The Renters’ Rights Act: A Landlord’s Compliance Checklist

A working compliance page, kept in three parts: what binds you today, what is still to come and on what timetable, and what each breach actually costs. Status checked 29 October 2026 against the Government’s implementation roadmap and the PRS Database announcement.

Key takeaways

• Since 1 May 2026 every assured shorthold tenancy in England is an assured periodic tenancy; fixed terms cannot be created and a clause purporting to do so is ineffective.
• Rent rises only by a section 13 notice on Form 4A, once in twelve months, two months ahead, capped at open market rent, with a tenant right of referral to the First-tier Tribunal.
• PRS Database registration opens on 15 December 2026, region by region with deadlines to November 2027, and Ombudsman sign-up is expected in 2028 — two separate timetables, neither of them interchangeable.
• Awaab’s Law applies to social housing only; the Decent Homes Standard for privately rented homes remains subject to consultation with no commencement date.
• Enforcement is mostly civil: local authority financial penalties, rent repayment orders of up to twelve months’ rent, and banning orders for repeat offenders.

The short answer: what applies to you today

If you let residential property in England, the core of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 already binds you. Since 1 May 2026, when the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No.2) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/421) came into force: section 21 is abolished, every assured shorthold tenancy has become an assured periodic tenancy, rent can be raised once a year and only by the statutory notice route, rental bidding is banned, and you cannot discriminate against applicants with children or on benefits.

What is not yet in force matters just as much, because most of the advice circulating online runs the two together. Registration on the PRS Database, branded “Register your rental property”, opens on 15 December 2026 and rolls out region by region until November 2027. Mandatory sign-up to the PRS Landlord Ombudsman is expected in 2028. The Decent Homes Standard for privately rented homes, and any extension of Awaab’s Law beyond social housing, are both marked “TBC — subject to consultation” in the Government’s own implementation roadmap, published on 13 November 2025. Nothing in this page is a reason to buy compliance software against a date nobody has published.

This page is the compliance layer. Possession is a separate subject: our guide to how possession now works under section 8 covers the grounds and the notice periods. Status checked 29 October 2026.

Every tenancy is now periodic

There are no new assured shorthold tenancies in England and no fixed terms in the private rented sector. Every assured shorthold tenancy in existence on 1 May 2026 converted automatically to an assured periodic tenancy on that date. You did not have to issue anything, and issuing a new agreement does not restore a fixed term — a clause purporting to create one is simply ineffective.

Four practical consequences:

• A tenancy no longer ends because a term expires. Possession requires a ground in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 and a notice in the prescribed form.
• Security now runs one way. Your tenant can end the tenancy by giving notice; you cannot, except on a ground.
• Grounds 1 and 1A cannot be used in the first 12 months. If you are buying a tenanted property intending to occupy or resell it, that period is part of your purchase timetable, not an afterthought.
• Your tenancy template is out of date if it was drafted before 2026. Clauses about fixed terms, break rights or section 21 are at best redundant and at worst misleading, and misleading terms in a consumer contract carry their own exposure.

If you are still using a fixed-term agreement

Stop issuing it. The term does not bind the tenant, who may leave on notice regardless, and the document tells any adviser reading it that your paperwork has not been reviewed since the reform. Replace the template, then check the live tenancies: what matters is not what the agreement says but what the statute now provides.

Rent increases: the only lawful route

One route, and a rent review clause in your agreement does not override it.

1. Serve the statutory notice. A landlord’s notice proposing a new rent under section 13 of the Housing Act 1988, on the prescribed Form 4A.
2. Once in any twelve-month period, and not at all in the first year of the tenancy.
3. At least two months’ notice before the date the new rent is to take effect.
4. No more than the open market rent — what you could expect if you re-let the property on the open market today.
5. The tenant may refer the proposed rent to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) before the start date if they consider it above market, and does not have to pay the higher rent until the Tribunal decides. The Government plans to move these challenges to the Valuation Office Agency, but until that happens the Tribunal hears them.

If your tenant challenges the rent

Expect to justify the figure against comparables. Gather three or four genuinely similar current listings — same area, same size, same condition — before you serve, and keep them dated. If the increase is challenged you have your case; if it is not, you have still set a defensible rent.

If you are tempted to price a tenant out

Pushing the rent to a level you know the tenant cannot meet, in order to make them leave, is the practice the Tribunal referral exists to catch. It also damages any later possession claim, because your conduct is in evidence on every discretionary ground.

Property standards, repairs and Awaab’s Law

Nothing in the Renters’ Rights Act removed the duties you already had, and abolishing section 21 has sharpened them. A landlord who could previously answer an awkward repair request with a two-month notice no longer has that option, and a tenant with a live disrepair complaint now has both the time and the incentive to pursue it.

The standing obligations are: section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (structure and exterior, water, gas, electricity, sanitation, heating and hot water); the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, which lets the tenant sue directly if the property is unfit; an annual gas safety check by a Gas Safe registered engineer with the record given to the tenant; an electrical installation condition report at least every five years; working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms; a valid EPC; and local authority enforcement under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, which produces improvement notices, prohibition orders and civil penalties.

Pets, discrimination and rental bidding

Four rules that changed how you advertise and select.

• Pet requests must be considered. A tenant or prospective tenant may request to keep a pet and you must consider it, refusing only where you have a valid reason — a superior lease that forbids animals, or a property genuinely unsuitable for the animal proposed. Answer in writing, within the period allowed, and record the reason. An unexplained refusal is the one that gets challenged.
• No discrimination on benefits or children. “No DSS”, “no housing benefit”, “professionals only”, “not suitable for children” — unlawful in the advert, at enquiry stage and in the selection decision. Instruct your agent in writing, because you remain responsible for what is advertised for you.
• No rental bidding. You must state a proposed rent and may not invite, encourage or accept an offer above it. Listing low and running an informal auction is over.
• Limits on rent in advance. You may not require or accept rent before the agreement is signed, and the amount of advance rent you can require is restricted.

Affordability checks, references and guarantors remain lawful. What is not lawful is using them as cover for a blanket exclusion: a process that would screen out every applicant receiving housing support is a discrimination problem however it is described.

Deposits are unchanged in substance and transformed in consequence — protect the deposit and serve the prescribed information, because failure now restricts your ability to obtain possession at all. The scheme rules and the prescribed information are set out in our landlord and tenant law guide.

The PRS database and the Ombudsman

Two different things, arriving at two different times. Conflating them is the commonest error in landlord content this year, and it matters because one of them will require action from you long before the other.

The PRS Database

On 9 September 2026 the Government announced the “Register your rental property” service and laid the draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 before Parliament. The service opens on 15 December 2026 in the West Midlands, and each region then gets three months to register. You register yourself and each property that is let or about to be let, through a GOV.UK One Login account, and pay £65 per property each year. Registration is decided by where the property is, not where you live. Expect it to be linked to your ability to market a property and to obtain possession.

The rollout starts in the West Midlands (15 December 2026 to 14 March 2027) and finishes in the South West, whose deadline is 14 November 2027. By then every landlord actively letting property in England must be registered, and councils can enforce once the deadline for a region has passed. You will need your contact details, the property and ownership details, the tenancy and licensing position, the rent, and your gas safety record, EICR and EPC, which is why the records folder below matters.

The PRS Landlord Ombudsman

Mandatory sign-up is expected in 2028, tied in the roadmap to the point at which the service is ready. It will give tenants a free route to complain about a landlord’s conduct without going to court, with decisions binding on the landlord. That is an expectation, not a commencement date, and the roadmap has not given a firmer one since 13 November 2025.

The preparation for both is the same and it is unglamorous: keep the records. A landlord with a clean folder of gas certificates, EICRs, EPCs, deposit protection records and tenancy documents will register in an afternoon. A landlord who cannot find last year’s gas certificate will not.

What it costs to get wrong: the penalties

The enforcement layer is what makes this regime different from its predecessor. Most of it is civil and administrative rather than criminal, which means it moves faster and is used more readily. The maximum financial penalties are set by the relevant statutory provision and were increased by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, so read the current section before assuming an older figure — and note that penalties can be imposed per breach rather than per landlord.

Two points landlords underrate. A rent repayment order is paid to the tenant or to the council, not to the Exchequer, which gives tenants a direct financial incentive to check your licensing position. And a financial penalty is imposed administratively, with a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal — there is no prosecution to defend and no criminal standard of proof to satisfy.

Still to come, and when

Kept in its own section so it can be updated without touching anything above. Status as at 29 October 2026, from the GOV.UK implementation roadmap (published 13 November 2025) and the “Register your rental property” announcement of 9 September 2026.

• PRS Database registration — opens 15 December 2026, region by region; the London deadline is 14 October 2027 and the last regional deadline is 14 November 2027.
• PRS Landlord Ombudsman — mandatory sign-up expected 2028.
• Decent Homes Standard for privately rented homes — TBC, subject to consultation. No commencement date.
• Extension of Awaab’s Law beyond social housing — TBC, subject to consultation. Phase 2 hazards from 30 November 2026 apply to social landlords only.

Diarise a roadmap check each quarter. The phases commence separately and the later dates are expectations rather than commencements.

Your compliance checklist, and the mistakes it catches

The four mistakes that lose landlords the most

• Still issuing an old fixed-term agreement. The term binds nobody, and the document advertises that your paperwork has not been looked at since the reform.
• Raising the rent by agreement letter or text. Not a section 13 increase, so the extra is not payable — and your rent schedule is then wrong, which undermines any later arrears claim.
• Assuming Awaab’s Law already binds your lettings. It does not. Social housing only, with any wider extension still subject to consultation.
• Assuming database registration is optional, or that your deadline is 15 December 2026. It is mandatory, and the deadline depends on the region the property is in, from March to November 2027.

Pass or fail, row by row. Anything marked fail is a live exposure, and the first six rows also restrict or weaken your ability to recover the property.

What to do next

1. Pull every tenancy file and confirm deposit protection, prescribed information, licensing, gas record, EICR, EPC and How to Rent receipt. Fix those first: they are the ones that bar possession.
2. Replace your tenancy template. Anything drafted before 2026 describes a regime that no longer exists.
3. Move rent increases onto Form 4A and set a calendar reminder so you never breach the once-a-year rule by accident.
4. Audit your live adverts and your agent’s, for benefit and family exclusions and for anything that invites bidding.
5. Write a one-page repairs process and use it every time. It is your evidence if disrepair is ever raised against you.
6. Create a registration folder — ownership evidence, property details, certificates — ready for when your region’s registration window opens.
7. Diarise a quarterly roadmap check, because the remaining phases commence separately.
8. Get the portfolio reviewed if you hold several properties or acquired any with tenants in place. Our landlord and tenant solicitors audit paperwork against the Act and identify where the exposure actually sits; our published fees set out what that costs. Business premises are governed by the lease and the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 instead, and our commercial lease solicitors handle those. Portfolio owners should also think about putting property into a will, because rental property is the asset that most often complicates an estate. You can also contact the team directly.

Said plainly for tenants reading this: if a landlord is not complying, the local authority’s private sector housing team is the most effective route, and it costs nothing. Shelter and Citizens Advice both advise free of charge, and a rent increase that does not follow the section 13 route is not one you have to pay.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Renters’ Rights Act mean for landlords?

Since 1 May 2026 there are no fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies, section 21 is gone, and possession requires a Schedule 2 ground. Rent rises once a year by statutory notice only. Rental bidding and discrimination against benefit claimants and families are banned, and pet requests must be considered. Database registration and the Ombudsman follow later, on separate timetables.

Can a landlord still increase the rent?

Yes, but only by serving the statutory notice proposing a new rent under section 13 of the Housing Act 1988, on Form 4A, once in any twelve-month period, with at least two months’ notice and not in the first year. The rent may not exceed the open market rent, and the tenant may refer the proposal to the First-tier Tribunal before it takes effect.

Do private landlords have to register on a database?

Yes. Registration is mandatory and opens on 15 December 2026 through the “Register your rental property” service, starting in the West Midlands. Each region then has three months: Yorkshire and the Humber by 14 July 2027, the North West by 14 August 2027 and London by 14 October 2027. You register yourself and each let property and pay £65 per property each year.

Does Awaab’s Law apply to private landlords?

No. It has applied to social housing in England since 27 October 2025, and a second phase of hazards follows on 30 November 2026 for social landlords only. Extension beyond that sector is subject to consultation with no commencement date. Your repairing obligation, the fitness duty and council enforcement all apply anyway, so prompt handling of damp and mould still matters.

Can a landlord refuse a tenant with pets?

Only for a valid reason. A tenant or applicant may request to keep a pet and you must consider the request, replying in writing within the period allowed. A superior lease forbidding animals, or a property genuinely unsuitable for the animal proposed, are the sorts of reasons that hold. A refusal with no recorded reason is the one most likely to be challenged.

What are the penalties for breaching the Renters’ Rights Act?

Mostly civil. Local housing authorities impose financial penalties at the level set by the relevant section, with appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. Separately you may face a rent repayment order of up to twelve months’ rent, a deposit penalty of one to three times the deposit, a banning order for repeat offending, or prosecution for the criminal offences.

What happened to my fixed-term tenancy?

It converted automatically to an assured periodic tenancy on 1 May 2026. Nothing was required of you or the tenant, and issuing a new agreement does not restore the term. The tenancy now runs from rent period to rent period until it ends lawfully: the tenant may end it on notice, and you may end it only on a Schedule 2 ground.

When does the landlord Ombudsman start?

Mandatory sign-up to the PRS Landlord Ombudsman is expected in 2028. The implementation roadmap ties it to the service being ready rather than to a fixed commencement date, and has given no firmer date since it was published on 13 November 2025. It will offer tenants a free complaints route with decisions binding on the landlord.

Does the Act apply to my holiday let or my commercial unit?

No. The assured tenancy regime covers residential lettings as a home, so genuine holiday lets and company lets sit outside it, as do lodgers sharing with a resident landlord. Business premises run on the lease and the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 instead. Mixed-use buildings often need both regimes considered separately, which is where advice earns its keep.