Hello Readers,

One of the actions that landlords need to take over the next few months is to provide their tenants with written statutory information about the Renters’ Rights Act. This information needs to be supplied before the 31st May and has just been published.

I have been keeping an eye out for this as it was due for publication in March and I was starting to wonder if it would be published on time – surprisingly, it has been!

The purpose of this information sheet is to inform tenants about the changes, what they mean for them and whilst additional admin for landlords along with managing agents, it’s a helpful document in the whole.

The four-page document can be accessed here and it covers the main changes, such as the removal of section 21, end of ASTs, new section 13 rent increases and various other things such as notices and keeping pets. I highly suspect that a significant number of self managing landlords will fail to serve this document and risk a fine of up to £7,000.

There are some crucial points about serving this document as it must be done correctly:

Who receives a copy

The document does not need to be served to lodgers, but a copy needs to be provided to each person named on the tenancy agreement and it is only valid when the PDF at the top of the above page is used.

How you should (and should not) serve the document

This document can be provided in two ways:

• A printed, hard copy can be posted or given to tenants by hand
  
• The PDF can be sent electronically as an attachment such as to an email or text message

It is important that you do not email or text a link to the PDF as that will not be valid. My recommendation here is to either serve in person or, where possible, through an e-sign system so you have a file copy that tenants received it.

There is an instance where you cannot give the information sheet and this is where a verbal tenancy is in place. What must be provided instead is specified written information about key terms and this is all outlined here.

For many landlords, this is where the Renters’ Rights Act rubber hits the road and action needs to be taken. It will be interesting to see in 12-24 months whether many landlords who failed to serve these correct documents receive a fine, but you will certainly not want to be one of those who risked it!

Hasan