The new tenancy rules for landlords change more than paperwork. They reshape how you advertise a property, select a tenant, raise the rent, and end a tenancy when the time comes. Even experienced landlords may find themselves following familiar processes that no longer meet the new legal requirements. Understanding what has changed is essential to staying compliant.
Old routines feel safe. A rent review clause you have relied on for years, a Section 21 notice you have served without a second thought, a verbal agreement you never quite got around to documenting properly. Under the current framework, each of these habits can quietly become a compliance breach.
Related: Tenant challenges and tribunals: What happens if your rent increase is disputed, and how to prepare
Old habits create most of the risk
Compliance failures rarely start with a landlord ignoring the law. They start with a landlord applying yesterday’s process to today’s rules. A tenancy agreement template that has not been updated. A notice period copied from an old file, no longer valid under the new system.
Small oversights, repeated across a portfolio, add up quickly. One outdated clause in a template gets copied into every new agreement. One old notice format gets reused for every tenant. These are common landlord mistakes, and they are almost always avoidable with a proper review.
Related: What evidence wins disputes? A landlord’s documentation checklist
Where advertising and tenant selection go wrong
Selecting a tenant now carries more scrutiny than before. Blanket bans on tenants with children or on benefits are no longer defensible, and an advert that hints at either can attract a complaint before you have even shown the property.
Three things catch landlords out most often:
- Referencing processes that rely on incomplete information can make it harder to assess affordability and suitability consistently.
- Rent-in-advance requests are now restricted. Landlords cannot ask for, encourage or accept rent before the tenancy agreement has been signed. After signing, they can generally request up to one month’s rent in advance during the pre-tenancy period.
- Holding deposits taken without following the rules on amount, refunding the deposit and providing written reasons when it is retained. A holding deposit is normally capped at one week’s rent.
Get the first conversation with an applicant right, and the rest of the tenancy tends to run more smoothly. Rushing referencing to fill a void faster is where most of these problems begin.
Advertising wording matters more than most landlords assume. Phrases that seem harmless, such as ruling out households on housing benefit or specifying a preferred tenant type, can breach discrimination rules even when there was no intention behind them. Review your listing text before it goes live, not after a complaint arrives.
Advertise one price, and hold it
Rental bidding is another area where old advertising habits can create problems. Landlords and letting agents must advertise a specific asking rent and cannot encourage or accept offers above that advertised price. Publishing a higher price in a second advert or inviting applicants to bid against one another can breach the new rental bidding rules.
Pet requests need a process, not a blanket no
Pets are another change landlords need to factor into their process. Tenants can request permission to keep a pet. Landlords must consider the request and cannot unreasonably refuse it. They generally have 28 days to respond in writing, although certain circumstances can extend this period. Your tenancy process should therefore allow for pet requests rather than relying on a blanket “no pets” policy.
Getting rent increases right under Section 13
Rent increases are where old contractual habits collide hardest with the new system. For rent increases taking effect under the new regime, landlords must generally use the statutory Section 13 process rather than relying on contractual rent review clauses. Transitional rules apply to some increases agreed or notified before 1 May 2026.
Every increase must now go through the statutory Section 13 process, using the correct prescribed form. No side letter or verbal agreement can substitute for it.
Timing your notice correctly
Section 13 gives you no flexibility on timing, so getting the sequence wrong is one of the most common landlord mistakes on this list. Serve the notice too early or too late and the increase does not take effect when you expect it to.
- Give tenants at least two months’ written notice before a new rent can start.
- A landlord cannot increase the rent during the first year of the tenancy, and any further increase cannot take effect until at least 12 months after the previous increase took effect.
- Make sure the notice and proposed increase comply with the current statutory requirements and prescribed form.
Miss any of these and the notice can be invalid, forcing you to start the process again from scratch.
Notices and possession without shortcuts
Section 21 is no longer available. Although transitional provisions applied to certain valid Section 21 notices served before 1 May 2026, those notices were subject to a final deadline for starting possession proceedings of 31 July 2026. If you need a property back, you need a valid ground under Section 8, supported by evidence, rather than a general notice that ends a tenancy without a stated reason.
Choosing the right ground
Grounds now cover situations such as selling the property, moving in a family member, or persistent rent arrears, and each one carries its own notice period and its own evidence standard. Guessing which ground applies, or serving the wrong notice length, is a fast route to a failed possession claim.
Keep a record for every stage of the tenancy that might later support a ground for possession. Rent arrears logs, inspection notes, and correspondence with the tenant all matter far more than they used to.
Related: How to end a tenancy from May 2026: CJ Hole’s guide to the new possession rules
Rent collection and inspections still trip landlords up
Property management compliance is not limited to the paperwork at the start and end of a tenancy. Rent collection records need to be accurate and dated, particularly if arrears ever become grounds for possession later on.
Inspections deserve the same discipline. Keeping dated inspection notes, photographs and repair records can provide useful evidence if a dispute later arises. Regular, documented visits protect both the property and the landlord’s position.
Paperwork landlords still overlook
Every tenant is entitled to a written statement of terms, setting out the property, the rent, and the tenancy conditions, from the very start of the tenancy. For a tenancy created on or after 1 May 2026, make sure the required written information is provided before the tenancy is agreed. For existing tenancies with written agreements, different rules applied during the transition to the new system.
Landlord responsibilities extend well beyond the tenancy agreement itself, covering safety certificates, deposit protection, and the right-to-rent checks that many self-managing landlords still treat as a formality. Local authorities can issue civil penalties for breaches, and the statutory guidance sets out exactly how those penalties are calculated.
None of this paperwork is optional, and none of it can be assembled after the fact. A missing certificate or an unprotected deposit is far harder to explain to a tribunal than it is to prevent with a proper filing system from the outset.
Building a landlord compliance checklist that works
A checklist only works if it reflects the rules as they stand today, not the process you inherited from a previous tenancy cycle. Consistency is what turns a checklist into a habit that actually protects you.
- Review your tenancy agreement template to ensure it reflects the new assured periodic tenancy regime and does not contain provisions that conflict with the statutory rent-increase or tenancy-ending rules.
- Confirm which ground for possession applies before you serve any notice, and keep the supporting evidence on file.
- Set a reminder for when a rent increase can lawfully take effect, taking account of the first-year restriction, the 12-month interval between increases and the required notice period.
- Store the written statement of terms and supporting documents for every tenant in one place.
Working with an experienced letting agent, such as CJ Hole, gives self-managing landlords a second set of eyes on exactly these details, from referencing through to notice periods.
Getting ahead of the next inspection
Compliance under the new tenancy rules for landlords is not a one-off task to tick and forget. It is a habit you build the same way the old habits formed, through repetition, until the correct process feels as familiar as the one it replaced.
Landlords who treat each stage of the tenancy, from advert to notice, as a checkpoint rather than a formality tend to avoid the mistakes that catch others out. If you would rather hand that responsibility to specialists who manage it daily, your local CJ Hole branch can take on exactly that discipline for you.
