This article from Lawpack's Residential Lettings Kit discusses the information which a landlord must provide a tenant in order to avoid legal penalty.
Details of the following information must be provided by the landlord to the tenant whether there is a written tenancy agreement or not. It's a criminal offence for a landlord to fail to provide this information within 28 days of a request (unless he has a reasonable excuse, such as being on holiday).
The commencement date
It's important that the tenancy is dated and that it's clear from the document the date on which the tenancy started. The law governing a tenancy depends upon when it was initially granted. There may be new laws in the future which affect tenants' rights.If the tenancy goes on a long time, it may become difficult to prove exactly when the tenancy started if this isn't set out in the agreement. For this reason you should always keep a copy of the first tenancy agreement, even if subsequent agreements are given to the tenant. The subsequent agreements should also be kept.
You will need to know the precise date the current or last fixed term started for working out when the fixed term ends and the days in the month or week when subsequent periodic tenancies begin and end. This information is necessary if you have to serve any section 21 notices (where you require possession and there has been no breach of the tenancy), otherwise called section 33 notices in Scotland.
The commencement date of a tenancy is also important for working out what day in the week or month the rent runs from. Normally rent is payable on the day of the month or week which is the anniversary of the commencement date, (e.g. if the tenancy started on Monday 3rd January, a monthly rent will fall due on the 3rd day of every subsequent month and weekly rent will fall due every Monday).
Landlords who let several properties usually like all their rent to be paid on the same day, usually the 1st of the month, and if so, the agreement should stipulate that rent is payable on that day. To prevent confusion, it might be wise in this case for the agreement to provide for the tenant to pay an irregular amount for the first month (calculated on a daily basis) so that the rent will run from the stipulated payment day, if the tenancy actually commenced on another day.
The term
It's normal practice for a tenancy agreement to be for a fixed term, and the most common fixed term is six months. In Scotland, the tenancy agreement must be for at least six months to be a short assured tenancy.
The legal effect of a fixed term is that you cannot evict the tenant (other than under the 'bad tenant' (section 8) ground) and the tenant is liable for the rent for its duration. So, if in a six-month term the tenant moves out after four months, you can still claim the remaining two months rent from him, unless you relet the property to someone else after he has gone or if you end the fixed term by agreement with the tenant.
However, the Office of Fair Trading considers it to be unfair to prevent a tenant from ending or assigning a tenancy if there is another suitable tenant available to take his place.
It's wise when letting to new tenants not to make the term too long. Tenants are not always as satisfactory as they seem when you initially interview them. If you have a six-month assured shorthold tenancy, you can simply serve a notice requiring possession on the tenant to expire at the end of the six-month period and then if he fails to move out, you can evict him. However, if you have given him a 12-month tenancy, you will have to wait until the end of the 12 months to get him out. If the tenant proves satisfactory, he can always stay on at the property at the end of the term, either under a new fixed-term agreement or under a periodic tenancy.
Most local authority accreditation schemes provide for tenancies to be for a period of one year, particularly if your property is to be used to house homeless families referred to you by the local authority.
The rent
It's important that there is no dispute over the rent. The amount should clearly be stated in the agreement, together with the period of payment. It's generally best to make this monthly, as most people get paid monthly now. However, for some properties being let out as houses in multiple occupation (HMO) you may feel it best to collect rent weekly on the basis that the tenants are likely to be more able and willing to pay smaller weekly sums than larger monthly ones.
You should in all agreements specify that the rent is payable in advance, otherwise the law will imply that it is payable in arrears. You can also set out in the agreement the method the rent is to be paid, for example, by standing order into a specified bank account.
If rent is to be paid weekly, the landlord is required by law to provide the tenant with a rent book.
Law stated as at 1 March, 2006