What Does the Renters’ Rights Act Mean for Landlords?

What has changed already and what is still coming?

Everything to do with tenancies, possession, rent and discrimination is live. Everything to do with registration, redress and property standards is legislated but not yet switched on.

The measures that are live now

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2026 brought Part 1 into force on 1 May 2026. The government’s guide to the Renters’ Rights Act confirms that existing tenancies converted on the same day rather than at the end of their fixed term.

There was no phased transition for tenancy type. Every assured shorthold tenancy in England became a periodic assured tenancy overnight.

The measures that are legislated but not commenced

Parts 2 and 3 of the Act sit on the statute book marked prospective. The NRLA expects the database to begin a phased rollout from late 2026 and mandatory ombudsman membership around 2028.

Ignore anyone telling you to register today, because there is nothing to register with. Do read the duties now, since the database rules block possession orders once they bite.

How do you get possession now section 21 has gone?

Only through a Section 8 ground in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988, with the notice period that ground carries. There is no route back to a no-reason notice, and no discretion to shorten the notice.

The grounds you will use most

The Act rewrote the grounds in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988, adding new ones for sale and for superior lease endings and lengthening several notice periods. Mandatory grounds oblige the judge to grant possession if you prove them; discretionary ones do not.

The arrears threshold moved from two months to three under Ground 8. That single change is the one costing landlords the most money this year.

The twelve-month lock on grounds 1 and 1a

You cannot use Ground 1 or Ground 1A in the first twelve months of a tenancy. Letting a property you already intend to sell in six months is no longer possible.

There is a second lock at the other end. Once you have taken possession on either ground you cannot re-let or market the property for twelve months, and misusing the ground exposes you to a rent repayment order, which is exactly the kind of dispute legal expenses cover is written for.

What happened to notices served before may 2026

Schedule 6 kept pre-commencement Section 21 notices alive for a short window. Where proceedings had not started, the deadline was the shorter of six months from the notice date or three months from 1 May 2026.

That window shut on 31 July 2026 at the latest, so no old Section 21 notice is enforceable now. Claims already issued carry on, and the gov.uk guidance on giving notice to evict sets out the current process.

What do periodic tenancies do to your income?

They remove any guaranteed minimum term. A tenant can now leave with two months’ notice on day one, so your income planning has to assume the shortest tenancy rather than the longest.

Two months’ notice, at any point

Tenant notice must expire at the end of a rent period and cannot be shorter than two months. There is no minimum term you can hold them to, and no early termination fee you can charge.

The commercial effect is more frequent voids on the same portfolio. Loss of rent cover still only responds when an insured event makes the property uninhabitable, so an ordinary void is on you.

Watch the empty-property clause while you re-let. Most policies restrict cover after 30 to 45 unoccupied days unless you add unoccupied property cover.

The lets that behave differently

Student housing is the sharpest change, because the academic-year cycle no longer maps onto a fixed term. A shared HMO let to full-time students has its own possession ground tied to the academic year, and it has to be flagged before the tenancy starts.

Genuine holiday and short-stay lets sit outside the assured tenancy regime altogether, so Airbnb cover and the Act rarely meet. Do not use a short-let structure to dodge the rules, because a court looks at the substance of the occupation.

The written statement you now have to give

Every new tenancy needs a written statement of prescribed terms before it is entered into. Verbal tenancies are no longer viable.

For agreements that predate May 2026 you do not have to reissue the contract. You do have to give the tenant the government information sheet.

How do you put the rent up legally?

One Section 13 notice a year, with at least two months’ notice, and nothing else. Rent review clauses no longer work, and the tenant can send your figure to the First-tier Tribunal.

The section 13 process in order

• Check the last increase. You can only raise the rent once in any 12-month period.
• Serve the prescribed Section 13 notice giving at least two months’ notice of the new rent.
• Evidence the figure against comparable local advertised rents before you send it, not after.
• If the tenant applies to the tribunal, the increase pauses until the tribunal determines the rent.

England still has no rent cap and no percentage limit. The discipline is the market rent test, not a statutory ceiling.

What the tribunal can and cannot do

The tribunal determines the open market rent, and it can never set a rent higher than the figure you proposed. That removes the old risk of a challenge backfiring on the tenant.

There is no backdating either. The new rent runs from the date of the determination, and the tribunal can defer it by up to two months where paying immediately would cause undue hardship.

Two months of deferral plus a hearing wait is real money on a portfolio, which is why rent guarantee insurance has moved from a nice-to-have to a budget line for most landlords.

What are the rules on advertising, bidding and rent in advance?

You must publish an asking rent and you cannot accept a penny above it. You also cannot take any rent before the tenancy is signed, and only one month once it is.

Stating a rent and refusing anything above it

Every advertisement has to state a proposed rent. Inviting, encouraging or accepting an offer above that figure is a breach carrying a civil penalty of up to £7,000.

The ban catches agents as well as landlords, and it catches informal bidding by email or at a viewing. If demand is strong, advertise at the number you want rather than pitching low and running an auction.

One month in advance and no more

The Act amended the Tenant Fees Act 2019 so that no rent may be required or accepted before the tenancy is entered into. After signing you can require a maximum of one month, or 28 days where the rent period is shorter.

A first breach attracts a penalty of up to £5,000 through the same enforcement route as banned fees. Deposits are untouched at five weeks’ rent, or six weeks where annual rent is £50,000 or more.

This bites hardest on overseas tenants and applicants with thin credit files, where six or twelve months up front used to be the workaround. Use a guarantor and rent protection instead, and check the terms of your buy-to-let policy before you rely on either.

Can you still say no to a pet?

Yes, but only with a reason you can defend, and only within 28 days. A blanket no-pets clause is now unenforceable.

The 28-day clock

Section 11 of the Act implies a term letting the tenant request a pet, and requires your decision in writing on or before the 28th day after the request. Silence counts against you.

You get seven extra days if you ask for more information about the animal, and seven more from a superior landlord’s decision where one is needed. That second route matters for leasehold flats where the head lease or the block of flats policy restricts animals.

A refusal has to be reasonable on the facts of that request. A studio flat and a large dog is arguable; a goldfish in a three-bedroom house is not.

What you cannot ask for

• Pet insurance. The power to require a tenant to insure against pet damage was dropped before the Bill passed, and the Act as enacted contains nothing equivalent.
• A pet deposit on top of the cap. The Tenant Fees Act limits remain five or six weeks’ rent with no pet allowance.
• A blanket clause. Any no-pets term in a tenancy agreement is unenforceable, whatever the agreement says.

That leaves three real protections. The deposit, a claim for damage beyond fair wear and tear, and accidental damage cover if your policy includes it.

Check whether your landlord contents cover excludes damage caused by animals, because a good many wordings still do. Ask before the first pet request rather than after the first ruined carpet.

Where do the discrimination rules bite?

At every stage from the advert to the tenancy, for both benefits claimants and households with children. Local housing authorities enforce it with penalties of up to £7,000.

Benefits and children

Chapter 3 of Part 1 makes it unlawful to stop someone enquiring about, viewing or renting a property because they receive benefits or have children. It also catches practices that simply make it less likely, such as an affordability rule set at a multiple no benefits claimant could meet.

Strip ‘no DSS’ and ‘professionals only’ from every advert and application form, including the ones your agent controls. If you want the tenant pool, DSS landlord insurance is written for exactly this profile.

The insurance and superior lease exception

There is a defence most guides miss. Conduct is permitted where an insurance contract or a superior lease requires it, or where it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

The exception is narrow, and it expires when the contract renews. Read your landlord buildings insurance wording and your head lease before you rely on it, and get the restriction in writing.

What does getting it wrong cost?

Between £5,000 and £40,000 per breach, or an unlimited fine on prosecution. Rent repayment orders now reach 24 months of rent instead of 12.

Civil penalties and prosecutions

Local housing authorities set the amount within the statutory maximum, and they can prosecute instead for the most serious cases. Repeat breaches move you straight to the top of the scale.

Rent repayment orders now run to 24 months

The maximum period doubled, and the orders now reach superior landlords and company directors rather than stopping at the immediate landlord. Repeat offenders are liable for the maximum automatically.

New triggers include knowingly misusing a possession ground and giving false database information. On a £1,400 a month tenancy the ceiling is £33,600.

The standards that arrive next

Part 3 has only been commenced so that regulations can be written, so no Decent Homes Standard applies to private lets yet. Awaab’s Law is in the same position, with the timescales for acting on hazards like damp and mould still to be set by regulation.

When those timescales land they will be measured in days, not months. A landlord home emergency policy with a 24-hour call-out is the cheapest way to be ready for that.

How should you change your cover and cash flow?

Budget for a possession run of nine to twelve months rather than four, and buy the cover that pays during it. Rent guarantee and legal expenses are now the two sections that decide whether a bad tenancy is survivable.

What an arrears run costs now

Ground 8 needs three months of arrears before you can even serve notice, and the notice itself is four weeks. Court listing times then add the rest.

That table assumes £1,200 a month and a defended claim. Add £2,500 to £6,000 of legal costs and the gap is closer to £18,000.

The cover that earns its place

• Rent guarantee. It pays the rent through the arrears period and usually funds the possession action too.
• Legal expenses. It covers solicitors and tribunal costs on possession, rent challenges and rent repayment order defences.
• Malicious and accidental damage. Longer tenancies and pets both raise the odds of a claim at the end.

None of this works on a household policy. The differences between landlord insurance and home insurance matter more now, because a declined claim mid-possession is unrecoverable.

If you own more than one property

Staggered renewal dates make it hard to see whether every property has rent protection. A multi-property policy puts them on one schedule with one renewal.

At four properties and above, compare that against a portfolio landlord policy, which usually prices rent guarantee more cheaply per unit. Ask for the arrears waiting period as well as the limit, because they vary widely.