How to Rent Booklet England: Withdrawn 1 May 2026

Is there a How to Rent booklet for 2026?

No. GOV.UK withdrew the How to Rent guide on 1 May 2026, so there is no 2026 edition and a landlord in England does not give one to a new tenant. The guide was last updated on 2 October 2023.

Its publication page, checked on 26 September 2026, reads "This publication was withdrawn on 1 May 2026" and gives the reason as changes from the Renters' Rights Act. It is kept only for tenancies where a Section 21 notice was served before that date. The guide existed to protect Section 21 notices, and Section 21 has itself been abolished.

For a tenancy starting today the replacement duty is a written statement of terms, which the landlord must give before the tenancy is entered into (Housing Act 1988 s.16D(4), inserted by the Renters' Rights Act 2025; civil penalty up to £7,000 under s.16I). The rest of this guide is for landlords who still have a live pre-May-2026 Section 21 claim and need to show the correct edition was served at the time, so the historical rules are in the past tense throughout.

Primary source: How to rent: the checklist for renting in England on GOV.UK (now marked withdrawn).

Not legal advice. Statutory wording and court forms change. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland use different materials. The editorial policy explains how tenancy content is checked.

What to give a new tenant in England in 2026 instead

Give a new tenant a written statement of terms before the tenancy is entered into, copies of the gas safety record, EPC and EICR, and the deposit Prescribed Information within 30 days of taking the deposit. Here is the list, in the order it falls due.

Before the tenancy is entered into

• Written statement of terms, usually the written tenancy agreement itself (Housing Act 1988 s.16D(4); civil penalty up to £7,000 under s.16I).
• Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), made available before the tenancy is granted (Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012, reg 6). The legal minimum rating is band E.
• Right to Rent check on every tenant aged 18 and over, before the tenancy starts, or in the 28 days before it starts where the tenant's permission to stay is time-limited (GOV.UK).

Before the tenant moves in

• Gas safety record (CP12), where the property has gas: a copy of the latest record before they occupy (Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, reg 36).
• Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR): a copy of the most recent report before they occupy (Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, reg 3(3)(e)).
• Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms checked and working on the day the tenancy starts (Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015, as amended in 2022).

Within 30 days of receiving a deposit

• Protect the deposit and serve the Prescribed Information (Housing Act 2004 ss.213 to 215). Miss either and the tenant can claim 1 to 3 times the deposit, and until it is put right the court cannot make a possession order on most Section 8 grounds.

No longer on the list: How to Rent (withdrawn 1 May 2026), and the Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet, which was a one-off for tenancies that already existed on 1 May 2026 and was due by 31 May 2026. The statute-by-statute version is in the documents a landlord must give a new tenant checklist.

Can LetCompliance send all of this to the tenant?

Yes, from £7.99 a month, and one property is free. The tenancy agreement is written as an assured periodic tenancy, the form new private tenancies in England take since 1 May 2026, with the written statement of terms in it. Once the agreement is made, one click starts the deposit's 30-day clock from the day you received the money, with reminders 14, 7 and 1 day before protection and the Prescribed Information are due. The move-in pack then sends the gas safety record, EICR, EPC and deposit Prescribed Information to the tenant in one email, and records each document in the property's audit log as its own dated entry, so you can show what was sent, to whom and when. Anything missing shows as a warning before you send.

Get started

What “How to rent” was, and why it mattered

“How to rent” was the government’s plain-English guide for people renting a home in England. It covered deposits, repairs, safety, illegal fees, ending a tenancy, and where to get help. For private landlords using assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs), giving the correct edition at the right time was a core step for years. Under the Deregulation Act 2015 framework it was central to whether a Section 21 notice could be relied on. Serve the wrong edition, or fail to prove service, and the no-fault notice failed.

That is exactly why its withdrawal follows Section 21’s abolition: the duty existed to support Section 21, and with Section 21 gone for new notices from 1 May 2026, GOV.UK withdrew the guide. If you are reading this because you have a pre-May-2026 Section 21 claim still moving through the courts, the rest of this section explains the rules as they stood then.

When did you have to provide How to rent? (historical)

For new ASTs in England, landlords had to provide the current booklet at the start of the tenancy (in practice, when the tenant was entitled to move in, or as part of the pre-move-in paperwork). This mattered because it was a condition of Section 21. It never applied to Section 8.

The workflow that wins a pre-May-2026 dispute is still about proof:

1. 1Identify the exact edition that was current on the day the tenancy began.
2. 2Produce the PDF file you actually sent (or a scan of the printed copy handed over).
3. 3Produce the email header or signed receipt showing the date and recipient.
4. 4Keep it in the property folder with a date and version note.

Joint tenancies: one PDF to all named tenants (same email with all addresses, or individual proofs). Guarantors were never a substitute for giving tenants the booklet.

For a tenancy starting now, none of this applies. You do not serve How to Rent; you give a written statement of terms before the tenancy is entered into. The documents a landlord must give a new tenant checklist covers the current move-in sequence.

Which edition you had to give (historical)

While the guide was live, the duty was to give the tenant the edition that was current when the tenancy (or a replacement tenancy) began. This mattered only for keeping a future Section 21 notice valid.

Since the guide was withdrawn on 1 May 2026 there are no further editions, and no Section 21 notice to protect. Do not re-serve the withdrawn guide as if it were still a requirement. It isn't.

How to rent vs your tenancy agreement

The tenancy agreement sets rent, term, notice, pets and specific obligations. How to Rent was never a second tenancy agreement: it was statutory information, and the two were not meant to contradict each other on fundamentals such as illegal fees. If your clauses conflict with consumer law or tenant rights, the agreement can be partly unenforceable even if it is signed. That point still holds for the written statement of terms you now give instead.

Best practice: make sure the binding agreement and any information you give the tenant say the same thing about deposits, fees and repairs.

How to rent vs deposit Prescribed Information (do not mix them up)

Do not confuse the two: How to Rent is gone, but the deposit Prescribed Information duty is very much still in force and is one of the few things that genuinely bars possession. Missing PI triggers a 1 to 3× deposit penalty, and an unprotected deposit or unserved PI bars a Section 8 possession order on every ground except 7A and 14 until it is put right (protecting the deposit and serving the PI, even late, lifts the bar, and so does returning the deposit). See the deposit protection guide and Prescribed Information deep dive.

One email, the right attachments is still the clean pattern for a new tenancy: the written statement of terms + deposit PI + gas/EICR/EPC, with a read receipt where appropriate.

Section 21, the Renters' Rights Act 2025, and the withdrawal

For years, failure to give the correct How to Rent at the right time was a frequent reason a Section 21 Form 6A possession failed. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 abolished Section 21 no-fault notices for new use from 1 May 2026 in England; possession now runs through Section 8 grounds only.

Because the whole point of the How to Rent duty was to keep a Section 21 notice valid, GOV.UK withdrew the guide on the same day. So the honest answer to "is How to Rent still a precondition for my notice?" is: there is no Section 21 notice for it to be a precondition of. It never applied to Section 8 and does not now. Do not re-serve it on a new tenant expecting it to help a future possession claim. It won't.

Read Section 21 abolished, what happens now and the Section 21 guide for the wider picture.

Proof and evidence: what actually wins disputes

Courts and deposit adjudicators care about documents, not memory.

Keep:

• The exact PDF file you sent (or print scan) with version date if shown in the footer
• Email headers showing date/time and recipient, or signed handover on check-in
• Agent confirmation in writing if they distributed on your behalf

Weak evidence: “We always send it” without logs. Strong evidence: one email thread per tenancy start with attachments listed.

Data protection: tenant emails are personal data under UK GDPR, so read this alongside the tenant privacy notice guidance.

Letting agents: who is responsible if it goes wrong?

Your landlord terms with the agent should say explicitly that the agent will provide the current statutory information (for a new tenancy since 1 May 2026 that is the written statement of terms, given before the tenancy is entered into, in place of the withdrawn How to Rent guide) and prove service. If the agent forgets, you may still be liable to the tenant and to enforcement bodies. An indemnity in the agency contract helps you recover the money, but it doesn't undo the failure towards the tenant.

If you leave an agent, export all compliance emails before you go.

Common mistakes (for pre-May-2026 claims)

If you are evidencing a historical Section 21 notice, these are the failures that still cost cases:

• Relying on an outdated edition: the court checks which edition was current on the tenancy start date
• Link-only send with no archive copy of the version that was current that day
• Having served How to Rent but skipping Prescribed Information: the PI duty is still live and still bites
• Assuming WhatsApp voice notes count as proof without file attachments logged

For a tenancy starting now, the mistake to avoid is different: forgetting the written statement of terms, which must be given before the tenancy is entered into and carries a penalty of up to £7,000.

Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland

England How to rent does not satisfy Welsh Renting Homes information duties, Scottish PRT requirements, or NI rules. Use jurisdiction-correct materials for each portfolio region.

LetCompliance: the move-in pack, then the rest of the let

When you let a property through LetCompliance, the move-in paperwork is part of the letting rather than a separate job. The agreement, the deposit clock and the one-email move-in pack described above sit on the property, and the tenant can see the certificates in the tenant portal. Every certificate date is tracked with a 0 to 100 compliance score per property, so the next gas safety check or EICR shows up before it is due. Paid plans, from £7.99 a month, add e-signature before the tenancy starts, adverts and applications when you re-let, the rent ledger with arrears chasing, and rent collected by Direct Debit. (If you still hold a pre-May-2026 Section 21 file, your old How to Rent proof stays on the property’s record as evidence.)

Further reading: 2026 landlord compliance checklist · Right to Rent checks guide · Editorial policy