Ten rules, checked against the source
Most landlord advice is
copied, not checked
Guidance about letting in England travels by being repeated. A phrase gets written once, sounds sensible, and is quoted for a decade without anyone opening the form it came from. Here are ten rules stated wrongly almost everywhere, each set against the legislation or the prescribed form itself.
- Corrections
- 10
- Each one cites
- The Act, or the form itself
You can only raise the rent once every 12 months.
Form 4A, Note A3
52 weeks, not twelve months
52 weeks is 364 days, so the two are not the same and the gap drifts every year. Occasionally it is 53. A notice whose new rent starts a day early is invalid.
Read this one in full- 1
Commonly said
You can only raise the rent once every 12 months.
Every summary of the Renters’ Rights Act says "once a year", because a calendar year is the obvious way to describe it and nobody opens the form.
What the source says
The interval is 52 weeks, not twelve calendar months. 52 weeks is 364 days, so the two are not the same and the gap drifts by a day or two every year. There is also a correction most people never mention: where the 52-week date would fall more than six days before the anniversary of the first increase after 11 February 2003, a further week must pass, making it 53 weeks. A notice whose new rent starts too early is invalid even if everything else about it is right.
Form 4A, Note A3 (the notes printed on the prescribed form itself).
Section 13 notice, field by field - 2
Commonly said
If you cite several grounds, the longest notice period applies.
It is true most of the time, and it is the kind of sensible-sounding rule that gets repeated without the exception attached.
What the source says
It is only true when the notice does not cite Ground 7A or Ground 14. Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988 sets its notice periods in a table at subsection (4AA), and that table opens with the words "If a notice under this section does not specify Ground 7A or 14". Those two antisocial behaviour grounds are written out of it deliberately. Subsection (4) covers them instead and asks only that the date in the notice is no earlier than the day it is served, so a notice citing Ground 14 alongside other grounds can be served and proceedings begun the same day.
Housing Act 1988, section 8(4) and section 8(4AA).
Antisocial behaviour possession - 3
Commonly said
The Tribunal cannot set a rent higher than the one you proposed.
The practical outcome is close enough to this that the shorthand spread, and the shorthand is easier to say.
What the source says
The Tribunal decides what rent the landlord could reasonably expect on the open market, and the amount it decides may come out higher or lower than the figure the landlord proposed. What protects the tenant is separate: they will not be required to pay more than the rent the landlord first proposed in the notice. So the landlord’s own figure is the ceiling on what the tenant pays, but it is not a ceiling on what the Tribunal determines.
Form 4A, section 5.2 (the tenant-facing notes on the prescribed form).
Section 13 notice, field by field - 4
Commonly said
Awaab’s Law now puts you on a clock for damp and mould.
The Renters’ Rights Act carries the power to extend it, and a great deal of coverage reported the power as though it were the duty.
What the source says
Awaab’s Law has applied to social landlords since 27 October 2025. The regulations extending it to the private rented sector have not been made, so no statutory Awaab timescale binds a private landlord today. That is not a reason to relax. The same damp and mould facts already bite through section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 and the HHSRS, and a council can serve an Improvement Notice now. Anyone quoting you a specific PRS deadline is quoting a date that has not been set.
Social sector duty in force 27 October 2025; the PRS regulations under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 have not been made.
- 5
Commonly said
You must give every new tenant the How to Rent guide.
It was a hard requirement for over a decade, it is in every checklist ever written, and checklists are copied far more often than they are re-checked.
What the source says
The How to Rent guide was withdrawn on 1 May 2026 and is no longer served on new tenancies. What a new tenancy needs instead is a written statement of the tenancy terms, given before the tenancy is entered into, with a penalty of up to £7,000 for failing to provide it. The Renters’ Rights Act information sheet is a different document again: it was a one-off catch-up for tenants already in place on 1 May 2026, not a new-tenancy document.
Housing Act 1988, section 16D(4); penalty under section 16I.
What goes in a move-in pack - 6
Commonly said
There is one Section 8 form and one Section 13 form.
Search for "Form 3" or "Form 4" and you will find a real GOV.UK form. It is simply the wrong sector’s form, and nothing on it shouts that at you.
What the source says
The forms are split by sector. A private landlord letting on an assured tenancy serves Form 3A for Section 8 possession and Form 4A for a Section 13 rent increase. Form 3 and Form 4 are the social housing versions. Serving the wrong one puts the validity of the notice in question, so download the current version from the GOV.UK assured tenancy forms page rather than reusing a stored copy or a template from a forum.
GOV.UK assured tenancy forms; the 3A / 4A split is the private rented sector set.
Section 8 notice and Form 3A - 7
Commonly said
Every tenancy is monthly now.
"Periodic" and "monthly" got welded together in the coverage, because most tenancies are monthly and the distinction rarely comes up until it matters.
What the source says
All assured tenancies are periodic and new tenancies cannot be fixed-term, but the period follows the rent period. Weekly, fortnightly and four-weekly tenancies still exist, and a rent period cannot exceed a month. This is not pedantry: notice periods and Section 13 timing align to the tenancy’s own period, so a weekly tenancy that began on a Monday takes its new rent from a Monday, not from a day-of-month.
Housing Act 1988 as amended by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025; Form 4A, Note A4.
- 8
Commonly said
You can still agree a 12-month fixed term if the tenant wants one.
Both sides often want one, and plenty of template agreements still in circulation offer it.
What the source says
Fixed terms were abolished for assured tenancies on 1 May 2026. A new tenancy is periodic from the start, whatever the parties would prefer and whatever an old template offers. A fixed-term agreement issued after that date does not create a fixed term, and it may misrepresent the tenant’s rights, which is a worse position than having no written term at all.
Renters’ Rights Act 2025, Part 1, in force 1 May 2026.
Tenancy agreement that reflects the current regime - 9
Commonly said
You need to be on the PRS Database and signed up to the Ombudsman.
They were headline items in the Act, so they were reported as though they arrived with it. They did not.
What the source says
Neither binds a private landlord today. The database is expected to roll out regionally and, once live, registration gates possession except on the antisocial behaviour grounds 7A and 14. The Ombudsman is expected later still. The Decent Homes Standard for the private rented sector is in the same position: the Act carries the power, the regulations have not been made. Treat any service that tells you to register today, for a fee, with suspicion.
Renters’ Rights Act 2025; commencement regulations for these provisions not yet made.
Where PRS registration actually stands - 10
Commonly said
Section 21 still works if your tenancy started before the changes.
The transitional arrangements are real, which makes it easy to hear "there are transitional arrangements" and conclude the old route is still open.
What the source says
No new Section 21 notice can be served. Section 21 was abolished on 1 May 2026 and the date the tenancy began does not change that. What survives is narrower: a Section 21 validly served before 1 May 2026 can still complete as a transitional court claim, and proceedings on it must be begun before the cut-off in the commencement regulations. For any new possession, Section 8 with a valid ground is the only route.
Renters’ Rights Act 2025, Part 1, in force 1 May 2026; transitional provisions in the commencement regulations.
The Section 8 route
How each of these was checked
The form, not a summary
Where a prescribed form carries its own notes, those notes are the source. The 52-week rule is printed on Form 4A.
The section, quoted
Where the answer turns on statutory wording, the wording is quoted rather than paraphrased, because the paraphrase is usually where the error entered.
In force, or merely passed
An Act carrying a power is not a duty binding you today. Half the confusion about the Renters’ Rights Act is this distinction.
None of this is legal advice, and none of it replaces a solicitor on a contested possession. It is a set of pointers to sources you can open yourself, which is the point: every claim here is meant to be checked rather than taken on trust. If your reading of a source differs from ours, we want to hear it.
Last reviewed 19 July 2026.
Getting these right by hand, every time, is the actual job
LetCompliance runs the whole let: the advert and the applications, the tenancy agreement and the move-in pack, rent and arrears, the notices, and the SA105 at the end of it. The dates on this page are worked out for you rather than left as something to remember.
The rules on this page are the ones people get wrong by hand. These calculators apply them for you, in your browser, with no login.
- Section 13 rent increaseSection 21 abolished means Section 13 is the only lawful way to raise rent. Get the notice period, the earliest valid date and the tribunal-risk flag in one screen.
- Section 8 notice periodGround 8 needs 4 weeks’ notice. Ground 1A needs 4 months and a 12-month tenancy. Ground 14 needs none. The Renters’ Rights Act made the rules longer, this tool keeps you valid.
- Deposit deadline30 calendar days from receipt, not the tenancy start. Miss it and courts can award tenants 1–3× the deposit and it blocks most Section 8 possession grounds.
- Rental income taxRental profit is taxed on top of your salary, so the marginal rate is what bites. Enter your numbers to see the real tax bill, the 20% mortgage-interest credit and what you actually keep.