Official take-up of the government’s Renters’ Rights Act information sheet still looks low relative to the size of England’s private rented sector, raising the risk that many landlords will leave compliance too late this month.
Figures obtained by Landlord Studio from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show the mandatory information sheet was downloaded 153,000 times in the first four weeks after publication. Over the same period, the related government page recorded 189,000 sessions.
That would not be a problem if every landlord only needed one copy and every tenant had already received it. But England has roughly 2.3 million private landlords, and the deadline to serve the document on most existing tenants is 31 May.
Download gap points to uneven landlord readiness
The raw numbers do not prove that most landlords will miss the deadline. Some agents will download the sheet once and use it across multiple clients, while portfolio landlords may do the same across several properties. Even so, the gap is large enough to suggest compliance is far from complete.
That matters because the information sheet is not optional background reading. Under the new regime, landlords with most pre-1 May tenancies must send the government-produced sheet to tenants rather than reissue an entire written tenancy agreement. Missing that step could expose landlords to penalties of up to £7,000 per tenancy.
Landlord Studio said the figures show a rollout challenge rather than a simple technicality. Its point is a fair one. The landlords most likely to miss this type of rule are usually not the larger operators with systems and audit trails in place, but smaller landlords still relying on manual processes, email chains and memory.
Paperwork evidence now matters as much as the document itself
For landlords, the bigger issue may be proof rather than sending. The information sheet can be delivered digitally or on paper, but if a tenant later disputes receipt, landlords will need a clear record showing when and how it was served.
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s coverage of the new section 8 and rent forms for landlords, which highlighted how the post-1 May rulebook is increasingly built around precise documentation. The latest figures suggest that the information sheet deadline could become the next trap for landlords who assume a quick email at month end will be enough.
The wider government guidance on pre-1 May paperwork checks already pointed landlords towards tightening admin before the Act took effect. This latest data adds a warning: the compliance bottleneck has not gone away just because the legislation is now live. The official Housing Hub guidance for landlords confirms that most existing tenants must receive the information sheet by 31 May.
There is also a practical timing problem. Landlords leaving the job until the final days of May may struggle to track down contact details, confirm delivery routes or identify tenancies where there is no proper written record at all. Those are the cases most likely to create avoidable disputes later.
The contrarian view is that 153,000 downloads is not automatically bad news. A single download can cover many tenancies, and professional agents may have already folded the sheet into bulk workflows. But that optimistic reading depends on landlords having systems. Plenty still do not.
What this means for landlords
- If you have pre-1 May tenants: send the information sheet now rather than wait until the end of the month.
- If you use email: keep a dated copy of the message and the attachment sent to each tenant.
- Watch for: older tenancies with missing written records, as these may need extra follow-up.
- Best practice: store proof of service alongside tenancy records in case a dispute arises later.
- Bottom line: the rule is simple, but weak admin could turn it into an expensive compliance failure.
Editor’s view
This is exactly the sort of rule that catches landlords out – not because it is complex, but because it looks easy enough to delay. In the current enforcement climate, that is a bad gamble.
Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 7 May 2026
Sources: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Housing Hub, Landlord Studio
Related reading: Government publishes section 8 and rent forms for landlords
📘 Renters’ Rights Act: Complete Landlord Guide
Everything you need to know about the new rules – 1 May 2026
