Release Notes: AgentOS Override Rent Breakdown emergency action for Renters' Rights Act tenancies 

Who is this for?

The Override Rent Breakdown emergency action is available to:

• Lettings staff working on tenancies in England that are subject to a statutory rent-increase regime - in practice, tenancies under the Renters' Rights Act 2025

• Branches that need to correct or rebalance how the rent for a period is split between tenants on a Renters' Rights Act tenancy 

• Any user who would normally use Setup Rent Schedule Breakdown on a rent period, but is blocked because the standard breakdown grid is now gated behind Section 13 on Renters' Rights Act tenancies

The Override Rent Breakdown emergency action does not appear on tenancies outside a statutory rent-increase regime. On non-Renters' Rights Act tenancies the standard Setup Rent Schedule Breakdown action continues to work as before, and
the override is hidden.

What does it do?

The Override Rent Breakdown emergency action lets a user edit the per-tenant amounts on a single rent period of a Renters' Rights Act tenancy, bypassing the Section 13 statutory notice requirement that normally blocks rent uplifts on this type of tenancy. The user must provide a written reason of between 10 and 500 characters; the action will refuse to run without one.

When the user saves, the Override Rent Breakdown emergency action updates the rent breakdown for that one period, writes an "Override Rent Breakdown" entry to the Tenancy Audit, and adds a note to every tenant on the tenancy describing what changed and why.

How do I set it up?

There is no configuration to enable the Override Rent Breakdown emergency action. The action appears automatically on any rent period belonging to a tenancy subject to a statutory rent-increase regime, and is hidden everywhere else.

How do I find the Override Rent Breakdown emergency action?

Open the affected Renters' Rights Act tenancy and drill into the rent period you need to adjust:

• Tenancy → Rent Schedule → open the specific rent period row
• On the rent period, choose Actions → Override Rent Breakdown

The Override Rent Breakdown emergency action sits in the Accounting action group and acts on one rent period at a time, so an agent adjusting more than one period repeats the action for each period.

What do I enter on the Override Rent Breakdown screen?

The screen shows the existing per-tenant breakdown for the rent period, plus a free-text Override Reason field. There is no option to add or remove tenants from the grid — only the per-tenant amounts and the reason are editable.

• Tenant Rent grid — Amount column: The new per-tenant amount for this rent period. The sum of the amounts is the new total rent for the period.

• Override Reason — blank: The Override Rent Breakdown emergency action refuses to run and shows "An override reason is required."

• Override Reason — fewer than 10 characters: The Override Rent Breakdown emergency action refuses to run and shows "Override reason must be at least 10 characters."

• Override Reason — more than 500 characters: The Override Rent Breakdown emergency action refuses to run and show "Override reason must be 500 characters or fewer."

• Override Reason — 10 to 500 characters: The Override Rent Breakdown emergency action accepts the reason and writes it to the Tenancy Audit entry and to the per-tenant notes.

When does it run?

The Override Rent Breakdown emergency action runs when a user opens a rent period on a Renters' Rights Act tenancy, chooses Actions → Override Rent Breakdown, edits the per-tenant amounts, types an override reason, and clicks the action's confirmation button. The Override Rent Breakdown emergency action runs once per rent period and does not propagate the change to other rent periods on the same tenancy.

What happens?

1. A user opens a rent period belonging to a Renters' Rights Act tenancy and selects Override Rent Breakdown from the  rent period's actions menu.

2. AgentOS shows the existing per-tenant breakdown grid for that one rent period, plus the Override Reason field.

3. The user adjusts the per-tenant amounts and types a reason between 10 and 500 characters long.

4. AgentOS checks the reason length. If it is missing, too short, or too long, AgentOS shows the matching error message and the Override Rent Breakdown emergency action stops without changing anything.

5. AgentOS re-checks that the tenancy is still subject to a statutory rent-increase regime as a safety net. If it is not, the Override Rent Breakdown emergency action stops with an error.

6. AgentOS updates each tenant's amount on that rent period to the new values from the grid.

7. AgentOS validates the resulting rent schedule and breakdown. If validation fails, the Override Rent Breakdown emergency action stops with the validation message and the changes are rolled back.

8. AgentOS writes a Tenancy Audit entry of subtype "Override Rent Breakdown" against the property, recording the previous and new per-tenant breakdown strings and the staff member who ran the action.

9. AgentOS adds a note to every tenant on the tenancy — including retired tenants — containing the rent period dates, the previous breakdown and total, the new breakdown and total, and the override reason.

What hasn't changed?

• The standard Setup Rent Schedule Breakdown action is unchanged on non-Renters' Rights Act tenancies and continues to work in the usual way.

• The Section 13 rent increase notice flow is unchanged — branches that want a formal statutory rent increase on a Renters' Rights Act tenancy still use Issue Rent Increase and Manage Rent Increases.

• The Override Rent Breakdown emergency action does not change the rent period dates, the tenants on the tenancy, or any rent periods other than the one being edited.

• The Override Rent Breakdown emergency action does not bypass rent schedule validation — if the resulting schedule is invalid, the action refuses to save.

• Audit and notes for the standard Setup Rent Schedule Breakdown action are unchanged; the new "Override Rent Breakdown" Tenancy Audit subtype is filterable separately in the Tenancy Audit report.