News

On 26 June 2018, the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) issued a new series of online rental guides. Within the series, there were two How to Rent tenant guides – ‘How to Rent’ and ‘How to Rent a Safe Home’.

The covers to both guides (see below) were almost identical and concerns were raised that this could cause real confusion and lead to some landlords and agents issuing the wrong How to Rent booklet. This is important because if a landlord or agent issues the wrong guide, they would be breaching the law and if necessary, would be unable to serve a section 21 notice.

As a result, the How to Rent guide published on 26 June 2018 has now been withdrawn and replaced by an amended version.

The title has been changed to ‘How to Rent: the checklist for renting in England’, and the new cover looks like this:

It is very important that anyone who downloaded the original version of the 26 June guide now downloads and uses the new version with immediate effect. It may also be advisable to issue the amended guide for any tenancies started since 26 June.

The government website is now showing the latest update was carried out on 9 July. 

As a further change, there is also a small amend on page 6. The 26 June version says the landlord ‘must’ provide the tenant with a record of any electrical inspections. This has now been amended to ‘…should provide’.

You can download the correct version from the Gov.uk website here.