The How to Rent Guide Has Been Retired and Replaced

Why this matters

The How to Rent guide is gone. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 replaced it, from 1 May 2026, with a written-information regime — and which document you owe your tenant now depends on your tenancy, not on a single leaflet everyone sends.

A compliance tracker that keeps telling you to issue a retired guide is not a neutral inconvenience. It tells you you are compliant when you are not. So this was the first thing we fixed after the Act came into force.

Which document applies to you

There are three cases, and the answer turns on when the tenancy started and whether the terms were ever written down.

1. A tenancy starting on or after 1 May 2026. You must give the tenant a written statement of terms before the tenancy is entered into. This comes from the new section 16D of the Housing Act 1988, inserted by the Act. This is the forward-looking case — it applies to every new let from here on.

2. A tenancy that started before 1 May 2026, with written terms. You needed to provide the RRA Information Sheet 2026 by 31 May 2026. You do not need to re-issue the existing agreement.

3. A tenancy that started before 1 May 2026, agreed verbally or with no written record. The Information Sheet is not enough. You needed to provide a written statement of the required key terms by 31 May 2026.

The penalty for getting this wrong is up to £7,000 for a first offence, with a higher exposure if a breach continues after a penalty is issued. We mention the figure so you can judge the risk, not to alarm you.

The 31 May deadline has passed

That deadline was a one-off transitional date for tenancies that were already running. It is not recurring, and it is now behind us.

If you are adding an existing tenancy to LetSorted today, one of two things is true. Either you already provided the document — in which case mark it done and move on. Or you never did, in which case the duty still stands and the answer is to provide it now. Serving it late is materially better than not serving it, and it is generally sensible to have it in place before relying on a possession notice.

What the tracker will not do is show you a countdown to a date that has already passed. That would be theatre.

A compliance signal is only useful if it is true. See how compliance tracking works →

What changed in LetSorted

1. The card is renamed — "How to Rent Guide" is now Tenancy information (RRA), because that is what it tracks
2. The status follows your tenancy — the badge is driven by the active tenancy's start date, not by whether a file has been uploaded. No active tenancy shows as inactive; a pre-1 May 2026 tenancy that has not been provided for shows as Overdue; a newer one shows as Action needed; provided shows as green
3. A details panel explains your case — open it and you get the three cases set out plainly, with links to the government guide to the Act and the Information Sheet itself
4. You mark it provided — one button, reversible, and it stays in step with agreements you generate or upload

What you need to do

Open each property, find Tenancy information (RRA) in the compliance section, and check the badge. If it says Overdue or Action needed, read the details panel, work out which of the three cases you are in, provide the right document, then mark it as provided.

For the wider picture of what changed on 1 May 2026, our guide to what Section 21 abolition means in practice covers the possession side.

This is general information, not legal advice. If your situation is unusual — a lodger, a company let, an assured agricultural occupancy — take advice on which document applies.