Chesterfield Borough Council has issued £8,652 in financial penalties to an unnamed local letting agent after finding it used a prohibited six-month fixed-term tenancy and told tenants to leave after they raised concerns about their rented home.
The penalties, disclosed by the council on 1 October, were reduced to £7,354.20 because they were paid within the specified period. The investigation also resulted in an improvement notice for the original property, which the council says had prompted a complaint over housing standards shortly after the tenants moved in.
Every landlord and agent using tenancy paperwork in England now needs to check that it reflects the post-1 May rules. A fixed term written into a new assured tenancy is not a harmless old template: it can lead to enforcement action even where the property owner has delegated day-to-day letting work to an agent.
Fixed-term tenancies are no longer allowed
Chesterfield says its private housing team found that the agent had issued a six-month fixed-term agreement. Fixed-term assured tenancies were prevented when the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 took effect on 1 May 2026, leaving periodic tenancies as the standard arrangement for new qualifying lets.
The council issued a second penalty after finding that the tenants had been told to leave when they expressed an intention to complain. It says the tenants were then moved into alternative accommodation owned by an unidentified landlord. The council has not named the agent or separated the two penalties in its announcement.
The finding is a useful warning about process as well as paperwork. An agent’s standard agreement, onboarding checklist and response to a repair complaint all need to be tested against the legislation. A landlord cannot assume that an external managing agent’s older form remains compliant simply because it was supplied by a professional firm.
Enforcement moves beyond general guidance
The case is an early example of a council using financial penalties in relation to the new tenancy regime. Councillor Jean Innes said Chesterfield’s private-sector housing team had engaged with landlords and agents before the Act took effect, adding that the authority would act where they failed to meet their duties.
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s report on the Renters’ Rights Act taking effect on 1 May, which set out the move away from fixed terms. It also adds a practical local-enforcement example to Landlord Knowledge’s coverage of financial-penalty risk for landlords and agents: councils can act on specific tenancy and complaint-handling failures, rather than waiting for a broad licensing breach.
Check the tenancy and complaints route
The council’s 1 October enforcement notice does not say that every complaint creates an offence. Its significance is that the authority identified both a prohibited term and conduct after the tenants indicated they intended to complain. The facts will matter in every case.
Landlords who manage directly should revisit agreements issued since May and retain a clear record of repair reports, inspections and responses. Those using agents should ask for written confirmation of the current tenancy template and the escalation process for complaints. Earlier Landlord Knowledge coverage of rolling tenancies shows why this is not a marginal change in practice: periodic arrangements are already familiar to much of the sector, but the legal basis and communication with tenants still need to be right.
What this means for landlords
- Review every current template: remove any fixed-term assured tenancy wording from new England agreements and confirm that agents have done the same.
- Check the agent’s workflow: ask who approves tenancy documents and how legal updates are sent to branch staff and portfolio managers.
- Record repair complaints: log the report, investigation, work order and response, particularly where a tenant is unhappy with conditions.
- Do not treat a request to leave as a shortcut: take advice before discussing possession or a move after a tenant has raised a complaint.
- Bottom line: the £8,652 figure shows that tenancy paperwork and complaint handling are now live enforcement issues, not merely a future compliance project.
Editor’s view
This is a narrow case, but it is a clear signal. Good landlords have little to gain from obsolete paperwork or vague complaint routes, while the cost of leaving either unchecked has become very real.
Author: Editorial team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 02 October 2026
Sources: Chesterfield Borough Council
Related reading: Renters’ Rights Act goes live as compliance becomes key
