Tenancy agreements: a guide for landlords (England and Wales)

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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.