Landlord and Tenant Act 1985

Provision of rent books

4 Provision of rent books.

(1) Where a tenant has a right to occupy premises as a residence in consideration of a rent payable weekly, the landlord shall provide a rent book or other similar document for use in respect of the premises.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to premises if the rent includes a payment in respect of board and the value of that board to the tenant forms a substantial proportion of the whole rent.

(3) In this section and sections 5 to 7—

(a) “tenant” includes a statutory tenant and a person having a contractual right to occupy the premises; and

(b) “landlord”, in relation to a person having such a contractual right, means the person who granted the right or any successor in title of his, as the case may require.

5 Information to be contained in rent books.

(1) A rent book or other similar document provided in pursuance of section 4 shall contain notice of the name and address of the landlord of the premises and—

(a) if the premises are occupied by virtue of a restricted contract, particulars of the rent and of the other terms and conditions of the contract and notice of such other matters as may be prescribed;

(b) if the premises are let on or subject to a protected or statutory tenancy, notice of such matters as may be prescribed.

(2) If the premises are occupied by virtue of a restricted contract or let on or subject to a protected or statutory tenancy, the notice and particulars required by this section shall be in the prescribed form.

(3) In this section “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State, which—

(a) may make different provision for different cases, and

(b) shall be made by statutory instrument which shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

6 Information to be supplied by companies.

(1) Where the landlord of premises to which section 4(1) applies (premises occupied as a residence at a weekly rent) is a company, and the tenant serves on the landlord a request in writing to that effect, the landlord shall give the tenant in writing particulars of the name and address of every director and of the secretary of the company.

(2) A request under this section is duly served on the landlord if it is served—

(a) on an agent of the landlord named as such in the rent book or other similar document, or

(b) on the person who receives the rent of the premises;

and a person on whom a request is so served shall forward it to the landlord as soon as may be.

7 Offences.

(1) If the landlord of premises to which section 4(1) applies (premises occupied as a residence at a weekly rent) fails to comply with any relevant requirement of—

• section 4 (provision of rent book),

• section 5 (information to be contained in rent book), or

• section 6 (information to be supplied by companies),

he commits a summary offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

(2) If a person demands or receives rent on behalf of the landlord of such premises while any relevant requirement of—

• section 4 (provision of rent book), or

• section 5 (information to be contained in rent book),

is not complied with, then, unless he shows he neither knew nor had reasonable cause to suspect that any such requirement had not been complied with, he commits a summary offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

(3) If a person fails to comply with a requirement imposed on him by section 6(2) (duty to forward request to landlord), he commits a summary offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

(4) If a default in respect of which—

(a) a landlord is convicted under subsection (1), or

(b) another person is convicted of an offence under subsection (3),

continues for more than 14 days after the conviction, the landlord or other person commits a further offence under that subsection in respect of the default.