Over the past few days, I have been writing about the process of creating the new Landlord Law Renters’ Rights Act compliant tenancy agreement.
This was one of the most important (and time-consuming!) tasks in preparing Landlord Law for the implementation of Stage 1 of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 on 1 May.
The new agreement is now live and available for members to use. So I thought it would be helpful to bring all the posts in the series together in one place.
Why this matters
The Renters’ Rights Act represents the biggest change in landlord and tenant law for many years.
With the abolition of fixed terms and section 21, and new requirements for written terms and information, tenancy agreements need to be carefully drafted to ensure they are:
- Legally compliant
- Clear and fair
- Robust if challenged
A poorly drafted agreement could expose landlords to penalties or make enforcement more difficult.
The series – an overview
Here is a summary of each part of the series, with links.
Part 1 – Initial thinking and structure
In this part, I explained the early thinking behind the new agreement, including the decision to include a ‘Key Information’ section. I also explained how the Landlord Law document system works.
Part 2 – Drafting the agreement
This post looks at the drafting process itself, including removing clauses no longer permitted (such as fixed terms and section 21), and dealing with issues such as bills, deposits and Equality Act requirements. I also discuss working with ChatGPT.
Part 3 – Refining and building the system
Here, I discuss refining the wording, considering guarantees (including feedback from members), and creating the Gravity Forms system used to generate the final document.
Part 4 – Final amendments and testing
This post covers final revisions, including further work on the Key Information section, and the first look at the completed agreement. Plus further comment on ChatGPT and the doomscroll
Part 5 – The agreement goes live
The final post explains the finishing touches, new features, and confirms that the agreement (along with a ‘room in a shared house’ version) is now available for members to use.
About the process
It took me some 12 days to get this online, not including the initial thinking period. A long process with a lot of checking.
I have to say that I couldn’t have done it without my immensely knowledgeable but intensely scatty and somewhat unreliable writing partner, ChatGPT. Which I discuss in the series.
I hope that the agreement will be useful for Landlord Law members. The old agreement was one reason why members stayed with me so long. I hope they find this version both practical and reassuring to use in this new legal landscape.
If you want to find out more of the details, I did a post on Landlord Law, which you can read here.
And finally
I now need to summon up the energy to do a version for student landlords, but I will have to wait a few days before I can face this!
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