Since 1 May 2026 every new English tenancy must be a Periodic Assured Tenancy, Section 21 is gone, and an out-of-date template is non-compliant by default. So where you get your paperwork matters more than it used to. Here is an honest comparison of the five realistic options UK landlords have in 2026, what each costs, and who each one suits. We sell templates ourselves, so we have been plain about where a free or third-party option is the better call.
LetSafe UK sells tenancy templates, so we have a commercial interest in this comparison. That is exactly why we have tried to be even-handed: for some landlords a free gov.uk form or an association template is genuinely the right answer, and we say so below.
The five realistic options at a glance
| Where from | Typical cost | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| GOV.UK official forms | Free | Confident landlords who know the law | Blank prescribed forms with no guidance, not a full tenancy agreement |
| NRLA / association membership | Annual membership fee | Active landlords who want the wider member benefits | Members-only, and you pay every year whether you need a template or not |
| Free template sites | Free | A simple, low-risk let you will compliance-check yourself | Rarely maintained; many still offer abolished fixed-term ASTs and Section 21 wording |
| High-street solicitor | £400 to £1,200 | Disputed, high-value or unusual lettings | Overkill and slow for a standard let; you pay again for every update |
| LetSafe | £29 to £49 one-off | Landlords who want a current, guided document without a subscription | A paid product, though a one-off rather than a recurring fee |
GOV.UK official forms
GOV.UK publishes the prescribed statutory forms (for example the Form 4A rent-increase notice and the Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet) for free, and they are as authoritative as it gets. The limitation is that they are individual blank forms, not a complete tenancy agreement, and they come with no completion guidance. If you already understand which form you need and how the new regime fits together, this is a perfectly good free starting point.
NRLA or other association membership
The National Residential Landlords Association and similar bodies offer well-drafted, regularly reviewed template libraries to members. If you are an active landlord who also wants the training, helplines and lobbying that membership brings, the templates come as part of that package. The trade-offs are that the documents are members-only and you pay an annual fee, which is harder to justify if a template is the only thing you need.
Free template sites
A web search for a free tenancy template returns dozens of downloads. For a straightforward, low-risk let they can be adequate, and the price is unbeatable. The risk is maintenance: many free templates are still drafted as fixed-term Assured Shorthold Tenancies and still reference Section 21, both of which are wrong for new English lettings from 1 May 2026, and nobody emails you when the law moves. We cover this in depth in our guide on free tenancy templates versus LetSafe.
High-street solicitor
A solicitor-drafted tenancy is the gold standard where there is a genuine dispute, an unusual arrangement, or a lot of money at stake, and you get advice tailored to your exact situation. For a standard single let it is usually expensive and slow for what is, in practice, a well-understood document, and you pay again each time the regulations change.
LetSafe
Our own packs are one-off purchases from £29 to £49. You get an editable DOCX and a typeset PDF, drafted for the correct regime across all four UK nations, with the supporting forms (such as the Form 4A rent-increase notice and the Information Sheet acknowledgement) included and free re-downloads when the regulation moves. It is the middle ground between a bare free form and a full solicitor engagement: current and guided, without a subscription or a four-figure fee.
So who should use what?
- GOV.UK forms if you know the law and just need the official prescribed form.
- Association membership if you are an active landlord who values the wider member benefits and will use the library often.
- A free template site for a simple let where you are confident checking compliance yourself.
- A solicitor for disputes, high-value lettings or anything genuinely unusual.
- LetSafe if you want a current, guided tenancy you can edit and reuse, without paying annually.
There is no best source for every landlord. The best source is the one that matches how much risk you are carrying and how much of the law you want to handle yourself. If that turns out to be us, the Periodic Assured Tenancy pack is where most English landlords start.
If you have decided a maintained, ready-to-use template is the right call, see the periodic tenancy agreement template or, for the full document set, the new landlord pack. If you are not sure yet, our free tenancy transition tool will tell you what you actually need first. Two companion guides go deeper: what to look for in a tenancy agreement template, and free vs paid templates compared honestly.