Q. My tenant is going to be vacating in a months time, and I will be reletting my property. Will I need to use a different tenancy agreement to take account of the Renters Rights Bill changes?

A. I suspect that the Renters Rights Bill will not have come into force when you re-let your property so you should still be able to use your existing agreement.

Note though that when the bill comes into force:
◆ All assured shorthold tenancies will convert to assured tenancies
◆ You will not be able to give tenants a fixed term – all tenancies will become periodic. Indeed, it will be an offence and you can be fined up to £7,000 if you try to give your tenants a fixed term
◆ You cannot include a rent increase clause as the only way you will be able to increase rent is by the statutory notice procedure
◆ Your tenancy agreement will need to include prescribed clauses. We don’t know what these are yet as they will be set out in regulations, which have not yet been published.

Because we haven’t seen the regulations with the new prescribed clauses, we are unable to produce tenancy agreements at the moment, which are compliant with the new rules.

However, you should explain to your new tenants that although you can give them a fixed term now, there tenancy will automatically change into a periodic on in a few months time.

Q. My tenants did not pass referencing and so they always pay their rent six months in advance. Will they still be able to do this once the Renters Rights Bill is in force?