How to Rent Guide
A government checklist that landlords in England must give tenants at the start of every new assured tenancy. Available on GOV.UK as a PDF. Failure to serve it historically invalidated a Section 21 notice, and it remains a marker of a compliant tenancy setup.
At a glance
- Issuer
- MHCLG / GOV.UK
- When
- Start of every new assured tenancy (England)
- Historic role
- Non-service invalidated Section 21
Full guide
Read the complete landlord guide on How to Rent Guide
Deadlines, fines and step-by-step compliance in our in-depth resource.
Open full guideWhy How to Rent Guide matters for landlords
The How to Rent guide is a 16-page PDF many landlords dismiss as bureaucracy, but serving it with dated evidence has historically been the cleanest proof of a compliant tenancy setup. With Section 21 abolished its role in blocking possession is narrower, but tenant advocacy groups and the PRS Ombudsman still treat non-service as a marker of a poorly-set-up tenancy — and the guide is routinely cited in deposit-dispute adjudications as evidence the tenant was properly informed.
Worked example
A landlord in Reading granted a tenancy on 1 January 2026 and, busy with the move-in, did not serve the How to Rent guide. The deposit was protected, the EPC and gas certificate were issued, but the guide was forgotten. In late 2026 the tenant raises a deposit deduction dispute. The adjudicator notes that the landlord cannot evidence service of the How to Rent guide and weights the dispute in the tenant’s favour on the basis that the tenancy setup was incomplete. Total adjudication award lost: £680. Time saved by skipping the 16-page PDF: zero. The fix is a single dated email at tenancy start that bundles the guide, EPC, gas certificate and Prescribed Information.
Illustrative scenario based on real UK landlord casework patterns. Names and addresses are fictitious.
Common How to Rent Guide mistakes UK landlords make
- Assuming Section 21 abolition makes the How to Rent guide irrelevant — it remains a marker of compliant tenancy setup in deposit and ombudsman disputes.
- Serving an out-of-date version — MHCLG updates the guide every few months and serving an old edition does not satisfy the duty.
- Handing the guide to the tenant in person without any written record — service is provable by email or signed acknowledgement, not by claim.
- Forgetting to re-serve the latest version when a fixed term renews into a new tenancy in pre-RRA cases.
What to do this week
- Download the current How to Rent guide from GOV.UK and replace any older copies in your tenancy-pack folder.
- Bundle the guide with the EPC, gas certificate and Prescribed Information into a single tenancy-start PDF.
- Email the tenancy pack to every new tenant before move-in and store the sent email as proof of service.
- Set a quarterly diary reminder to re-download the guide and refresh your pack — the version updates more often than landlords expect.
Tracked inside LetCompliance
Stop tracking How to Rent Guide in spreadsheets
LetCompliance scores every property 0–100 across Gas Safety, EICR, EPC, deposits, Right to Rent and Fire Risk — with deadline reminders 90/30/14/7/1 days out and a court-ready PDF you can export in one click. Built for UK landlords + letting agents.
Related terms
Compliance Score
A 0-100 score LetCompliance assigns to each property based on how up-to-date its safety certificates and tenancy documents are. 100 means Gas Safety, EICR, EPC, deposit protection and Right to Rent are all current; the score drops as deadlines approach and is recalculated daily.
Form 6A (Section 21 Notice)
The prescribed form a landlord must use to serve a Section 21 “no-fault” possession notice in England, until Section 21 is abolished on 1 May 2026 by the Renters Rights Act 2025. Two months’ minimum notice; void if any of the prerequisites (deposit protected within 30 days, valid Gas Safety record, current EPC, How to Rent guide given) is missing. After 1 May 2026 Form 6A is no longer issuable for new notices and possession is pursued under Section 8 / Form 3 only.
Move-in Pack (Statutory)
The bundle of documents an English landlord must serve on a new tenant before — or at the very start of — a tenancy. Standard contents: latest Gas Safety Certificate (CP12), latest EICR, current EPC (band E or above), Deposit Prescribed Information, the latest GOV.UK How to Rent guide, and (from 1 May 2026) the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 Information Sheet. Failure to serve any required item invalidates a future Section 21 notice and weakens Section 8 ground 1 / 1A defences.
Prescribed Information
A document landlords must give tenants within 30 days of receiving a deposit, alongside deposit protection. It tells the tenant which scheme holds the deposit, how to reclaim it and how to raise a dispute. Failure to serve it can result in a penalty of 1-3 times the deposit.
Section 21 Prerequisites
The bundle of pre-conditions a private landlord in England must satisfy before a Section 21 notice (Form 6A) is valid: deposit protected within 30 days plus Prescribed Information served, current Gas Safety Certificate served, current EICR served, and current GOV.UK How to Rent guide served on the tenant. Miss any one and the court will dismiss an accelerated possession claim outright.
HHSRS (Housing Health and Safety Rating System)
The risk-assessment framework used by local authorities to judge whether housing is safe. It scores 29 categories of hazard, from damp and mould to falling on stairs. Category 1 hazards are the most serious and trigger enforcement powers including Improvement Notices and Prohibition Orders.