Tenancy agreements: a guide for landlords (England and Wales)
What you should include in a tenancy agreement
The tenancy agreement should include:
- the names of all people involved
- the rental price and how it’s paid
- information on how and when the rent will be reviewed
- the deposit amount and how it will be protected
- when the deposit can be fully or partly withheld, for example to repair damage caused by tenants
- the property address
- the start and end date of the tenancy
- any tenant or landlord obligations
- which bills your tenants are responsible for
It can also include information on:
- whether the tenancy can be ended early and how this can be done
- who’s responsible for minor repairs (other than those that the landlord is legally responsible for)
- whether the property can be let to someone else (sublet) or have lodgers
The terms of the tenancy must be fair and comply with the law. You can use a model agreement as a template.
Preventing discrimination
The tenancy agreement cannot have anything in it that discriminates against your tenant because of a ‘protected characteristic’, like disability.
If the tenancy agreement does discriminate against them, you cannot refuse to change it unless you have a very strong reason.
Example
Your tenant might need a guide dog in the house but a term in the tenancy agreement says no pets are allowed. You must change the term to allow guide dogs in the property, unless you have a very strong reason not to, for example another tenant in the property has a serious allergy to dogs.
Changes to tenancy agreements
You must get the agreement of your tenants if you want to make changes to the terms of their tenancy agreement.