Renters' Rights Act: Important changes in the law

The Renters’ Rights Act became law on 27 October 2025. The new law will bring in some changes for private landlord and tenants.

These new changes will not happen all at once and the Government has provided a roadmap which says when different bits of the Act will come into force. The main dates are:

• New investigation and enforcement powers for councils from 27 December 2025
• Changes to tenancies, new possession grounds and abolition of s.21 evictions (and other changes not listed here) from 1 May 2026
• Rollout of Private Rented Sector Database and set up of the Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman from late 2026
• Introduce the Decent Homes Standard in the private rented sector from either 2035 or 2037. Dates for other key changes around standards in private rented properties, including the roll out of Awaab’s Law are still to be decided.

You can find more information about these changes on gov.uk. They have also produced an overview for landlords

Councils’ enforcement powers

The Renters’ Rights Act has given councils new enforcement powers.  On 27 December 2025 councils were given new investigatory powers so that they can look into whether the law is not being complied with and from 1st May there will be new offences that fines can be issued for.  
Council’s will be expected to use their new enforcement powers and will have to report what enforcement action they are taking to the Government on a regular basis.

Changes from 1 May 2026

From 1 May most tenancies will become assured periodic tenancies. The new tenancies will not have an end date, which means that tenants can continue to rent a property until either they give 2 months’ notice or the landlord serves a valid notice to end the tenancy. This applies to both new tenancies and existing tenancies, including fixed term tenancies. This means that if a tenant currently has a fixed term tenancy, the end date will no longer apply if it is after 1 May.

From 1 May, written tenancy agreements will be needed for new tenancies which will have to include set information for tenants. For existing tenancies where there is already a tenancy agreement, landlords will have to provide printed information to their tenants before the end of May 2026. The Government will publish the information that needs to be provided before May. 

As well as changing tenants to new tenancies from 1 May, section 21 (“no fault”) possessions will be abolished and new possession grounds will come into force. The government has published the new grounds which include landlords being able to gain possession of their property if the tenant is behaving anti-socially or has fallen into significant arrears.

Under the new tenancies landlords will only be able to increase rent once a year and will have to give tenants 2 months’ notice of this. Landlords will only be able to increase the rent in line with the rent that they would expect to receive if they were to relet the property on the open market. Tenants will be able to challenge an increase if they don’t think this is the case.  New rules will also come in to prevent landlords and agents asking potential tenants for a rent above what is advertised (“rental bidding”) and to limit rent in advance to one month’s rent.

From 1 May it will be illegal to discriminate against tenants because they have children or because they receive benefits and landlords will be required to consider requests from their tenants to be able to rent with a pet. 

For more information go to Guide to the Renters' Rights Act on gov.uk.

Private rented sector database and Ombudsman

The Renters’ Rights Act will introduce the Private Rented Sector Database and Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman. The government has not said when this will happen exactly, but it is expected that this will be towards the end of 2026.

All landlords of assured or regulated tenancies will be expected to register themselves and their properties on the Private Rented Sector Database. For landlords this will provide access to guidance and for tenants it will provide information before they rent a property. The government has still to set out exactly how the database will be used, but it is likely that landlords will be expected to upload information such as gas and electrical safety certificates and energy performance certificates.

Landlords of assured or regulated tenancies will also be expected to join the Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman Service, which will provide a cost effective and impartial way of dealing with tenants’ complaints.

For more information go to Guide to the Renters' Rights Act on gov.uk.