I'm writing this post on 15 May 2026, with 16 days left until the deadline, because I'd rather have it ready to publish before 1 June than scramble it together when the panic hits.
The honest answer to the question in the title is that yes, you can still serve the Information Sheet after 31 May 2026, and in most cases you absolutely should. But the legal position changes once the deadline passes and it's worth understanding what changes and what doesn't.
What the Deadline Actually Means
The Renters' Rights Act sets 31 May 2026 as the date by which existing tenancies must have received the Information Sheet. Up to that date, you're complying with the transitional duty. After that date, you've missed the duty as set out in statute.
What that doesn't mean is that you've permanently failed. The duty is to serve the Information Sheet, and you can still discharge that duty after 31 May — you just do it in a different posture and probably with consequences attached.
What the Council Can Do If You Missed the Deadline
The civil penalty for failure to serve is up to £7,000 per tenant. That's the statutory maximum, not a fixed amount, and councils have discretion in how they enforce.
In practice, I'd expect councils to look at three things when deciding what to do about a landlord who missed the deadline.
First, did the landlord miss it knowingly or accidentally? A landlord who served all tenants except one, in good faith, with clear evidence of trying, is in a different position to a landlord who didn't serve anyone and didn't try.
Second, what happened after the landlord realised they'd missed it? A landlord who realised in early June and served everyone immediately is in a different position to one who only served when the council came knocking.
Third, is this part of a pattern of non-compliance with other landlord duties? A council looking at a landlord with a clean compliance history will treat the situation differently to one with previous gas safety violations or deposit scheme issues.
This isn't a guarantee that you'll get a lower penalty, but it's how mitigation tends to work in practice for housing law enforcement. The maximum penalty is rarely applied to a single oversight by an otherwise compliant landlord.
The Single Most Important Thing to Do If You've Missed the Deadline
Serve the Information Sheet immediately, even if you're past 31 May.
Late service is better than no service. The Information Sheet is supposed to inform your tenants of their rights under the new Act, and that purpose doesn't disappear on 1 June. Serving in June, July, or later still discharges the underlying duty, even if it doesn't fix the late filing problem entirely.
When you do serve late, I'd suggest doing it with a short covering note that acknowledges the timing. Something like: "I'm enclosing the Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet that should have been served by 31 May 2026. I apologise for the delay. The full information about your rights as a tenant is attached."
Why does the note matter? Because if a council ever asks why service was late and what you did about it, you can show that you served as soon as you realised, that you acknowledged the lateness, and that the tenant ultimately did receive the information they were entitled to. None of that fixes the missed deadline, but it materially affects the mitigation conversation.
What to Keep as Evidence of Late Service
The evidence requirements for late service are the same as for on-time service, with one addition: a record of when you realised the deadline had passed and what you did about it immediately.
If you realised on 5 June and served on 6 June, document that. If you realised on 15 June and served on 16 June, document that too. The gap between realisation and action is what councils will look at most closely, because it's the test of good faith. A landlord who realised and immediately corrected is showing exactly the behaviour the law wants.
The method requirements don't change after the deadline. Emailing a link still doesn't count — you still need to attach the actual PDF or use one of the other valid methods.
Don't Try to Backdate Anything
This should go without saying but I'll say it anyway. Don't backdate emails, don't change the date on documents, don't pretend you served before 31 May when you didn't.
Apart from being dishonest, it's also impractical. Email metadata can't be backdated convincingly. Council enforcement officers are trained to spot the markers of retrospective documentation. Stripe payment records, GOV.UK PDF version timestamps, and email server logs all leave traces that are very hard to fake.
The honest position — late but properly served — is much better than the dishonest position of "served on time" but visibly retrospective.
Tenancies Starting After 1 May
A quick clarification because I've been asked this a lot. The 31 May 2026 deadline only applies to existing tenancies — meaning tenancies in place on 1 May 2026 when the Act commenced.
For new tenancies starting after 1 May, the Information Sheet duty is handled differently. The new Assured Monthly Periodic Tenancy framework includes its own process for tenants receiving the relevant information at the start of the tenancy. So if you started a new tenancy on, say, 20 May 2026, that tenant doesn't need to receive the transitional Information Sheet by 31 May — they receive the information through the new tenancy paperwork instead.
If your portfolio includes a mix of existing tenancies and new tenancies that started after 1 May, the 31 May deadline only applies to the existing ones.
The Section 21 Deadline That's Also Approaching
While I'm writing about deadlines, I should flag the second one that's coming up and getting much less coverage. Schedule 6 of the Renters' Rights Act sets 31 July 2026 as the longstop date for landlords to issue court proceedings on any Section 21 notice served before 1 May 2026. After that date, the Section 21 notice lapses and the tenancy converts to an Assured Periodic Tenancy.
That's a separate issue from the Information Sheet, but it's worth flagging because landlords who served Section 21 notices in the months leading up to commencement need to get their court applications moving in May and June if they want to use them. Court timelines being what they are, the practical preparation deadline for that is more like mid-July than the headline 31 July.
If you served a Section 21 between November 2025 and April 2026 and haven't started possession proceedings yet, that's the next deadline on your horizon.
A Final Thought on Missed Deadlines
If you do miss 31 May, the worst thing you can do is panic and decide there's nothing to be done. The best thing you can do is serve immediately, document everything, and engage cooperatively with the council if they come asking. The Information Sheet duty is a one-off transitional requirement and getting it sorted late is recoverable. Getting it wrong and then ignoring it isn't.
Try Doorkeep for 99p → Start your trial
Doorkeep handles the late-service scenario automatically — adds the appropriate covering note, timestamps everything for your records, and stores the proof in an Evidence Vault. 99p for the first month, £5.99/month after that. But even doing this manually, the main thing is to do it.
Sixteen days left as I write this. Don't leave it to day 31.
Published 15 May 2026. Based on GOV.UK guidance current at the date of publication. This is informational content, not legal advice. Always check the latest version on GOV.UK.