What Tenancy Reforms Mean for Your Agreements: The Shift to Periodic Tenancies and Written Statements of Terms

How this guide helps a landlord

• Understand what happened to fixed terms and existing ASTs on 1 May 2026.
• Know what the written statement of terms must contain and when to give it.
• Check whether your existing tenants needed the information sheet.
• Avoid the penalties for informal notices and fixed-term claims.

The end of assured shorthold tenancies and fixed terms

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 is the most comprehensive overhaul of private residential tenancies in over three decades. Its core structural reform is the abolition of assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) and fixed-term lets across the private rented sector in England.

• The periodic model: private residential tenancies are now assured periodic tenancies. Landlords can no longer grant fixed terms such as six or twelve months, and claiming to let on a fixed term is itself a breach that can attract a civil penalty.
• Rent periods: a tenancy’s rent period can be no longer than one month (or 28 days). Quarterly or annual rent periods are no longer permitted.
• Existing ASTs: on 1 May 2026, existing ASTs converted automatically into assured periodic tenancies. Landlords did not need to issue new tenancy agreements, but new information duties applied.

The written statement of terms

Under section 16D of the Housing Act 1988, inserted by the Renters’ Rights Act, landlords (or their agents) must give tenants a written statement of the key terms of the tenancy.

• What it must include: landlord and tenant names, the property address and an address in England or Wales for serving notices, the start date, the rent and when it is due, that rent increases follow section 13, which bills are included, deposit details, the tenant’s notice period, how the landlord can end the tenancy, and statements of the landlord’s repair, fitness, gas and electrical safety duties and the tenant’s right to request a pet.
• When to give it: the government’s landlord guidance says to provide it before you and the tenant sign the agreement or otherwise agree the tenancy. Its civil penalty guidance refers to issuing it within 28 days of the tenancy coming into existence. The safest course is to give it before the tenancy starts.
• Penalty: failing to provide it is a breach with a civil penalty of up to £7,000. The government’s guidance gives councils a starting point of £4,000.

Our guide to existing tenancy agreements after the Renters’ Rights Act explains how older agreements are treated.

Existing tenancies and the information sheet

• Written agreements: if a tenancy that existed before 1 May 2026 had a written agreement, the landlord had to give the tenant the government’s Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 by 31 May 2026. The existing agreement did not need rewriting.
• Verbal agreements: if the tenancy was based entirely on a verbal agreement, the landlord had to give the tenant the written information itself by 31 May 2026.
• Missed the deadline? Failing to provide the information sheet is a breach that can attract a civil penalty of up to £7,000. See our guide to a missed information sheet deadline.

No informal notices to end a tenancy

Landlords can no longer end an assured periodic tenancy with a notice to quit, a letter or a verbal demand. Possession can only be sought using a valid Section 8 notice based on a statutory ground and, if the tenant does not leave, a court order.

Repeat breaches within five years can become offences with penalties of up to £40,000 or prosecution.

How tenants can end the tenancy

While landlords must prove a statutory ground to regain possession, tenants can end an assured periodic tenancy by giving at least two months’ written notice, ending at the end of a rent period. Where there are joint tenants, a valid notice to quit from one joint tenant generally ends the tenancy for all of them. Our guide to tenant notice periods covers this in more detail.

Compliance checklist: tenancy agreements

• Stop using fixed-term tenancy agreements and AST templates.
• Give every new tenant a written statement of terms, ideally before the tenancy starts.
• Check every pre-May 2026 tenant received the information sheet (or written information for verbal tenancies).
• Make sure rent periods are monthly or shorter.
• Never try to end a tenancy by letter, notice to quit or verbal demand.
• Use a valid Section 8 notice and court process for possession.
• Keep dated proof of every document you give tenants.