What a Compliant Tenancy Agreement Must Include (England, 2026, RRA)

A modern tenancy agreement template England landlords can rely on in 2026 looks nothing like the assured shorthold contracts most of us downloaded a few years ago. Since the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (RRA) came into force on 1 May 2026, the entire legal shape of a residential let has changed: fixed terms are gone, Section 21 no-fault eviction is abolished, and every assured tenancy is now an open-ended periodic tenancy. A template written for the old world is not just out of date, several of its clauses are now unenforceable, and some could expose you to penalties. This guide explains exactly what a compliant agreement must contain in England today, walks through a worked example, and gives you a clause checklist you can use to sanity-check any template before you sign it.

Why a 2026 tenancy agreement template England landlords use must be RRA-ready

The phrase “tenancy agreement template England” used to return a sea of near-identical assured shorthold tenancy (AST) documents. The AST as a category no longer exists. From 1 May 2026, you cannot create a new fixed-term assured tenancy and you cannot serve a Section 21 notice on any tenancy. Instead, every new and existing assured tenancy is a periodic assured tenancy that rolls on a monthly (or weekly) basis until it is lawfully ended.

That single change ripples through almost every clause:

• A “term” clause that grants a 12-month fixed period is now void in substance, the tenancy is periodic by operation of law.
• A “break clause” is meaningless because there is no fixed term to break.
• Any clause that references serving a Section 21 notice to recover possession is dead wording.
• A “rent review” clause that lets you raise the rent automatically is now banned; rent can only be increased once a year using the statutory Section 13 route.
• A blanket “no pets” clause is unlawful; tenants have a statutory right to request a pet and you must respond in writing.

Using an old template is risky precisely because it looks fine. The headings are familiar, the rent and deposit boxes still make sense, and the prohibited clauses sit quietly in the middle pages where nobody re-reads them. The fix is to start from an agreement built for the post-RRA regime, or to systematically strip and replace the dead clauses. If you are drafting from scratch rather than adapting, our step-by-step guide to writing a tenancy agreement takes you clause by clause.

What every compliant agreement must now contain

A periodic assured tenancy agreement in 2026 should cover the essentials below. None of these are optional in practice, leave one out and you create ambiguity that costs you in a dispute.

1. The parties and the property. Full legal names of every landlord and every adult tenant, plus the full address of the let property. Joint tenants are jointly and severally liable, so name them all.
2. The start date and the nature of the tenancy. State plainly that it is an assured tenancy that is periodic from the outset, with rent payable monthly (or weekly). Do not state a fixed end date.
3. The rent and how it is paid. The amount, the payment day, the method, and the fact that increases can only be made once a year via the statutory Section 13 process. Do not include a rent-review or escalation clause.
4. The deposit. The amount (capped, see below), the scheme it will be protected in, and a commitment to provide the prescribed information within 30 days. See our holding deposits guide for the separate pre-tenancy holding deposit rules.
5. The pet position. A clause that reflects the right-to-request regime: the tenant may request consent to keep a pet, you will respond in writing within the statutory window, and you will not unreasonably refuse.
6. Access and inspections. A clause confirming at least 24 hours’ written notice for non-emergency entry, consistent with the landlord’s right of entry rules.
7. Repairs and responsibilities. Who is responsible for what, reflecting your statutory repairing obligations.
8. Ending the tenancy. That the tenant may end the tenancy by giving two months’ notice, and that you may only seek possession on a statutory Section 8 ground.
9. Compliance documents. Confirmation that the EPC, gas safety certificate, electrical report and the government’s “How to Rent” guide have been provided.

If you are letting in the capital, a few additional borough-specific references (selective and additional licensing numbers) belong in the agreement, our London tenancy agreement template guide covers those.

Clauses you must remove from old templates

The deposit caps, in plain numbers

The Tenant Fees Act 2019 caps are unchanged by the RRA. The tenancy deposit is capped at five weeks’ rent where the annual rent is under £50,000, and six weeks’ rent where the annual rent is £50,000 or more. The holding deposit is capped at one week’s rent. To convert a monthly rent to a weekly figure, multiply by 12 and divide by 52, never just divide the monthly rent by four, which over-charges the tenant and can void the cap.

Deposit protection itself is also unchanged: you must protect the deposit in one of the three government-backed schemes and serve the prescribed information within 30 days (Housing Act 2004, sections 213–215). Get this wrong and you face a penalty of one to three times the deposit and you cannot rely on certain possession grounds.

Worked example: converting an old template the right way

Priya owns a two-bedroom flat in Leeds and is re-letting it in July 2026. She still has last year’s AST template on her laptop. Here is how she brings it up to date.

The old template said: “The Term shall be 12 months commencing 1 August 2026. The Landlord may end the tenancy by serving notice under Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988. The Rent shall increase by 5% on each anniversary. No pets are permitted under any circumstances.”

What Priya does:

• She deletes the fixed term and replaces it with: “This is an assured tenancy. It is a periodic tenancy from the start date, with rent payable monthly.”
• She deletes the Section 21 clause entirely and replaces the “ending” section with: “The Tenant may end this tenancy by giving two months’ notice. The Landlord may only seek possession on a ground in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988.”
• She deletes the 5% annual escalator. She notes that if she wants to raise the rent later, she must use the statutory Section 13 process, the current prescribed form on GOV.UK, no more than once a year, and that the First-tier Tribunal cannot set the rent any higher than the figure she proposes.
• She replaces the no-pets clause with right-to-request wording, and confirms to herself she will respond to any written pet request within 28 days (plus up to seven more if she needs further information).

The numbers. The rent is £1,200 a month. The annual rent is £14,400, so the standard five-week cap applies. Five weeks’ rent is £1,200 × 12 ÷ 52 × 5 = £1,384.61. Priya sets the deposit at £1,384 to stay safely under the cap, and earmarks a holding deposit limit of one week’s rent: £1,200 × 12 ÷ 52 = £276.92.

The whole conversion takes Priya 20 minutes, and the result is an agreement that will actually hold up. The trap is that the old version also looked complete, it just happened to contain four clauses that are now void or unlawful.

How a generated agreement reduces the risk

Hand-editing works, but it relies on you remembering every clause that changed. A guided document builder is more reliable because it never offers you a banned clause in the first place: it asks for the rent, calculates the correct deposit cap automatically, inserts periodic-tenancy wording by default, and bakes in the right-to-request pet clause. It also captures the compliance documents, EPC, gas certificate, electrical report, How to Rent guide, so you have a record that they were served.

If you are weighing free templates against a paid or generated option, our comparison of holding deposit templates explains the same “free but wrong” trap that applies to tenancy agreements: a free download is only a bargain if it is current. For the broader picture of how all assured tenancies now end, surrender, Section 8, or tenant notice, see how tenancies end in England in 2026, and for the tenant’s side of giving notice, how to end your tenancy as a tenant.

A quick pre-signing checklist

Before either party signs, confirm:

• The agreement describes a periodic assured tenancy with no fixed end date.
• There is no Section 21 reference anywhere.
• There is no rent-review or automatic-escalation clause.
• The deposit is at or below the five- or six-week cap.
• The pet clause reflects the right-to-request regime, with no insurance requirement.
• Access requires at least 24 hours’ written notice.
• The EPC, gas safety certificate, electrical report and How to Rent guide have been provided.
• Every adult occupier is named as a tenant.

Tick all eight and your agreement is on solid 2026 footing.

Looking ahead: the PRS Database and Ombudsman

Two further reforms are on the horizon but not yet in force. A Private Rented Sector Database is expected to go live in late 2026 to 2027, and landlords will need to register their properties and themselves on it. A PRS Ombudsman scheme is expected to follow around 2028, giving tenants a free route to redress without going to court. Neither affects what your agreement must say today, but a good template should make it easy to slot in your database registration reference once the system is running. We will update this guide when commencement dates are confirmed.

Frequently asked questions

Is an assured shorthold tenancy (AST) the same as what I sign now? No. The AST as a distinct category was abolished by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. From 1 May 2026, new and existing assured tenancies are periodic assured tenancies. You should not use an agreement headed “Assured Shorthold Tenancy” for a new let in England.

Can I still use a 12-month fixed term if both parties agree? No. You cannot create a fixed-term assured tenancy. The tenancy is periodic by law from the start, the tenant can leave on two months’ notice at any point, and you can only seek possession on a statutory Section 8 ground.

Does the agreement need to set out how I can increase the rent? You can mention it, but the legal mechanism is fixed regardless of what the agreement says: a Section 13 notice on the current prescribed form on GOV.UK, no more than once a year. A rent-review clause that tries to override this is banned and unenforceable.

Is a free tenancy agreement template safe to use? Only if it is genuinely current. A free template that still contains a fixed term, a Section 21 clause, a rent-review clause or a no-pets ban is unsafe, those clauses are now void or unlawful. Always check it against the eight-point checklist above before signing.

What deposit can I ask for? The tenancy deposit is capped at five weeks’ rent (annual rent under £50,000) or six weeks’ rent (annual rent of £50,000 or more). A holding deposit is capped at one week’s rent. Protect the deposit in an authorised scheme and serve the prescribed information within 30 days.

Do I still have to give the tenant a written agreement? A written agreement is not strictly compulsory for a tenancy to exist, but you must provide certain written terms and the prescribed compliance documents, and a clear written agreement is your best protection in any dispute. There is no good reason to let without one.

Coming soon

Tenancy Pilot is launching soon. Its document generator will build a fully RRA-2025-compliant periodic tenancy agreement for you, calculating the correct deposit cap, inserting the right-to-request pet clause, and keeping every clause current as the rules evolve, so you never sign an out-of-date template by accident. Join the waitlist to be first in when we open the doors.

Disclaimer: This article is general information, not legal advice. The law changes and individual circumstances vary. Always check the current position on GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk, and consult a qualified solicitor before acting on anything in this guide.