The Information Sheet

The Government Information Sheetis the document that does the heavy lifting for existing tenancies under the Renters' Rights Act 2025. It is not new content — it is a prescribed government-issued PDF that summarises what has changed on 1st May 2026 and what the tenant's new rights are. The landlord's job is to deliver it. The deadline is 31st May 2026, and the penalty band for failure is £7,000 to £40,000 per property.

The Information Sheet replaces the How to Rent guide, which was withdrawn from the private rented sector on 1st May 2026. It does not replace the Written Statement of Terms, which is a separate document for new tenancies and for existing verbal tenancies.

Who it applies to — and who it does not

This is the part that catches landlords out. The Information Sheet applies to existing tenants who had a written tenancy agreement in place before 1st May 2026. That is the universe.

• New tenancies signed on or after 1st May 2026 do not get an Information Sheet. They get a Written Statement of Terms before signing.
• Existing tenants on a verbal tenancy before 1st May 2026 do not get an Information Sheet. They get a Written Statement of Terms by 31st May 2026.
• Existing tenants with a written tenancy agreement pre-1st May 2026 — this is the group that gets the Information Sheet, by 31st May 2026.

If you are a portfolio landlord with a mix of new tenants, existing written tenants and existing verbal tenants, you owe a different document to each group. They are not interchangeable.

The 31st May 2026 deadline

The Information Sheet has to reach the tenant by 31st May 2026. That is the date by which it must have been served, not the date by which it must have been sent. If you are using first-class post, the second-working-day deemed-service rule applies — you cannot post on 30th May and be within the deadline.

Local authorities have enforcement powers from the day after the deadline. The penalty band on a single failure is £7,000 to £40,000. For a portfolio landlord, the per-property exposure compounds quickly.

Strict delivery rules — PDF only, no links

The Information Sheet has unusually strict service rules. The valid methods are:

• Email with the PDF attached directly to the message.
• Hard copy delivered by hand or by post.
• Text message (SMS) with the PDF attached to the message.

The methods that are not valid service include:

• A URL or hyperlink to the PDF, in any medium.
• A WhatsApp or email message that says “the Information Sheet is attached to the tenancy folder on the cloud” with a Dropbox or Google Drive link.
• A blanket “please find the latest tenant rights document on our website” without delivering the actual PDF.
• Recorded or signed-for delivery where the tenant declines to sign — the package is deemed undelivered.

If the tenancy agreement does not authorise email service

Most pre-1st-May ASTs do not contain an email-service clause. Where the tenancy agreement does not authorise service of statutory notices by email, the careful approach — and the one the NRLA template adopts — is to attach the PDF, send the email, and ask the tenant to confirm receipt by reply. If the tenant does not reply within a reasonable window, the landlord must follow up by text message and prepare to deliver a hard copy.

Practically, this means the email should not be the end of the process. The email is the first step; the follow-up text and the hard-copy fallback are what carries the deadline if the tenant is unresponsive or hostile.

Evidence — what to keep

Build an evidence file for every tenant served. The minimum:

• A copy of the actual PDF served (with any platform metadata stripped — the PDF should be the clean government-issued document, not a screen-grab or a re-typed version).
• The date and method of service for each tenant.
• For email: the sent message with the attachment visible, and the tenant's reply confirming receipt where you secured one.
• For SMS: the message with the attachment visible, time-stamped.
• For post: proof of postage, ideally with a witness photograph of the addressed envelope.
• For hand delivery: the date, time and a note signed by anyone who witnessed the delivery.

What the Information Sheet actually says

Landlords sometimes worry that they need to draft the Information Sheet themselves. They do not. The Information Sheet is a prescribed document issued by the government — the landlord downloads the PDF and serves it as-is. The content covers the tenant's rights under the Renters' Rights Act in plain English: the end of Section 21, the new pet-request regime, the Section 13 rent-increase changes, the route to the First-tier Tribunal, where to get help. There is nothing the landlord adds and nothing the landlord redacts.

If you let through a managing agent

If your tenancies are managed by a letting agent, agree in writing whose responsibility it is to serve the Information Sheet. The legal duty sits with the landlord under the Act, and the £7,000 to £40,000 fine band attaches to the landlord even if the agent dropped the ball operationally. Get the agent's confirmation in writing that they have served, with copies of the served PDFs and the delivery evidence, well before the 31st May deadline.

Practical workflow

• Pull a list of every existing tenant who had a written tenancy agreement before 1st May 2026.
• Download the current Information Sheet PDF from gov.uk. Use the version-stamped file; do not re-type or re-format the content.
• Serve by email-with-attachment as the primary method, with confirmation-of-receipt request, where the tenancy agreement allows it.
• For tenants who do not reply, follow up by SMS with the PDF attached, then hard copy if still no acknowledgement.
• Save the evidence pack against each tenancy. The pack is the defence to any later enforcement action.
• Set a 31st May 2026 hard internal deadline at least one week ahead of the statutory date so you have time to deal with undelivered messages and unresponsive tenants.

This page is general guidance, drafted to reflect the requirements of the Renters' Rights Act 2025. It is not legal advice on a specific tenancy. The Information Sheet deadline is one of the few in the Act that does not extend on good-faith effort — if you are running close to 31st May and have tenants you cannot reach, get named legal advice now.