112.Schedule 2 outlines statutory terms which, if regulations are made under section 7, will be terms applicable to every private residential tenancy (unless and to the extent that any regulations under section 7(3) allow them to be disapplied). The terms set out in the schedule are as follows:
Where rent is paid in cash, a written receipt must be provided to the tenant which includes the amount paid and either confirmation of any amount outstanding or confirmation that no arrears are outstanding.
The rent can be increased in accordance with the process set out in Chapter 2 of Part 4 (and, in line with section 18 of the Act, by this process alone).
The tenant must tell the landlord in writing if anyone aged 16 or over (who is not a joint tenant) lives in the property with the tenant and the property is that person’s only or principal home. The tenant must provide the name and that person’s relationship to the tenant.
If a landlord has been told in writing about a person occupying the let property, the tenant must tell the landlord if that person subsequently ceases to live there as the person’s only or principal home.
The tenant cannot sublet the property (or any part of it), take in a lodger, assign his or her interest in the let property (or any part of it), or otherwise part with possession of the property, without the written agreement of the landlord.
The tenant must allow reasonable access to the let property for an authorised purpose. Authorised purposes are carrying out work on the property which the landlord is entitled or obliged to carry out, inspecting the property in order to determine what (if any) work of that nature to carry out or inspecting it in pursuance of any other inspection right the landlord may have, and valuing the let property.
Where the statutory term is invoked by the landlord, it may be used by him or her to allow access by others – for example, by tradesmen or by rent officers who are valuing the property or a particular improvement that has been made to it.
The tenant is obliged to allow reasonable access where either 48 hours’ notice has been given or where access is required urgently for the purposes specified, but this would not preclude a tenant from allowing more generous rights of access if both parties want to resolve a non-urgent problem more promptly.
These access rights are not exhaustive and, as with all of the statutory terms, the fact that certain rights will be included as statutory terms does not prevent the parties from supplementing those terms, provided that the additional term does not directly conflict with (and therefore displace) the statutory term. For example, it would be open to the parties to agree a separate access right for the purpose of showing the property to prospective tenants once the current tenant has served notice to terminate the tenancy.