What documents must a landlord give a new tenant in England: the 2026 checklist

If you’re letting a property in England in 2026, the law gives you a short but unforgiving list of documents to put in front of every new tenant before they move in. Skip one and the consequences are real. Since Section 21 was abolished on 1 May 2026, the deposit is the item that can stop a possession claim. If it was not protected, or the prescribed information was not given, most Section 8 grounds are blocked until you put it right. The other items are legal duties with their own penalties.

Below is the complete 2026 move-in pack: statute by statute, deadline by deadline, and what changed when the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 came in on 1 May 2026.

The five items every England landlord must serve a new tenant

A standard England private letting in 2026 should land in the tenant’s inbox (or hands) with the following pack at, or before, the start of the tenancy:

1. 1Gas Safety Certificate (CP12): the latest annual inspection
2. 2Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR): the latest 5-year report
3. 3Energy Performance Certificate (EPC): current, band E or above (band C by 1 October 2030 is planned, not yet law)
4. 4Deposit Prescribed Information: within 30 days of receiving the deposit, with the scheme’s leaflet
5. 5Written tenancy agreement / statement of terms: a hard duty from 1 May 2026 under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (Housing Act 1988 s.16D), given before the tenancy is entered into

Two documents are NOT part of a new tenant’s pack. The How to Rent guide was withdrawn on 1 May 2026. The RRA Information Sheet is a one-off catch-up for tenancies that already existed on 1 May 2026 (deadline was 31 May 2026). A new tenancy does not get the Information Sheet; it gets the written statement of terms (item 5) instead. More on both below.

A useful mental model: the first four items cover money + safety; item 5, the written statement of terms, is the RRA information duty for a new tenancy.

1. Gas Safety Certificate (CP12)

Statute: Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, regulation 36(6) and (7).

Who issues it: A Gas Safe registered engineer (check at gassaferegister.co.uk).

Service rule: Give the latest CP12 to a new tenant before they move in. Give it to existing tenants within 28 days of each annual inspection.

Penalty for non-service: The HSE can prosecute. The fine is unlimited, and in serious cases the sentence can reach 2 years in prison. An out-of-date or unserved CP12 does not itself bar a Section 8 claim. The only compliance failure that stops a possession order is deposit non-compliance (on every ground but 7A and 14). But an unserved CP12 hands the tenant a disrepair argument and weighs against you on any discretionary ground.

Proof landlords forget: A copy in your filing cabinet is not service. The court wants the moment of delivery. Email with a PDF attached and a dated read-receipt (or send via your platform’s audit log) is the cleanest evidence.

2. Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)

Statute: Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, regulation 3(2)(c).

Frequency: Every 5 years (sooner if the inspector’s recommendation says so).

Service rule: New tenant gets the latest report before move-in. Existing tenants get it within 28 days of the inspection. The local authority may demand it within 7 days.

Penalty for non-service: Civil penalty up to £40,000 per property, imposed by the local authority. It does not bar a Section 8 claim, because deposit non-compliance is the only failure that stops a possession order. But an unserved EICR is a gift to a tenant defending on disrepair, and it counts against you wherever the court weighs reasonableness.

Proof landlords forget: Many landlords share the engineer’s job sheet, not the formal EICR. The certificate must include the property address, inspector name and registration body, and grade every observation C1 / C2 / C3 / FI.

3. Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

Statute: Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012, regulation 6.

Service rule: Give the EPC to the prospective tenant before they enter into the tenancy. The EPC is valid for 10 years from issue.

MEES overlay: Letting an F or G rated property without a registered exemption is a breach of the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES), with fines from £2,000 to £5,000 per property. The government plans to raise the minimum to band C for all privately rented homes by 1 October 2030, but that is not yet law.

Penalty for non-service: The Trading Standards officer can issue a £200 fixed penalty per breach. A missing EPC does not bar a Section 8 claim; that restriction attaches to deposit compliance, not to certificates. It does expose you under MEES, where letting below band E without a registered exemption is separately penalised.

4. Deposit Prescribed Information (PI)

Statute: Housing Act 2004 ss.213–215A and the Housing (Tenancy Deposits) (Prescribed Information) Order 2007.

Deadline: Within 30 days of receiving the deposit you must (a) protect it in DPS, TDS or mydeposits, and (b) serve the Prescribed Information along with the scheme’s leaflet.

Penalty for non-service: A tenant can apply to the County Court for an order requiring you to pay them between 1× and 3× the deposit. The court has no discretion to reduce it below 1×. You can still serve a Section 8 notice, but on most grounds the court cannot make a possession order until the breach is put right, by serving the prescribed information (late still counts) or returning the deposit. (Section 21, which this also blocked, was abolished on 1 May 2026.)

Proof landlords forget: The certificate from the deposit scheme is evidence the deposit is protected; it is not the Prescribed Information. The PI is a separate signed document with the landlord and tenant details, deposit amount, scheme details, dispute process and what triggers deductions. LetCompliance generates it as a PDF you can email straight to the tenant.

5. Written tenancy agreement / statement of terms

Statute: Housing Act 1988 section 16D, inserted by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. Common law has always preferred a written agreement; from 1 May 2026 this makes it a hard duty: every tenant must have a written statement of tenancy terms setting out rent, deposit, landlord name and address, repair responsibilities and any rules about pets, smoking and altering the property.

Service rule: Before the tenancy is entered into. The Act is explicit (s.16D(4)) that the statement "must be given before the tenancy is entered into", so "on move-in day" is already late. The 28-day deadline people quote is the exception, not the rule: under s.16D(5)–(7) it applies only where a tenancy becomes assured later (succession, an agricultural worker, or a change of landlord). A tenancy that already existed on 1 May 2026 with no written agreement must also be given the written statement.

Penalty for non-service: A local housing authority may impose a civil penalty of up to £7,000 (Housing Act 1988 s.16I). And the commercial risk sits underneath it: a tenant who never had written terms can dispute almost any deduction at the end of the tenancy.

6. Renters’ Rights Act 2025 Information Sheet (existing tenancies only)

Statute: Renters’ Rights Act 2025 c. 26, with commencement regulations from 1 May 2026.

Who it applies to: This is a one-off catch-up duty, not a new-tenancy document. Every tenancy that already existed on 1 May 2026 with a written agreement had to be given the official Information Sheet by 31 May 2026 (that deadline has passed). A new tenancy granted on or after 1 May 2026 does not get the Information Sheet. It gets the written statement of terms (item 5) before the tenancy is agreed. Verbal-only pre-May tenancies also receive a written statement instead.

Penalty for non-service: A local housing authority may impose a civil penalty of up to £7,000 per breach. Penalties are not automatic, and enforcement depends on the facts. But a landlord who missed an existing tenant has nothing to fall back on if challenged.

Proof landlords forget: The Information Sheet is its own published GOV.UK document (The Renters’ Rights Act information sheet 2026); a paragraph in your covering letter is not the same as serving the file. If you still have a pre-May tenant you never served, do it now and keep proof.

What happened to the How to Rent guide?

For years the GOV.UK How to Rent guide was a mandatory move-in document: serving the latest version was a precondition of a valid Section 21 notice under the Deregulation Act 2015.

That ended on 1 May 2026. With Section 21 abolished, GOV.UK withdrew the How to Rent guide and states it is no longer up to date. For any tenancy you grant on or after 1 May 2026, the information duty is the written statement of terms (item 5 above), not How to Rent. (The Information Sheet in item 6 is a separate one-off catch-up that applied only to tenancies already in place on 1 May 2026.)

The one exception: the withdrawn guide is retained for reference where you served a Section 21 notice before 1 May 2026. If that is you, keep the copy you served on file. For every new let, How to Rent is history: the written statement of terms is the current requirement.

What used to invalidate a Section 21 (historical)

Section 21 was abolished for new notices on 1 May 2026. Historically, the Deregulation Act 2015 s.38–41 required the following before a Section 21 notice was valid:

• Latest Gas Safety Certificate served on the tenant before move-in
• Latest EPC given before the tenancy started
• Latest GOV.UK How to Rent booklet served at the start of the tenancy
• Deposit protected within 30 days and Prescribed Information served

Under Section 8 it is different. Only the deposit can stop the court: if it was not protected, or the prescribed information was not given, the court cannot make a possession order on most grounds (Housing Act 2004 s.215). The gas, EICR and EPC duties still apply and breaking them is an offence, but they do not bar a Section 8 claim. Give the documents on day one anyway, because they are the law and because the tenant’s side will look for gaps.

What changes from 1 May 2026 (Renters’ Rights Act 2025)

The RRA does not delete the move-in pack. It strengthens it.

• Section 21 is abolished. Possession claims now rely on Section 8 grounds, which are tighter and require proven facts.
• The deposit is the one that can stop a claim. If it was not protected, or the prescribed information was not given, the court cannot make a possession order on most Section 8 grounds, including Grounds 1 and 1A (landlord moving in / selling), until you put it right.
• Arrears caused only by a late Universal Credit housing payment may not count towards Ground 8 (rent arrears).
• Form 3 (the old Section 8 prescribed form) is replaced by Form 3A for notices served on or after 1 May 2026 in the private rented sector.
• The Information Sheet had to be served on every existing written tenancy by 31 May 2026 (a one-off catch-up); a new tenancy from 1 May 2026 gets the written statement of terms instead, not the Information Sheet.

Translation: the move-in pack you served on day one is now load-bearing for the entire tenancy. A landlord who served the full pack at move-in is in a strong position whatever route to possession they later need; a landlord who skipped one item is exposed for years.

How LetCompliance handles this

The week before move-in is when this list matters, and LetCompliance has a move-in pack sender built for exactly that moment. On the property page every current tenant on the tenancy is ticked, and the pack pre-ticks the statutory documents you’ve uploaded. Anything missing shows as an amber warning row with the statute reference and the GOV.UK link. One click sends each tenant their own email with every PDF attached, and the audit log writes one structured row per attachment for each tenant, so the audit export shows each CP12, EICR and EPC as its own dated entry. Handed them over on paper instead? Record them as given by hand, with the day. The tenancy agreement itself can be e-signed online on the trial and paid plans, and its audit certificate records the time each tenant signed.

The same record feeds the compliance score for every property: if the move-in pack is incomplete, the property cannot reach 100 / 100, so the gap stays in front of you until it’s filled.

Where to go next

• Move-in pack sender (product page): a walkthrough of the in-app workflow
• Section 21 guide: the prerequisite checklist in detail
• Section 8 grounds complete guide 2026: grounds 1 and 1A and what evidence wins
• Deposit prescribed information guide: the most-missed item

Get started and send the whole move-in pack to your next tenant in one click. Each attachment gets its own audit row, so you can show exactly what was sent and when.

The wider list. Serving the documents is one stage of it. The free landlord compliance checklist covers the rest: what to settle before you advertise, the two deadlines that start on day one, and the renewals that come round every year, each with the statute it comes from.