Renters’ Rights Act 2025: Adapting to the new regime

It had been introduced to Parliament in September 2024 by the Labour government, with the intention of offering greater security and stability to tenants of privately rented residential homes, so that they could “stay in their homes for longer, build lives in their communities and avoid the risk of homelessness”.

A small number of the reforms, such as new local authority enforcement powers came into force at the end of December 2025 and major reforms came into force on 1 May 2026. The government’s “roadmap to implementation” suggests that later in 2026 the private rented sector database will be in place and by 2028 it will be mandatory for landlords to join the PRS Landlord Ombudsman scheme. The timetable for bringing the remaining provisions of the Act into force, most notably the extension of Awaab’s Law and a modernised Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector, will be subject to consultation.

The government has produced guidance to assist those impacted to understand, and adjust to, the new regime.

The Act significantly impacts owners and occupiers of residential property. It affects every stage of renting residential property from advertising, letting and regaining possession from a tenant. The Act extends to England only for the majority of its provisions, with only a small number altering the existing rental regime in Scotland and Wales.

The Act is concerned with assured tenancies and therefore applies only where the arrangement meets the statutory criteria for an assured tenancy under the Housing Act 1988; arrangements falling outside those criteria (for example licences, company lets and other non assured tenancies such as certain long leases or business tenancies) are outside its scope.

We set out in this note some of the key provisions of the new Act and their impact on the sector.

No more ASTs

The Act has abolished assured shorthold tenancies entirely, and abolished fixed term assured tenancies. Periodic assured tenancies are now the only option for the vast majority of private rental properties.

The Act applies to any new assured tenancies and converted all assured shorthold tenancies and fixed term assured tenancies in place prior to 1 May into periodic assured tenancies. Any provisions in tenancy agreements relating to fixed terms will have no effect from 1 May 2026. Similarly, any landlord’s break options in such tenancies will be ineffective.

The rental period for all assured tenancies must either be monthly or a period of less than 28 days (e.g. weekly). Any provision in an assured tenancy agreement (or a converted assured shorthold tenancy or fixed term assured tenancy) which sets out a longer rental period (e.g. quarterly) will have no effect and the rent will instead be payable monthly on a pro-rata basis.

From 1 May 2026 landlords have been required to give tenants a written statement setting out the key terms of their periodic assured tenancy. This information must be given before the tenancy is entered into. Regulations (The Assured Tenancies (Private Rented Sector) (Written Statement of Terms etc and Information Sheet) (England) Regulations 2026) (“the Regulations”) have been published explaining what the written statement needs to contain including for example information about the rent and bills payable to the landlord, how the landlord can end the tenancy and various statutory duties imposed on the landlord relating to the standard of the property.

Landlords of oral, rather than written, tenancy agreements which were in place before 1 May tenancy will also need to provide the written information to their tenants. This will need to be done by 31 May 2026.

Landlords of written tenancies which were converted to periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026, do not need to provide their tenants with a written statement but do need to provide their tenants with an information sheet. The Regulations provide that Landlords must provide the document titled “The Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026”, as produced by the Secretary of State for this purpose This information sheet needs to be provided by 31st May 2026 and is available via the government website here: The Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 - GOV.UK.

End of “no fault” evictions

A key feature of the Act is that it brings to an end s.21 “no fault” evictions for new tenancies and those existing prior to 1 May 2026.

A ban on new s.21 notices has been in place since 1 May 2026. There are some limited transitionary provisions however which will allow landlords to rely on a s.21 notice served before the ban came into effect. The position varies depending on whether or not possession proceedings had already been commenced in reliance on a valid s.21 notice by 1 May 2026.

• Where a landlord had served a valid s.21 notice and commenced proceedings by 1 May then that notice remains valid until proceedings in reliance on the notice become time-barred or are concluded. Until the notice ceases to be valid the tenancy in question remains an assured shorthold tenancy;
• Where a landlord had served a valid s.21 notice but possession proceedings had not been commenced by 1 May 2026, landlords have a short grace period in which to commence their claim for possession. In such cases, the effect of the relevant provision is to provide a maximum of 3 months from the date of commencement of the Act for the landlord to commence possession proceedings, i.e. until 31st July 2026. If the landlord commences proceedings within that period, the notice remains valid until proceedings in reliance on the notice become time-barred or are concluded. Until the notice ceases to be valid, the tenancy in question remains an assured shorthold tenancy.
• Interested parties have expressed concerns about the courts’ and the tribunal’s capacity and capability to deal with the likely increased strain the changes will place on the justice system, in particular the county court which deals with most possession proceedings. Some landlords took advantage of the interval between the passing of the Act and the Act’s provisions coming into force and it is anticipated that many will also utilise the transitional provisions mentioned above leading to an increase in possession claims, at least in the short term.
• Although the time it takes for a landlord to regain possession will vary from court to court, it is not unusual to see cases taking more than 12 months from issuance of possession proceedings to a possession order being granted. There is then the time it takes to enforce the possession order appropriately which, in many cases, takes months.
• The government appears to recognise the issue, particularly given that the justice system is already under pressure due to capacity and technology issues. The government has indicated that the Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunal Service have been working closely with Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (“MHCLG”) to ensure that the justice system is fully prepared for the implementation of the Act. As part of this, we understand that additional funding has been allocated to the courts as well as an increase in the court’s capacity with approximately 115 new court staff joining HMCTS. HMCTS is also due to digitalise the court process for landlords to regain possession of their property, introducing a digital service for both landlords and tenants.

Updated grounds for possession

Under the pre-Act regime, grounds for possession were separated into mandatory and discretionary grounds. Where a mandatory ground is proved, the court must make an order for possession, whereas if a discretionary ground is proved, the court may exercise its discretion to decide whether granting possession is an appropriate remedy in the circumstances. This distinction is preserved in the Act, but the grounds are amended and widened. In most cases the notice periods have been increased giving tenants greater security. In general, the shorter notice periods have been reserved for cases of severe rent arrears or anti-social behaviour.

The Act sets out more than twenty grounds for possession, some of the more notable are set out in the table below.

It will be interesting to see how the courts approach the new grounds, for example, ground 1A which requires that the landlord demonstrate its intention to sell the property being let or grant a long lease of it. Whether the “intention” test will be an objective or subjective test we do not yet know, nor whether the landlord will need to show that its intention is not conditional – i.e. would the intention be different if the tenant was not in occupation? During parliamentary debates on the Act, the Housing Minister emphasised that the legislation was drafted broadly to allow the Court discretion to assess, on a case-by-case basis, whether a landlord has genuinely demonstrated the requisite intention for ground 1A. It was noted that the Court’s discretion should be viewed in the broader context of the Act’s purpose, namely to strengthen tenant protections and guard against unfair evictions. Whatever the position is, this will feed into the evidence the court will require.

Tenant’s right to terminate

The move to assured periodic tenancies has meant a change to the tenant’s method of terminating their tenancies. The key point to note is that a tenant must now give its landlord at least two months’ written notice to end its tenancy, unless the landlord and tenant agree a shorter notice period in writing.

Notice can be given by the tenant at any time during the tenancy. To avoid disputes, the tenant should ensure that the expiry of the notice corresponds with the end of a tenancy period.

The Act also introduces a new provision into the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 which has the effect that any provision in a tenancy which limits a tenant as to the means of giving notice in writing to quit premises let under an assured tenancy is of no effect.

Landlords will need to ensure that they have adequate arrangements in place to ensure that tenant notices are identified at the earliest opportunity.

Bidding wars and advance payments

The Act also impacts the pre-tenancy stage as landlords and agents are now unable to encourage or accept a rental price higher than the advertised rental listings, and there are restrictions on accepting advance payments of rent.

The first development is intended to end bidding wars and means that landlords need to take even greater care when finalising listings. The penalties for breaching this obligation cannot be avoided by failing to specify a rental price as there is a requirement to specify a specific proposed rent in the listing.

Landlords also cannot ask for or accept payments of rent in advance. A payment taken in advance is considered a “prohibited pre-tenancy payment” under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, and landlords and letting agents accepting such payments face financial penalties.

Once the tenancy agreement has been signed, the landlord can only ask for or accept a payment of up to one month’s rent in advance. Any provisions in the tenancy agreement requiring sums over one month’s rent are unenforceable.

The change only affects new tenancies, and therefore tenancy agreements in place before 1st May 2026 and which required a payment of rent in advance do not need to be amended.

In addition, a landlord can still require a tenancy or security deposit up to a maximum of 5 weeks’ rent if the rent for the year is less than £50,000, or 6 weeks’ rent if the rent for the year is £50,000 or more.

Rent review provisions

Contractual rent review provisions in tenancies in place before and since 1 May 2026 no longer have effect. Instead, since 1 May 2026, landlords can only increase rent by following the statutory procedure under section 13 Housing Act 1988, which starts with serving on the tenant a notice of the new rent. The Act increases the notice period required to two months and provides that no rent increase can take effect until at least 52 weeks after the tenancy began. Landlords cannot increase the rent until at least a year after the last increase took effect.

Tenants can challenge the proposed increased rent by making an application to the First-tier Tribunal (“FTT”) for a determination on what the fair market rent should be. The FTT can only determine a fair market rent, and the new rent will be the lower of that market rent and the rent specified in the section 13 notice.

Crucially from a landlord’s perspective, the FTT cannot “backdate” the new rent start date, so the rent increase (if any) will only take effect on the date set out in the landlord’s section 13 notice if that date falls on or after the date of the FTT’s determination. Otherwise, the new rent will be payable from the beginning of the first new period of the tenancy which begins on or after the date of the determination, or another date up to 2 months after the determination if the tribunal decides that an earlier date would cause undue hardship to the tenant. Accordingly, any rent increase will not necessarily take effect from the date given in the landlord’s section 13 notice.

There have been concerns that this will encourage tenants to seek a determination from the FTT even where the rent increase is reasonable, simply to delay the commencement date of a rent increase. There is very little incentive for them not to do so, as costs awards are very rarely made in the FTT, although there is now a fee of £47 payable on submitting a rent review application at the FTT which may, or may not, disincentivise some tenants from bringing claims that have no merit. The government recognised concerns that the changes could lead to an increase in the number of claims being commenced in the FTT, but stopped short of allowing backdating in the Act. Instead, the Act allows the Secretary of State to make regulations in the future which would enable the FTT to change the date from which the new rent will be payable (i.e. possibly to backdate rent increases). It may be willing to exercise this power if there is evidence to show that the FTT is being overwhelmed with applications. It is unclear, however, how that evidence will be collected. The government has also committed to exploring a filtering body to prevent spurious appeals from proceeding to the FTT. Tenants are also able to challenge the initially agreed rent provided they do so within 6 months of the tenancy starting.

It should be noted that this rent review regime only affects rental increases, landlords and tenants can agree to decrease the rent at any time.

New database and ombudsman

The Act introduces a new Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman Service (referred to as a Landlord Redress Scheme in the Act) and a new Private Rented Sector Database. The government’s roadmap suggests that the database will be in place in late 2026, and that it will be mandatory for landlords to join the PRS Landlord Ombudsman scheme by 2028. As yet there are no specific details as to how these new systems will look or what information will be held on the database. Much of the detail behind these will be in the secondary legislation that will need to be published in advance of the second phase of implementation. What we do know is:

Ombudsman

All private landlords in England with assured tenancies will be legally obliged to join the scheme (at a fee) before they market a property for letting. This includes those who use a letting agent or a managing agent who is a member of a redress scheme for their letting services.

Fines may be imposed on landlords who fail to join, and on letting agents who market the property of an unregistered landlord. Further, continuing or repeat breaches could offer tenants the right to ask the First Tier Tribunal to award a rent repayment.

As an alternative to complaining to their council or taking legal action in the courts/tribunal, tenants will be able to raise a complaint against their landlord with the ombudsman free of charge.

Database

Landlords in England will also be legally obliged to register (at a fee) both themselves and their properties on the database. There will be civil penalties if they market or let out a property without registering it and providing the required information.

Landlords who fail to register will not be able to get an order for possession (unless relying on grounds relating to tenant anti-social behaviour). They also face civil penalties of up to £7,000 if they fail to join the database before letting (or even advertising a property). The penalty could increase to £40,000 for continuing/persistent breaches.

The registering requirements will not replace selective licensing so landlords will need to be on top of both licensing requirements where they apply as well as the database requirements once in force.

Impact on PBSA

Tenancies in purpose built student accommodation will be not become periodic assured tenancies under the Act provided that the landlord or its managing agent is signed up to a government approved code of practice (i.e. the UNIPOL and ANUK student housing codes of practice). Where the exemption applies, tenancies granted after 1 May 2026 will not be assured tenancies – they will be common law tenancies, which will continue to allow fixed terms and landlords’ notice to quit without needing to prove a statutory ground.

ASTs to students granted prior to 1 May 2026 converted to assured tenancies in the same way as other ASTs. However, landlords have a limited window in which to rely on an amended form of Ground 4A, to regain possession of the property. To benefit from these provisions a landlord must serve a notice on the tenant before 31 May 2026 indicating that it intends to rely on ground 4A and then to re-let the premises to students. Once that notice has been served, a transitional period applies until 30 July 2026 in which a landlord can give two months’ notice to terminate the tenancy (rather than four months which is the notice period for a standard ground 4A notice as set out in the table above). This transitional window is designed to allow landlords to regain possession from 2025/2026 academic year students, ready to allow occupation by students for the next academic year.

Conclusion

Reform of residential tenancies has been on the horizon for some time, and this Act comprehensively restructures the private rented sector in England. The government has issued guidance aimed at assisting those affected and working within the sector to understand their new rights and obligations, and landlords and letting agents will no doubt have already taken steps to ensure compliance with the changes which came into force on 1 May 2026.

The timeline for commencement of all the remaining provisions of the Act is not yet known, but the government’s implementation roadmap indicates that the next crucial date will be sometime in late 2026 when we should know more about the Private Rented Sector Database and Ombudsman. It remains to be seen whether the Act will deliver on the aim to offer greater security and stability to tenants of privately rented residential homes.