If you manage tenancies in England, the Renters' Rights Act information sheet is now part of your day-one paperwork, sitting alongside the written statement of terms, the deposit prescribed information and your safety certificates. It is a short, centrally published document explaining what tenants and landlords can expect under the new tenancy system, and the legal duty to provide it sits with the landlord, which in practice means it lands on whoever runs the lettings desk. The old comfort of 'we will fix the file before we serve notice' went out with section 21. This is a front-loaded duty, so here is who needs it, when it has to be served, and how to prove you served it.
What the Renters' Rights Act information sheet actually is
The Renters' Rights Act 2025 rebuilt the assured tenancy from the ground up: fixed terms and section 21 are gone, and assured tenancies in England now run as periodic tenancies. Because the rules changed so comprehensively, the Act requires tenants to be given a plain-English summary of how the system works, published centrally so that every tenant receives the same explanation rather than a version drafted by their agent.
Two consequences matter for your process:
- You do not write it. Download the current published version and pass it on unaltered. Rebranding it, trimming it or folding it into your own welcome pack invites an argument you cannot win.
- It does not replace the written statement of terms. These are separate duties, and serving one does not discharge the other.
Information sheet against written statement of terms
- The information sheet is generic. It explains rights and responsibilities, how rent increases work, the ombudsman and how possession now operates.
- The written statement of terms is specific to that tenancy: the parties, the property, the rent and when it is payable, the deposit, and the terms you have actually agreed.
- The information sheet is identical for every tenant you sign this month. The written statement is different for every single one.
Who needs the Renters' Rights Act information sheet
England only
The reforms apply to assured tenancies in England. Wales operates under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, where written statements of occupation contracts already do a comparable job, and Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own regimes entirely. If you run a cross-border portfolio, split your compliance checklists by nation. Applying English paperwork to a property in Cardiff or Glasgow creates work rather than reducing risk.
The landlord owes it, the agent usually performs it
The duty sits with the landlord. That distinction matters when something goes wrong, because the council looks at the landlord and the landlord looks at the management agreement. If you are a managing agent, your terms of business should state which party serves the sheet, which party retains the evidence, and what happens when a landlord insists on onboarding their own tenants. Rent-to-rent and guaranteed-rent arrangements need this spelled out in even plainer language, because the person granting the tenancy is often not the person on the title.
Tenants whose tenancies converted
Existing assured shorthold tenancies converted to the new periodic assured tenancy on commencement. Those tenants never received a sheet at the start, because it did not exist, so the Act provides for them to be given one within a set period after the rules took effect. If you took on a portfolio mid-year or inherited files from another agent, that back-book is where the gaps hide. Audit it rather than assuming your predecessor handled it.
Arrangements that fall outside the duty
- lodgers sharing accommodation with a resident landlord
- genuine holiday lets
- company lets, where the tenant is a business rather than an individual occupying as their only or principal home
- most purpose-built student accommodation covered by the statutory exemption
- other lettings excluded from the assured regime, including certain very high or very low rent arrangements
Several of those are judgement calls and are argued about more often than agents expect. Where you are genuinely unsure, serve it anyway. Serving a sheet you did not strictly need costs you an email; missing one you did need costs a penalty.
When it has to be served
- Before a new tenancy begins. Not on move-in day with the keys, and not buried in the stack a tenant signs while the van waits outside.
- Within the statutory window for converted tenancies. These are the ones agents miss, because nothing in the diary prompts you.
- On every genuine new grant. Swapping one joint tenant for another usually amounts to a surrender and regrant, so treat the incoming household as new and serve again.
- Using the version current on the day you serve. Government documents get updated. Sending last year's PDF is the same class of error as producing an expired gas certificate.
The practical rule most well-run desks land on is to send the Renters' Rights Act information sheet the moment the offer is accepted and the holding deposit is taken. The tenant has time to read it, your timestamp sits comfortably before the start date, and nothing depends on someone remembering it during a Friday afternoon check-in.
Proving you served it
- Log service against the tenant record, not the property record. Tenants move, properties stay, and audits follow people.
- Serve every joint tenant individually. One email to the lead tenant is not service on four adults.
- Record the version or publication date of the document you sent, not simply that you sent something.
- Get written consent to serve documents electronically and make sure the tenancy agreement supports it.
- Keep the evidence for the life of the tenancy and well beyond. Periodic tenancies can now run for many years, and the file has to answer questions long after the person who built it has left.
- Sample yourself quarterly. Pull ten random tenancies and try to produce proof in five minutes. If you cannot, your process is theoretical.
What happens if you skip it
Enforcement runs through local housing authorities, with civil penalties that scale according to how serious and how repeated the failure is. The old dynamic, where a missing document simply blocked a section 21 notice until you fixed it, no longer applies, because section 21 no longer exists. A missed Renters' Rights Act information sheet is not a delay any more; it is a live breach sitting on the file until somebody notices. Add the landlord ombudsman and the private rented sector database to the picture and there are more places than ever where a thin paper trail becomes visible.
Build it in, do not rely on memory
Make it one automated step in a tenancy onboarding sequence, tied to offer acceptance, with a task that will not close until evidence is attached. If you are reviewing your wider processes, our notes for property managers and the rest of the PlanaJob blog cover the operational side of the reforms in more depth.
The repairs half of the same job
Handing tenants a clear statement of their rights has an obvious downstream effect: more repair requests, raised earlier, with better wording. That is the point rather than a problem, but it does mean your maintenance desk has to keep pace with hazard response timescales and the decent homes expectations now reaching the private rented sector. A tenant who can quote the rules will notice if you cannot evidence your response.
Contractors are adjusting to the same standards from the other side, and the better ones compare notes in communities like Contractor Club. For agents, the practical answer is a repairs desk where every job carries a timestamped history: reported, triaged, quoted, instructed, attended, closed. Platforms like PlanaJob let property managers compare quotes from vetted contractors on the same job, so choosing on price and availability does not cost you the audit trail.
That is the case for treating PlanaJob as your repairs desk CRM rather than another job board. Every request, quote, instruction and completion note sits in one place against the property and the tenant, which is exactly the evidence a council or an ombudsman asks for. Set up your repairs desk on PlanaJob and stop reconstructing maintenance histories out of your sent items.
FAQ
Do I need to serve it on tenancies that started before the new rules?
Yes. Tenancies that converted to the new periodic assured tenancy are in scope, and the Act allows a window after commencement for existing tenants to receive the sheet. If you have not swept your back-book yet, that is the first audit to run, particularly on any portfolio you took over from another agent.
Can I email the Renters' Rights Act information sheet?
Generally yes, provided the tenant has agreed to electronic service and your tenancy agreement supports it. Keep the sent email, note the version you attached, and send it to each joint tenant separately. If a tenant has told you they cannot access documents electronically, post it and record that you did.
Does it replace the How to Rent guide?
For assured tenancies in England, the Renters' Rights Act information sheet takes over the role the How to Rent guide used to play, and the sanction has changed with it: instead of blocking a section 21 notice, a failure now exposes you to local authority enforcement. Check the current government guidance before you reprint your document pack, since formats and versions are still settling.