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Do I have to give my tenant a written tenancy agreement in England?

Guide · about 11 min read · Covers the law in England as at October 2026 · Reviewed on

No signed tenancy agreement is required in England. You must still give the tenant of a private assured tenancy a written statement of terms. Section 16D(2) of the Housing Act 1988 requires the landlord to give the tenant a written statement of the terms specified in regulations, "whether in the form of an agreement in writing between the landlord and tenant or a record of terms otherwise agreed". Section 16D was inserted by section 12 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 and has applied to private assured tenancies since 1 May 2026. The content is prescribed, and the Schedule lists 18 items to work through. Signing matters for a separate rule: rent must not be asked for or accepted before the agreement is signed.

This guide covers England only and private assured tenancies. It is general information and not legal advice. VEYLO X is a software platform for renting and letting in England. It does not draft tenancy terms and takes no view on whether a statement meets the duty. Landlords can use it to keep dated records of documents like these, and there is more on how VEYLO X works for landlords.

Is a written tenancy agreement a legal requirement?

Not in those words. Section 16D(2) sets out a duty to give the tenant a written statement of two things: the terms of the tenancy that regulations specify, and any other information that regulations require about the tenancy, the dwelling, the tenant, the landlord, or the rights of either party in relation to the tenancy or the dwelling. The subsection then says expressly that the statement may take the form either of an agreement in writing between the landlord and the tenant or of a record of terms otherwise agreed.

So a signature is not what the duty turns on. What it turns on is whether the tenant has been given, in writing, the things the regulations prescribe. A tenancy agreement is the obvious way to do that and remains perfectly good, as long as it carries all of them.

A signature matters for a different rule, and it is worth keeping the two apart. Section 9 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 inserted paragraph 1(1A) into Schedule 1 to the Tenant Fees Act 2019, which, since 1 May 2026, makes a payment of rent a prohibited payment where "it is payable before the tenancy is entered into" and the tenancy is an assured tenancy. The same section inserted section 5A into that Act, under which a landlord must not invite or encourage such a payment, accept an offer of one, or accept one, and the same prohibitions apply where the payment is made to a third party. GOV.UK gives the practical rule in one line: a landlord "must not accept, ask for or encourage" a tenant to pay rent before both parties sign the tenancy agreement.

After signing and before the tenancy starts, which GOV.UK calls the pre-tenancy period, some rent can be asked for, and there is a limit on it. GOV.UK says the maximum a landlord can usually ask for is one month’s rent where rent is paid monthly, or 28 days’ rent where it is paid weekly, and that more is allowed only where the council agreed the tenancy because the tenant was legally homeless, or the property is let as social or supported housing. The Act works the same way round: section 8 leaves initial rent due during the permitted pre-tenancy period outside the prohibition it creates, and the new section 4B of the Housing Act 1988 defines initial rent as the rent for the first rent period, or for a later rent period ending within the first 28 days, with the permitted pre-tenancy period running from the tenancy being entered into to the day before it begins. So the section 16D duty is satisfied without a signature, and the money rules are not: do not ask for or take rent before the agreement is signed, and keep what you take in the pre-tenancy period inside those limits. Deposits are a separate matter with their own rules, and GOV.UK says a holding deposit of up to one week’s rent, and a tenancy deposit of up to five weeks’ rent where the annual rent is less than £50,000 or six weeks’ rent where it is £50,000 or more, can be asked for before the agreement is signed.

Section 16D(1) carves out one case. The section does not apply to a tenancy granted by implication, after an implied surrender of a previous assured tenancy between the same parties, where the implied surrender and grant result from an agreement to vary the terms of the previous tenancy.

What has to be in the written statement of terms?

The content is prescribed by the Schedule to the Assured Tenancies (Private Rented Sector) (Written Statement of Terms etc and Information Sheet) (England) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/324, which came into force on 1 May 2026. Regulation 2(2) sends you to the Schedule, and Part 1 of the Schedule has 18 numbered paragraphs. All 18 have to be considered, and the ones that have to go in are the ones whose conditions are met, because most of them from paragraph 8 onwards carry a condition of their own. Check each one against whatever you currently issue.

  • Paragraph 1: the name of the landlord, and where there are joint landlords, the name of each of them.
  • Paragraph 2: the name of the tenant, and the name of each joint tenant.
  • Paragraph 3: an address in England and Wales at which the tenant may serve notices on the landlord, including notices in proceedings.
  • Paragraph 4: the address of the property.
  • Paragraph 5: the date on which the tenant is first entitled to possession.
  • Paragraph 6: the rent payable and when it is due.
  • Paragraph 7: a statement explaining that a new proposal to increase the rent requires a notice under section 13 of the Housing Act 1988.
  • Paragraph 8: bills the tenant pays you, where a relevant bill payment is payable by the tenant to the landlord. State that it is payable, and whether it forms part of the rent or is payable in addition. Where it is in addition, state each amount or an explanation of when and how the tenant is to be told the amount, and when each payment is due or how the tenant is to be told the due date. Paragraph 19 defines a relevant bill payment as a payment for council tax, for a utility, towards energy efficiency improvements under a green deal plan, for a television licence, or for a communication service.
  • Paragraph 9: the amount of any tenancy deposit, where the requirements in section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 apply.
  • Paragraph 10: the minimum notice period the tenant must give when giving a notice to quit, where section 5(1) of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 applies.
  • Paragraph 11: where section 5 of the Housing Act 1988 applies to the tenancy, a statement explaining that in most circumstances the landlord can only bring the tenancy to an end by obtaining a court order for possession and executing it, that a notice of proceedings for possession in the prescribed form specifying the ground or grounds usually comes first, and that the ground or grounds determine the minimum period of notice, if any, before proceedings are begun.
  • Paragraph 12: a statement explaining the obligation to ensure the property is fit for human habitation, to the extent required by section 9A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, where that section applies.
  • Paragraph 13: a statement explaining the repairing obligations under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, covering the structure and exterior, the installations for the supply of water, gas and electricity and for sanitation, and the installations for space heating and heating water. Sub-paragraph (2) removes the requirement where section 11 does not apply, where a county court order under section 12(2) has been made, or where a right to manage company has acquired the right to manage.
  • Paragraph 14: a statement explaining the duties in regulation 3 of the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector and Social Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, including ensuring that relevant electrical safety standards are met during any period when the property is occupied under the tenancy, inspection and testing by a qualified person at least every five years or earlier if the last report requires it, and obtaining the report and giving the tenant a copy, where that regulation applies to the tenancy.
  • Paragraph 15: where there is a relevant gas fitting, a statement explaining the duties in regulation 36 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, including maintaining any relevant gas fitting, and any flue serving one, in a safe condition, the safety check by a person of a class approved by the Health and Safety Executive at the intervals those Regulations determine, and making a record and, subject to exceptions, giving the tenant a copy of it.
  • Paragraph 16: where the tenant is entitled with the landlord's consent to make improvements, information about section 190 of the Equality Act 2010. That includes the position where a disabled person occupies or intends to occupy the premises as their only or main home and the improvement is likely to facilitate their enjoyment of the premises, having regard to their disability, in which case consent may not be unreasonably withheld, and that the rights and obligations in section 190 do not apply so far as the tenancy makes provision of a like nature.
  • Paragraph 17: a statement explaining that under section 16A of the Housing Act 1988 the tenant may keep a pet at the property if the tenant asks in accordance with that section and the landlord consents, and that consent is not to be unreasonably refused.
  • Paragraph 18: where the tenancy is granted as a tenancy of supported accommodation within paragraph 12(1) of Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988, a statement to that effect and an explanation of why it was granted as such.

Much of the Schedule is not about the deal at all. Paragraph 7 and paragraphs 11 to 17 ask the landlord to explain the law rather than agree a term, and an agreement drafted before May 2026 may already have explained some of them, repairs and fitness among them, but had no reason to carry the set. Paragraph 10 is different again: it asks for a figure, the minimum notice a tenant has to give, rather than for an explanation.

Our guide to the documents a landlord needs before letting a property covers the certificates that sit behind paragraphs 14 and 15. The guide to how a landlord increases the rent under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 covers the section 13 notice that paragraph 7 points at.

Is there anything optional I should still put in?

Yes, and leaving it out has a cost later. Section 16D(3) allows the landlord to include in the statement a statement of the landlord's wish to be able to recover possession on one or more of Grounds 1B, 2ZA to 2ZD, 4, 5 to 5H, 6A or 18 in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988. The subsection itself points at the consequences of specifying one of those grounds in a notice under section 8 where no such statement was included, and at sections 16E(1)(f) and 16I(1)(a). Section 16E(5) says that a breach of subsection (1)(f) does not prevent a court from making an order for possession on the ground in question, so what is at stake is the penalty in section 16I(1)(a) rather than the ground itself. That saving is not confined to one ground; it applies to any of them. Ground 18 is the only ground on that list sitting in Part II of Schedule 2, where the court has a discretion rather than a duty to order possession. Whether an omission has any bearing on how a court exercises that discretion in a particular case is a separate question, and not one section 16E(5) answers. Which of those grounds could ever matter to a particular letting is a question to put to an adviser, and in the ordinary case the statement itself has to be given before the tenancy is entered into, subject to the 28 day cases below, so leave time for both.

When does the tenant have to get it?

Before the tenancy is entered into, as the general rule. That is section 16D(4). Three cases run on a 28 day clock instead.

  • Section 16D(7): where a tenancy becomes one to which the section applies, within 28 days beginning with the date it becomes an assured tenancy.
  • Section 16D(5): where the tenancy arises by succession as mentioned in section 39(5) of the Housing Act 1988, or is an assured agricultural occupancy under paragraph 3 of Schedule 3, within 28 days beginning with the date the landlord acknowledges the tenant's right to a tenancy.
  • Section 16D(6): where a tenancy becomes one to which the section applies by virtue of section 143C(3) of the Housing Act 1996, within 28 days beginning with the date the new landlord becomes the landlord.

What about a tenancy that was already running before May 2026?

It depends on whether the existing tenancy was in writing at all.

Where an existing tenancy is wholly or partly in writing, paragraph 7(1)(a) of Schedule 6 to the Renters' Rights Act 2025 says that section 16D and section 16E(1)(f) do not apply to it. What applies instead is paragraph 7(2): the landlord must give the tenant the information in writing about the changes made by the Act that regulations require, and must do so before the end of the period of one month beginning with the commencement date, which in most cases made the deadline 31 May 2026. Regulation 3(2) of S.I. 2026/324 prescribes that information as the version in force of the document entitled "The Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet 2026", as produced by the Secretary of State. Our guide to whether landlords still have to give the How to Rent guide goes through that document and the deadline attached to it.

Where an existing tenancy was wholly oral, the position is the other way round. Paragraph 7(5) of Schedule 6 does not disapply section 16D at all. It reads section 16D(4) as if, for "before the tenancy is entered into", there were substituted "before the end of the period of one month beginning with the commencement date". A landlord whose long standing letting was never written down therefore owed the full written statement of terms, carrying whichever of the 18 prescribed items applied to the letting, by the end of that month rather than an information sheet.

Paragraph 8 of Schedule 6 is worth knowing alongside it: conduct in relation to an existing tenancy before the commencement date does not give rise to liability to a financial penalty under section 16I or 16K, and does not constitute an offence under section 16J.

Does my existing tenancy agreement already do the job?

This question is about a letting that section 16D reaches, which means a new tenancy rather than one that was already running in writing on 1 May 2026. For those, the answer is: only if the agreement carries everything in Part 1 of the Schedule that applies to the letting. Nothing in section 16D requires a single document, and nothing in it requires any particular layout, so an agreement plus a separate written note of the prescribed statements is capable of meeting the duty as well as one combined document would. What will not meet it is an agreement that stops at the deal points, because paragraphs 7 and 10 to 17 are explanatory statements rather than terms anyone negotiates.

The practical check is to take Part 1 of the Schedule, go through it paragraph by paragraph against the document you actually send out, and note the ones that are missing. Keeping a dated record of which version went to which tenant is what makes that check answerable a year later, and our guide to the records a landlord should keep and for how long covers the rest of that file.

What happens if I do not give it?

A local housing authority may impose a financial penalty. Section 15 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 inserted sections 16I to 16L into the Housing Act 1988, and section 16I(1)(a) lets the authority impose a penalty where it is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the person contravened section 16D. Section 16I(6) caps the amount: it is for the authority to determine, "but must not be more than £7,000".

The £40,000 figure that circulates is real, and it is not the price of a missing document. Section 16I(3) allows a second penalty for the same contravention of section 16D only where the contravention continues after the end of 28 days beginning with the day after the first penalty was imposed, or, where there is an appeal, after 28 days beginning with the day after the appeal is finally determined, withdrawn or abandoned. Section 16J(3) makes it an offence where a penalty that is no longer open to appeal has been imposed, the final notice has not been withdrawn, and the conduct continues past the same 28 day mark, and section 16J(10) makes that punishable on summary conviction by a fine. Section 16K(1) and (3) then let the authority impose a penalty of up to £40,000 instead of prosecuting.

There are two separate routes to the offence, and only one of them runs through those 28 days. Section 16J(3) is the continuing conduct route, and it needs a penalty for this contravention already imposed and the conduct still going 28 days later. Section 16J(4) is a standing record route, and it needs neither. It bites where the new conduct itself gives rise to liability to a penalty under section 16I, and where, within the five years ending with the day that conduct occurs, the person has either had a relevant penalty imposed for different conduct whose final notice has not been withdrawn, or been convicted under section 16J for different conduct. Section 16J(5) is what makes a penalty a relevant one. It has to be a penalty imposed under section 16I or section 16K, and one of three things has to be true of it: the time for appealing has passed without an appeal, or the appeal was withdrawn or abandoned, or the final notice was confirmed or varied on appeal. Where there is no qualifying penalty or conviction in the previous five years, a first contravention of section 16D attracts the section 16I penalty of up to £7,000. That is not a ceiling on the whole exposure. If a penalty is imposed and the same contravention carries on past the 28 days, section 16J(3) can be reached from there, with prosecution or a section 16K penalty of up to £40,000 behind it. Issuing the statement inside those 28 days is what closes that route off. Section 16I(8) and section 16J(6) also stop the authority doing both: no penalty where the person has been convicted of the section 16J offence for that conduct or proceedings are on foot, and no conviction under section 16J(1), (2) or (4) where a penalty has been imposed for it.

If someone else was supposed to do this for me, who gets the penalty?

Section 16D(8) extends the duty. Where a landlord has entered into a contract with a person that requires that person to ensure compliance with the section, whether or not the section is referred to individually, the duty in subsection (2) applies to that person as it applies to the landlord. A penalty can follow for that person on the same basis.

Section 16I(2) is the protection that goes with it: where the landlord does fulfil the section 16D requirement, the authority may not impose a penalty on a person who contravenes section 16D only by virtue of subsection (8). Section 16I(7) runs the other way, and allows a joint penalty where two or more people have contravened and the contraventions arise from the same conduct by one of them acting on behalf of the others, with those people jointly and severally liable to pay it.

What should I do next?

  1. Open Part 1 of the Schedule to S.I. 2026/324 beside the document you currently issue, and mark off the 18 paragraphs.
  2. Add the explanatory statements that are missing.
  3. Issue the statement before the tenancy is entered into for anything new, and keep a dated record of what went out.
  4. If a long standing letting of yours was never written down, that is the one to look at first.

Common questions

Does my tenant have to sign the statement of terms?

Section 16D(2) requires the landlord to give the tenant a written statement, and it allows that statement to be either an agreement in writing between the two of them or a record of terms otherwise agreed. A signature is therefore not what the duty turns on. What matters is that the tenant was given the prescribed terms and information in writing, and in time, which is why a dated record of what was sent is worth more here than a signature on a copy you keep. A signature still matters for a different rule. Under paragraph 1(1A) of Schedule 1 to the Tenant Fees Act 2019, inserted by section 9 of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, a payment of rent payable before an assured tenancy is entered into is a prohibited payment, and GOV.UK puts it as a rule not to accept, ask for or encourage rent before both parties sign the agreement.

Can I send the statement of terms by email?

Section 16D(2) requires a written statement and does not prescribe a method of delivery, and S.I. 2026/324 prescribes the content rather than the channel. The thing to keep in mind is that a record of sending is evidence, not the duty itself: the authority's question under section 16I(1)(a) is whether the person contravened section 16D, and giving the statement is what answers it, so a record of what was sent and when supports your position rather than settling it. Where a tenancy agreement sets out how documents between the parties are to be given, follow that as well, and take advice if a tenant says something never reached them.

Do I have to issue a new statement if the rent goes up?

A rent increase has its own procedure, and paragraph 7 of the Schedule requires the statement itself to explain that a new proposal to increase the rent needs a notice under section 13 of the Housing Act 1988. Section 16D is framed around giving the statement for the tenancy rather than around reissuing it whenever a figure moves. Where terms are varied by agreement during a tenancy, recording the variation in writing is sensible in its own right, and anything turning on whether a fresh tenancy has been created is worth putting to an adviser.

Does the duty apply to a tenancy that is not an assured tenancy?

Section 16D sits in Part 1 of the Housing Act 1988 and applies to an assured tenancy, subject to the carve out in section 16D(1). S.I. 2026/421 commenced Chapter 1 of Part 1 on 1 May 2026 for assured tenancies that are not social housing assured tenancies, and regulation 2 of S.I. 2026/324 applies the prescribed content to tenancies to which section 16D applies, except social housing assured tenancies. Whether a particular letting is an assured tenancy at all is decided by section 1 of and Schedule 1 to the Housing Act 1988, and a letting that falls outside them is outside this duty too.

Sources

The primary sources behind this guide. Where the law and a summary disagree, the law is what counts.

This article is general information, not legal advice. It covers England only and reflects the position as at October 2026. For your own situation, take advice, and consider free advice from Citizens Advice or Shelter.

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