Rent statement template: what a landlord’s rent statement must show

A rent statement is a running record of what rent fell due, what was paid and what is owed. Tenants ask for one when they apply for a mortgage, a new tenancy or benefits. Accountants ask for one at the end of the tax year. And if a tenant stops paying, it is the document a possession claim is built on.

This guide gives you a template you can copy, explains what each column is for, and covers the one rule that decides whether a statement is good enough for court: two years of dates and amounts, with a running total.

The template

Copy this into a spreadsheet, one row for each rent period. For monthly rent that is one row a month; for weekly rent, one a week.

Above the table, put the details that make the statement stand on its own:

• Landlord name and address, and every joint landlord
• Tenant names, every joint tenant on the same tenancy
• Property address, and the room for an HMO let by the room
• Tenancy start date, the rent and how often it is due
• The period the statement covers, with the opening balance and the closing balance
• Date produced

Keeping that table by hand works for one tenancy. From £7.99 a month, LetCompliance produces the same statement from the rent ledger it already keeps, month by month or period by period, with the balance carried forward and the longest run of unpaid months worked out. Get started

What each column is for

Rent due and due date. Every period's charge, even the ones that were paid. A statement that lists only payments cannot show arrears, because arrears are the gap between what fell due and what arrived.

Paid and date paid. Each payment against the period it was for. Part payments go in as they arrive: two payments in one month are two lines or one line with both dates, but never one total with no dates.

How paid. Direct Debit, standing order, bank transfer, cash. It answers the question a tenant always asks next: "but I paid that".

Balance. The running total, carried from one line to the next. This is the column a court and an adjudicator read first, so it must be arithmetic anyone can follow: last balance, plus rent due, minus paid.

Keep the deposit out of it. A deposit is not rent and is protected separately; mixing it into the statement makes the arrears figure wrong in both directions.

The court rule: two years and a running total

If you ever claim possession for rent arrears, the court rules set out what the rent statement must contain. Practice Direction 55A, paragraph 2.3, requires the particulars of claim to include a schedule showing "the dates and amounts of all payments due and payments made under the tenancy agreement for a period of two years immediately preceding the date of issue", or from the first missed payment if that was more recent, "and a running total of the arrears". It also asks for the daily rate of the rent.

That is the template above: every period due, every payment made, a running balance. A statement kept that way from the start of the tenancy is ready the day you need it, rather than rebuilt from bank statements under a deadline.

For Ground 8, the mandatory arrears ground, the arrears have to be at the threshold both when the notice is served and at the hearing, so the statement you serve with the notice and the one you take to court have to agree.

Weekly rent: a rent book, not just a statement

If the rent is payable weekly, the law asks for more than a statement. Section 4 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 says that where a tenant occupies a home “in consideration of a rent payable weekly, the landlord shall provide a rent book or other similar document”. Section 5 sets out what it must contain, starting with the landlord’s name and address, and for an assured tenancy the notices that regulations prescribe.

Not providing one is an offence under section 7, with a fine of up to level 4 on the standard scale, £2,500. A person who collects the rent for the landlord while the rent book is missing can commit the offence too, unless they neither knew nor had reasonable cause to suspect it. The duty does not apply where board makes up a substantial part of the rent, and the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 has not changed these sections.

For monthly rent there is no rent book duty, but the statement above is still the record you will be asked for. A weekly statement from your records shows every payment, but a rent book must also carry the notices section 5 prescribes, so check the form before you rely on a statement alone.

Who will ask you for one

• Your tenant, for a mortgage application, a new let, or a benefits claim, usually as proof of a clean payment history
• Your accountant, to reconcile the rent you received with what reached your bank
• A deposit scheme adjudicator, when rent arrears are part of a deduction claim at the end of the tenancy
• The court, in a possession claim for arrears, in the form described above

If the record is good, sending it settles the question before it becomes a dispute.

Producing it from the rent you already record

In LetCompliance the rent statement comes from the tenancy’s rent ledger. Each period’s charge is raised on the rent day, each payment is posted against it, whether it came by Direct Debit, a card, or a payment you recorded yourself, and the statement prints:

• Month by month, or period by period for weekly, fortnightly and four-weekly rent
• Charged, paid and the balance carried forward
• The closing balance and the longest run of unpaid periods
• A footer that says what it is: the landlord’s record of charges raised and payments marked as received

Former tenants who still owe keep their statement after the tenancy ends. The statement comes with the trial and every paid plan, from Single at £7.99 a month.