How to write a compliant UK tenancy agreement (2026)

A tenancy agreement does two jobs: it records what the parties have agreed, and it tells the court what to enforce if something goes wrong. A well-written agreement is boring, no surprises. A badly-written one creates expensive arguments. The right starting point is the statutory regime in your jurisdiction, not a generic template off the internet.

Four nations, four regimes

The essential clauses (all four nations)

1. Parties, full legal names of landlord(s) and tenant(s). If the landlord is a company, the full registered name and number.
2. Property, full address including flat number. If part of a building, specify which parts are let and which are shared.
3. Term, for England/Wales/NI, period of the tenancy. Scotland has no fixed term permitted.
4. Rent, amount, frequency, due date, payment method, bank details.
5. Deposit, amount (capped at 5 weeks' rent under £50k annual rent), scheme name, custodial or insured.
6. Permitted payments under Tenant Fees Act, only those permitted in England/Wales (rent, deposit, holding deposit, utility top-ups).
7. Tenant's obligations, pay rent, don't damage, notify of repairs, allow access with notice.
8. Landlord's repairing obligations, Section 11 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is implied; restate it for clarity.
9. Rent review mechanism, for APTs this is Section 13 only; for Wales, use the rent variation notice route.
10. Termination, reference to the statutory notice regime of your jurisdiction.

Clauses that are unenforceable

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 renders 'unfair terms' unenforceable in consumer tenancy agreements. Examples of clauses courts routinely strike out:

• A clause purporting to waive the tenant's right to quiet enjoyment.
• A blanket clause shifting all repair responsibility to the tenant where Section 11 applies.
• A 'no pets' clause after 1 May 2026 in England, tenants have a right to request and you must respond on reasonable grounds.
• A clause requiring the tenant to pay your legal costs on eviction regardless of outcome.
• A clause preventing Housing Benefit claims ('no DSS'), unlawful discrimination.
• An excessive late-payment interest rate (anything above the Bank of England base rate + 3% is vulnerable).

What a current England agreement must include

Under the regime now in force you need: the APT framing (no fixed term), the Section 13 rent-rise mechanism (once every 12 months), and the pet-request procedure. The Private Landlord Database (rolling out by region from 15 December 2026) and the PRS Ombudsman (commencement date not yet announced) are not yet live, so your agreement does not need to reference them yet. Anything still built around a fixed-term AST is a pre-RRA form.