Written Statement of Terms: What Every Landlord Must Include in a Tenancy Agreement in England

Who Needs a Written Statement

Under Section 16D of the Housing Act 1988 (inserted by the Renters' Rights Act 2025), a Written Statement of Terms is required in two situations:

New tenancies created on or after 1 May 2026. The Written Statement must be provided to the tenant before the tenancy agreement is entered into. Not at signing — before.

Existing tenancies that had no written agreement before 1 May 2026. Oral tenancies, informal arrangements, and handshake deals that were running without a written contract needed a Written Statement by 31 May 2026.

If you already had a comprehensive written AST and it converted to an assured periodic tenancy on 1 May 2026, you do not need to issue a new Written Statement. The existing written terms survive the conversion (minus the void provisions like fixed end dates and rent review clauses). But if the existing agreement was thin — a one-page letter rather than a proper tenancy agreement — it may not contain the mandatory information.

What It Must Include

The legislation specifies six categories of information that the Written Statement must cover:

1. Full names and postal addresses for service of all landlords and tenants. Not just first names — full legal names and addresses where legal notices can be delivered.

2. Full address of the rented property. The dwelling-house address, including any flat or unit number.

3. Rent details. The rent amount, payment frequency (monthly, weekly), payment due dates, and an explicit reference to the Section 13 annual rent increase rules. The tenant should understand from the document that rent can only be increased via a Form 4A notice, once per year, with two months' notice.

4. Deposit information. The amount of deposit taken, the name of the tenancy deposit scheme protecting it, and the scheme's contact details.

5. Statutory notice obligations. An explanation of how both parties can end the tenancy: the tenant's right to give at least 2 months' written notice, and the landlord's obligation to use Section 8 grounds with Form 3A.

6. Landlord repair obligations. A reference to the statutory repair duties under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (structure, exterior, installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation, and heating) and the landlord's safety duties.

What Happens If You Miss It

Failure to provide a Written Statement carries escalating consequences:

• Civil penalty of up to £7,000 for a first offence
• Up to £40,000 for repeat offences, with the possibility of criminal prosecution
• Rent Repayment Order exposure of up to 24 months' rent for repeated breaches

The penalty does not depend on whether the tenant suffered harm. The offence is failing to provide the document by the required date, regardless of the outcome.

For oral tenancies that existed before 1 May 2026, the deadline was 31 May 2026. If that deadline was missed, issuing the Written Statement late is better than not issuing it at all — but it does not erase liability for having missed the statutory deadline.

How It Differs from a Standard Tenancy Agreement

A Written Statement of Terms is not the same thing as a comprehensive tenancy agreement. It is the minimum set of information the law requires to be given in writing. You can — and should — also have a full tenancy agreement covering additional terms: repair responsibilities, utility obligations, tenant covenants about property use, access arrangements for inspections, and so on.

Think of the Written Statement as the statutory floor. A well-drafted tenancy agreement will include everything the Written Statement requires, plus the additional contractual terms that make the landlord-tenant relationship workable. If your existing tenancy agreement already covers all six mandatory categories, it satisfies the Written Statement requirement.

Practical Checklist

Before any new tenancy starts, confirm you are providing:

• [ ] Written Statement of Terms (covering all six mandatory categories)
• [ ] How to Rent guide (current version from GOV.UK)
• [ ] Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
• [ ] Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)
• [ ] Gas Safety Certificate (CP12)
• [ ] Deposit protected in an approved scheme with prescribed information served within 30 days

Missing any of these documents can restrict your ability to serve possession notices later or expose you to civil penalties.

Our Renters' Rights Act guide for landlords in England includes the full document compliance matrix — every document, its trigger event, the deadline, the delivery method, and the penalty for missing it.

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