Latest Landlord Regulation Update: New ‘How to Rent’ Guide

A new version of the ‘How to Rent’ guide was published on 24th March 2023. The guide must be served by landlords in England at the start of any new tenancy or at the start of a statutory periodic tenancy.  The new edition has a bright new pink look and it can be accessed here.

The importance of using the correct version of the ‘How to Rent’ guide ties in with the serving of a valid Section 21 Notice to seek possession of premises let under an Assured Shorthold Tenancy on or after 01 October 2015.

The ‘How to Rent’ guide (current at the time) must be served on a tenant (amongst other prescribed information) before a Section 21 Notice can be served.  If a Landlord or Agent fails to do so, the Section 21 Notice will be invalid and the ‘How to Rent’ guide will need to be provided to the tenant before a new Section 21 Notice is served, causing a delay before possession proceedings can begin.

The guide may be provided to the tenant:

• In hard copy or
• Where the tenant has notified you of an e-mail address at which the tenant is content to accept service of notices and other documents given under or in connection with the tenancy, by e-mail.

If the ‘How to Rent’ guide is amended during the tenancy, there is no requirement to serve the new version immediately on the existing tenant.  Where a written renewal of the tenancy is made between the same landlord and the same tenant for substantially the same property, another copy of the ‘How to Rent’ guide only needs to be provided if the guide has changed since the previous tenancy and previous version supplied to the tenant.

The advice here is that if you are in any doubt whether you have the most recent version and whether it has been updated since anything that you may have served before, then simply download it from the Gov.uk website and serve the latest version whenever the tenancy is renewed. This same cautionary advice applies if the tenancy ends and becomes a statutory periodic tenancy.

If you have any queries whatsoever, do get in touch with a member of the team on propertymanagement@goviewlondon.co.uk.