The How To Rent Guide Was Withdrawn. Now What?
For years the How to Rent guide was the single most useful document in English renting. Free, government-written, and a landlord legally had to give it to you.
It was withdrawn on 1 May 2026. If you're looking for it, or a landlord has just handed you a copy, here's what happened and what you should have instead.
The short version
- The How to Rent guide was withdrawn on 1 May 2026. GOV.UK says plainly that it "is not up to date".
- New tenancies get written information about the key terms instead, before the tenancy is agreed.
- Existing tenancies should have had an Information Sheet by 31 May 2026.
- The current guidance lives on GOV.UK under assured periodic tenancies.
What happened to it
The guide described a system that no longer exists. Assured shorthold tenancies, fixed terms, Section 21 notices and the old rent increase rules were all central to it, and all of them changed on 1 May 2026 when the Renters' Rights Act took effect.
Rather than update it, the government withdrew it. The GOV.UK page carries a withdrawal notice dated 1 May 2026 and points readers to the guidance on assured periodic tenancies instead.
It's been retained for one narrow purpose: tenancies where a landlord served a Section 21 notice before 1 May 2026. Those cases are still running under the old rules, and the old guide still describes them.
So if you're in a live pre-May 2026 Section 21 case, the guide is still relevant to you. For everyone else, it is out of date and following it will give you the wrong answers about eviction, fixed terms and rent increases.
What you should get instead
The requirement to hand a tenant something didn't disappear. It changed shape.
If you started a tenancy on or after 1 May 2026, your landlord must give you written information about the key terms of the tenancy, and it has to be given before the tenancy is agreed. Most landlords will fold it into the written tenancy agreement, which is fine, and some will provide it separately.
If your tenancy existed before 1 May 2026, it converted automatically to an assured periodic tenancy, and your landlord or agent should have given you a government-produced Information Sheet explaining the changes, by 31 May 2026. Where the tenancy was purely verbal, they should also have given you written information about the key terms by the same date.
If you never received either, that's a breach. Your council has new powers to investigate and act, and there's a civil penalty available. It costs nothing to raise it with them.
Where the current information actually is
The replacement isn't a single downloadable booklet, which is a genuine loss. It's spread across GOV.UK guidance pages:
- Assured periodic tenancies: a guide for tenants, which is the closest thing to a successor
- The Renters' Rights Act overview for tenants
- The guide to the Renters' Rights Act, which is the detailed version
- The private renting pages on repairs, deposits, rent increases and eviction
Shelter and Citizens Advice both cover the same ground, and both are free and reliable. Shelter Legal is unusually good if you want the actual legal position rather than a summary.
Why the old guide mattered, and what to take from it
Its real value wasn't the content so much as the fact that it existed as a checklist. It's worth keeping that habit, so here's the current version of it.
Before you sign, you should be given or shown:
- The written information about the key terms, before the tenancy is agreed
- The EPC, which you can also look up free by postcode
- The gas safety certificate, dated within the last twelve months
- The electrical installation condition report, within five years and marked satisfactory
Within 30 days of paying a deposit:
- Confirmation it's protected in one of the three schemes
- The prescribed information that goes with it
On day one:
- Working smoke alarms on every storey, and carbon monoxide alarms where required
- An inventory, which you should annotate and return inside the deadline
The checks worth doing on a landlord.
What changed underneath all this
Worth knowing, because it's why the old guide had to go.
- Section 21 no-fault eviction is abolished. A landlord needs a specified ground and has to prove it in court.
- No fixed terms. All tenancies are periodic, and you can leave on two months' notice.
- Rent increases are once a year, on two months' notice, on a prescribed form, and challengeable free at tribunal.
- Rent in advance is capped at one month, and bidding above the asking rent is illegal.
- Blanket bans on benefits and children are unlawful.
- You can request a pet, and it can't be unreasonably refused.
- Awaab's Law sets statutory timescales for damp, mould and emergency hazards.
If a landlord hands you the old guide
It happens, and it isn't necessarily bad faith. Plenty of letting packs haven't been updated.
Take it, and then say in writing that you understand the How to Rent guide was withdrawn on 1 May 2026, and ask for the written information about the key terms of the tenancy instead. Keep the reply.
Two reasons to bother. First, you want the correct information. Second, a landlord still working from a withdrawn 2025 letting pack may also be working from withdrawn assumptions about Section 21, and that's worth knowing early.
The honest summary
The How to Rent guide is gone, withdrawn on 1 May 2026, and only still relevant to pre-May Section 21 cases. Don't rely on a copy you've been given.
What replaced it is written information about your tenancy's key terms for new tenancies, and an Information Sheet for tenancies that already existed. If you got neither, tell your council.
And before you sign anywhere, check the address on MOOT. Government guidance tells you what the rules are. It can't tell you whether this particular landlord follows them.
This guide covers England and reflects the position at August 2026. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems. General information rather than legal advice. Sources: GOV.UK, How to Rent (withdrawn 1 May 2026), GOV.UK, Renters' Rights Act overview for tenants, GOV.UK, assured periodic tenancies: a guide for tenants.