise.

Landlords who are members of a landlord’s association such as the National Residential Landlords Association, those who use a professional letting agent, or who routinely follow trade publications and websites like LandlordZONE will, in all probability, be aware of the requirement. They will have dealt with this days ago.  

But tens of thousands of small-scale, self-managing landlords do not receive regular updates. They are not members of any professional body and may not have looked at a government guidance page since the last time the rules changed. For those landlords, this article is intended as a reminder, a warning and a practical guide.

The purpose of the Information Sheet is straightforward. It simply tells existing tenants, in plain English, written by the government, how the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 affects them and their tenancy. 

The obligation to provide it sits with the landlord, even though this task may be delegated to their agent, if they use one. If the deadline is missed, the penalty can reach £7,000.

What Is the Information Sheet?

The Information Sheet is an official document produced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). It is not a document landlords write themselves. It is a fixed four-page PDF that must be downloaded from the government’s own GOV.UK page and sent, unaltered, to tenants.

The obligation to provide this applies to an assured shorthold tenancy or an assured tenancy created in England before 1 May 2026 with a written agreement of some kind. A copy must be given to every tenant named on the agreement. Lodgers are not included in this. 

Where a letting agent manages the property on the landlord’s behalf, the agent bears an independent duty to provide the Information Sheet. This is the case even if the landlord has already done so. The obligation falls on both parties to ensure the Information Sheet is delivered.

There is one important exception. If a tenancy started before 1 May 2026 without a written agreement, i.e., verbal only, the Information Sheet does not apply. In that case, the landlord must instead provide certain written information about the key terms of the tenancy. 

Oral Tenancies 

If you have any tenancies that you agreed to verbally, with no written agreement, you need to provide a Written Statement of Terms also by 31 May 2026. This should follow the draft regulations The Assured Tenancies (Private Rented Sector) (Written Statement of Terms etc and Information Sheet) (England) Regulations 2026 set out the required contents. These include:

• Landlord and tenant names
• Property address
• Start date of the tenancy
• Rent amount and payment dates
• Landlord’s address in England or Wales for service of notices
• Deposit details
• Repair and maintenance obligations
• Utility arrangements
• Notice requirements for ending the tenancy
• A statement on the tenant’s right to keep a pet with landlord consent, and that consent must not be unreasonably refused

If you are unsure whether any of your tenancies fall into the oral category, particularly older arrangements that were never properly documented, or where documents may be lost, you should review your portfolio and take legal advice.

How the Information Sheet must be delivered

The delivery rules are quite specific and the government makes it clear these rules are not flexible. The Information Sheet is only valid when downloaded from the official government web page. Landlords must download the PDF and provide the exact copy without alteration of any kind.

It can be delivered to tenants in one of two ways: 

1 - by printing a hard copy and posting it or handing it to the tenant in person, or 

2 - by sending the PDF as an electronic attachment to an email or text message. 

Emailing or texting a link to the document on the government’s website does not apply and will leave you in breach. Don’t get caught out on this.

The legislation does not require you to change or re-issue an existing written tenancy agreement. 

You should always get proof of delivery, whichever method you use.

What happens if you miss the deadline?

The penalty for failing to provide the Information Sheet is a civil fine of up to £7,000 issued by the local authority. 

Tenants have the right to report you if they don’t receive the Information Sheet (or a Written Statement of Terms for a verbal agreement) to their local council. Local authorities have been given strengthened powers under the Renters’ Rights Act to pursue landlords. 

What’s more, and this is important, where a breach continues for more than 28 days after a penalty has been issued, the legislation treats it as a continuing offence which can result in civil penalties of up to £40,000. 

Councils are actively being resourced to enforce this new regime, and the government has made landlord compliance a priority. Penalties across the various provisions of the Act range from £7,000 up to £40,000 depending on the specific breach. 

Student landlords face an additional deadline. They must have written formally to their tenants by 31 May 2026 to trigger Ground 4A under the Act, which enables them to give two months’ notice to end a student tenancy between 1 May and 30 July 2026. After 30 July, the notice period increases to four months. If this applies to you, you should act today.

Letting agents

Agents should not assume that because a landlord has said they served the Information Sheet, they have no further obligation. Their duty is to provide the Information Sheet to tenants regardless of what the landlord has done. 

Agents managing portfolios should conduct a final check to ensure that every applicable tenancy on their books has been covered. 

If in doubt as to service or delivery method, serve the notice again and keep a paper trail as evidence. 

Conclusion

Whether individual landlords welcome or resent the changes the new act introduces, it is now the legal framework within which the private rental market operates. Non-compliance is not an option.

The immediate priority is simple: if you have not yet served the Information Sheet, do it today. Download the PDF from GOV.UK, attach it to an email, and send it to every named tenant on every qualifying tenancy you hold. Keep a record.