Alternatives to Paying a Letting Agent to Update Your Tenancy Agreement in England

If your letting agent is charging £100–£250 to "update" or "re-draft" your tenancy agreement for the periodic tenancy regime, you should know that in most cases you do not need a new agreement at all. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 converted existing written ASTs into assured periodic tenancies automatically on 1 May 2026. What you may need is an audit of your existing terms — not a replacement contract. Here are the alternatives, starting with the option most agents will not mention.

The Five Alternatives

1. Do Nothing (If Your Agreement Already Complies)

This sounds negligent but it may be correct. If you served the Information Sheet by a valid method with proof of delivery, that meets the transition-specific document duty for an existing written tenancy; any terms that conflict with the periodic regime are overridden by law. The 16 prescribed Written Statement fields apply when a Written Statement is required, including for new tenancies and existing oral or unwritten tenancies.

The automatic conversion happened by operation of law. You did not need to sign anything, and the existing written terms that are consistent with the periodic regime remain enforceable. The void clauses do not invalidate the rest of the agreement — they simply cannot be relied on.

Cost: £0 Risk: You need to be confident your existing terms comply. If you are not, option 2 is the systematic way to check.

2. Self-Audit With a Compliance Guide

A standalone compliance guide gives you a structured process for reviewing your existing agreement without replacing it. The Assured Periodic Tenancies Guide includes a Written Statement of Terms Audit Checklist that lists the 16 prescribed fields required when a Written Statement is due, alongside void clause types relevant to existing agreements.

If the review reveals terms that could mislead the tenant, you can add an addendum to clarify them or issue a replacement. For a tenancy that is required to have a Written Statement, you can also use the checklist to find any missing prescribed fields. Make that decision after the review, not before, and only for the specific gaps you find.

Cost: $29 Risk: Low. You are doing the same work the agent would do (or should do), with a structured reference.

3. NRLA Template Agreement

NRLA members (£99/year) can download a post-reform assured periodic tenancy agreement template that includes the prescribed terms and excludes the prohibited clauses. If you are already a member, this is included. If you are not, you are paying £99 for a template plus access to a portal and advice line you may not use again.

The template works well for new tenancies. For existing tenancies, you need to compare it against your current agreement and decide which terms to carry over — which is an audit by another name.

Cost: £99/year (if not already a member) Risk: Low, but you still need to cross-reference the template against your existing terms.

4. OpenRent or Online Tenancy Builder

OpenRent offers tenancy agreement creation as part of its £29 listing platform. Other online services (Rocket Lawyer, LawDepot) offer tenancy agreement templates for £10–£40. These are designed for new tenancies, not for auditing and updating an existing in-situ agreement. If you use one to create a new agreement from scratch, you lose any negotiated terms from the original agreement that you may want to preserve.

Cost: £10–£40 Risk: Moderate. Template generators build new contracts; they do not audit existing ones. You may lose legitimate terms or introduce inconsistencies.

5. Solicitor Review

A property solicitor will review your existing agreement, mark up the void clauses, confirm the prescribed terms, and draft any addendum or replacement needed. This is the most thorough option and the only one that comes with professional indemnity insurance.

Cost: £200–£500 per tenancy Risk: Lowest. Also the most expensive, and disproportionate for a straightforward single-property tenancy.

Why Agents Push the Re-Draft

A letting agent offering a tenancy agreement "update" for £100–£250 is selling a service many landlords do not need and some agents are not qualified to provide. The agent's financial incentive is straightforward: the Information Sheet service fee (£50–£150) is a one-off, but a contract re-draft creates a higher-value transaction and may recur if the rules change again.

The legal reality is that automatic conversion preserved existing written terms except where the periodic regime overrides them. The Renters' Rights Act did not require landlords to issue replacement contracts for existing written tenancies; it required service of the Information Sheet by 31 May 2026. A full Written Statement is required for new tenancies and existing oral or unwritten tenancies. An agent's re-draft may therefore be a paid service for work that does not need doing.

That is not universally true. Some older AST agreements — particularly those drafted before 2015 — may contain outdated provisions that create genuine confusion: a Section 21 notice procedure, a fixed-term renewal clause, or a rent increase formula that contradicts the Section 13 process. In those cases, clarifying the written terms may be helpful. But the decision should follow a review, not precede it.

Who This Is For

• Landlords in England whose letting agent has quoted a fee to update or re-draft their tenancy agreement for the periodic regime
• Self-managing landlords who want to verify whether a new agreement is actually needed before paying for one
• Landlords with a standard residential AST (not an HMO, mixed-use, or company let) who want the cheapest compliant path
• Anyone who suspects their agent is upselling an unnecessary service but lacks the knowledge to confirm it

Who This Is NOT For

• Landlords with non-standard tenancy structures (HMOs, multi-unit blocks, commercial elements) where the transition interacts with licensing requirements
• Landlords whose existing agreement is genuinely outdated (pre-2010, heavily customised, drafted for a different jurisdiction) and needs professional redrafting
• Landlords who prefer to delegate all paperwork to a professional regardless of cost

Frequently Asked Questions

Is my letting agent qualified to re-draft tenancy agreements?

Not all are. Letting agents are not required to hold legal qualifications, and many use template agreements purchased from providers like the NRLA, the Law Society, or commercial suppliers. The quality of the "update" depends on whether the agent is cross-referencing the prescribed terms regulations or simply swapping one template for another.

If I do not re-draft the agreement, is my existing one still valid?

Yes. The automatic conversion preserved the existing written terms that are compatible with the periodic regime. Void clauses (fixed-term end dates, break clauses, contractual rent review formulas) are unenforceable but do not invalidate the rest of the agreement. The tenancy continues on the terms that remain valid.

What are the 16 mandatory prescribed terms?

They are set out in S.I. 2026/324 and cover: the landlord's name and address, the tenant's name, the property address, the rent amount and payment frequency, the rent period, the deposit details, the tenant's right to end the tenancy, the landlord's grounds for possession, the Section 13 rent increase process, and several other statutory disclosures. These fields are required when a Written Statement is due, including for new tenancies and existing oral or unwritten tenancies. A compliance guide's Written Statement checklist lists all 16 with plain-language descriptions.

Can I add an addendum instead of replacing the whole agreement?

Yes. If a tenancy is required to have a Written Statement and it is missing one or two prescribed terms, an addendum that adds the missing terms is simpler and cheaper than replacing the entire agreement. The addendum should reference the existing agreement by date and state which terms it adds or amends.

What if my agent has already re-drafted the agreement and I paid for it?

If the new agreement correctly includes all prescribed terms and excludes prohibited clauses, the work is done regardless of whether it was strictly necessary. The practical question is whether the agent preserved the terms from your original agreement that you wanted to keep — check the new document against the old one to confirm nothing was lost.

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