Most of the conversation around the Renters’ Rights Act has been about the big, obvious changes: no more Section 21, rent increases capped to once a year, tenancies rolling on indefinitely. I covered what that’s actually looked like three months in in my last post.
But there’s a quieter compliance deadline that a lot of landlords missed entirely, and it comes with its own fine of up to £7,000: the Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet.
If that’s the first you’re hearing of it, you’re not alone. Searches for “Renters’ Rights Act information sheet” spiked over 2,000% in the run-up to 1 May, which tells you two things: it matters, and most people found out about it later than they should have.
What the Information Sheet actually is
It’s a short, government-produced document — four pages — that explains to tenants how the Renters’ Rights Act changes their tenancy. It covers the same core changes everyone’s talked about: the end of fixed terms, the abolition of Section 21, the new rent increase process, and rules around pets. Nothing in it is new information if you’ve been following the Act, but the point isn’t what it says — it’s that giving it to your tenants is a legal requirement in itself, separate from actually complying with the underlying rules.
The critical detail: it has to be the exact PDF published on the government’s website. Not a summary you write yourself, not your letting agent’s version of it, not a link to it. The actual file.
Who needed to send it, and by when
If you had a tenancy that was an assured shorthold tenancy on 1 May 2026, with a written record of the terms, you needed to give every named tenant on that agreement a copy of the Information Sheet by 31 May 2026.
That deadline has now passed. If you sent it, you’re done — nothing more to do on this specific requirement. If you didn’t, this is worth sorting out this week, not filing under “eventually.”
There’s a separate version of this rule for tenancies that were entirely verbal, with no written agreement at all: instead of the Information Sheet, you needed to provide a written statement setting out the key terms of the tenancy, also by 31 May 2026.
One thing that doesn’t need this document: any tenancy you’ve signed since 1 May 2026 operates under the new rules from day one, so the Information Sheet — which exists specifically to explain a transition — doesn’t apply to it.
The fine, and why “I’ll do it eventually” is the wrong call
Missing the deadline is a civil offence with a penalty of up to £7,000. That’s for a first offence. If you’re found to still not have provided it after that, the follow-up penalty for continued non-compliance can go significantly higher. Local authorities are the ones enforcing this, and the guidance is explicit that this sits alongside — not instead of — everything else landlords are expected to get right under the Act.
None of this is legal advice, and enforcement details can shift, so if you’re genuinely unsure where you stand, it’s worth a quick check with a solicitor or your local council rather than guessing. But the broad shape of it is clear enough: this isn’t a formality you can quietly skip.
What to do if you missed it
Serve it late. That’s the practical advice from pretty much every source covering this, and it’s the same advice I’d give: turning up two months late with the right document is a much better position to be in than not showing up at all if a council ever asks.
A few things to get right when you do:
- Download the actual PDF from gov.uk. Don’t recreate it, don’t paraphrase it, don’t let a template tool generate something similar-looking. It has to be the real document.
- Send it as an attachment, not a link. The government’s own guidance is specific on this: emailing or texting a link to the PDF doesn’t count as giving it to the tenant. Attaching the file does.
- Cover every named tenant. If there are three people on the tenancy agreement, all three need their own copy, not one sent to a “lead” tenant.
- Keep proof it went out. A sent-email record, a read receipt, a signed acknowledgment if you hand-delivered it — anything that shows you actually gave it to them, and when.
Where this fits with everything else
This is a small document with an outsized penalty attached, which is exactly the kind of thing that’s easy to lose track of when you’re managing it alongside actual rent collection, maintenance requests, and the eviction and rent-increase process changes that came with the same Act. It’s also exactly the kind of thing that shouldn’t depend on you remembering it in the first place.
These are exactly the sort of things we are building into Alphaletz with our integrated task management system, flagging specific compliance actions like this one against the actual tenancies they apply to, rather than leaving it as a line in a legal update you read once in April and hoped you’d remember in May.
If you’re not sure whether every tenancy on your books got its Information Sheet, that’s worth checking today. And if you’re catching up on everything else the Act changed, the notice periods under the new periodic tenancy rules are a good next read.
Sources
- The Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 — GOV.UK
- Enforcement measures for landlords: Renters’ Rights Act 2025 — GOV.UK
- The Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 — Womble Bond Dickinson
- Renters’ Rights Act: Tenant Information Sheet explained — The Independent Landlord
- Renters’ Rights Act searches increased 600% ahead of reforms — Mortgage Strategy
