How to rent
This guide is for people who are looking for a house or flat to rent.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
This guide was for tenants and landlords in the private rented sector. It helped them understand their rights and responsibilities before 1 May 2026.
This guide has now been withdrawn and is not up to date.
This guide has been retained for tenancies where the landlord served a notice for possession under section 21 before 1 May 2026.
Updates to this page
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Page has been withdrawn due to changes from the Renters' Rights Act.
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The How to Rent guide has been updated with advice on how to access free legal aid services, advice and support, regardless of financial circumstances.
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Updated How to rent: the checklist for renting in England.
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Added How to rent: easy read
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Updated the How to Rent guidance.
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3 June 2019: Corrected to reflect the rebranding of National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) to Safeagent, and to update links to the GOV.UK client money protection scheme webpage. 29 July 2019: The ‘Before you start’ section was updated to clarify Shelter’s advisory role. The sentence ‘If you don’t have a guarantor, you can ask Shelter for help’ was amended to ‘If you don’t have a guarantor, you can ask Shelter for advice’.
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Guide updated following the Tenant Fees Act 2019.
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On 6 July 2018 the title of the guide was amended to 'How to rent: the checklist for renting in England'.
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Added updated guide.
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Removed reference to the 'London Rental Standard' in the renting 'Direct from the landlord' section.
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Updated the How to Rent guide.
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Updated with the latest edition of this guide
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Added updated guide.
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Added information about Acrobat Reader download
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First published.