Renters’ Rights Act 2025: What Landlords and Tenants Need to Know

As at 28 May 2026, the “new Renters’ Rights Act” is the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. It received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. Its Phase One tenancy reforms for England’s private rented sector took effect on 1 May 2026, while some enforcement and investigatory powers were brought in earlier, from 27 December 2025. Later phases will introduce the Private Rented Sector Database and Landlord Ombudsman from late 2026 onwards, and the Act also enables a future Decent Homes Standard and Awaab’s Law regime for the private rented sector, but important details of those later regimes are still to be fixed in secondary legislation and consultation responses.

The Act’s central legal change is the replacement of the old default system of assured shorthold tenancies and many fixed terms with a single assured periodic tenancy system for most private rented tenancies in England. At the same time, section 21 “no fault” evictions are abolished for the private rented sector, so landlords must rely on section 8 possession grounds and, if the tenant does not leave, prove those grounds in court. Tenants can normally end a tenancy by giving two months’ notice.

The Act does not introduce conventional rent controls. Instead, it standardises rent increases through the section 13 statutory route, limits increases to once a year, requires at least two months’ notice, and gives tenants expanded tribunal rights to challenge excessive increases. The Act also bans rental bidding above the advertised rent and, broadly, bans landlords from demanding more than one month’s rent in advance after a tenancy is signed and before it starts, while prohibiting rent-in-advance demands before signature.

Other major elements include a right to request permission to keep a pet, new rules requiring landlords to provide prescribed written information or a government information sheet, strengthened protections against discrimination against renters with children or who receive benefits, wider deposit protection coverage for assured tenancies, stronger local authority enforcement powers, larger civil penalties, and future mandatory participation in a PRS Ombudsman and Database.

The Act is often described, including by legal and sector commentators, as the largest shake-up of English private renting in a generation. In practical terms, the biggest immediate compliance themes are: rewriting processes rather than merely contracts, keeping evidence for possession grounds, changing advertising and pre-tenancy practice, checking deposit and information obligations, and preparing for later database/ombudsman registration.

Legislative status, scope and purpose

The long title of the Act says it is legislation “to make provision changing the law about rented homes”, including abolishing fixed term assured tenancies and assured shorthold tenancies, imposing new obligations on landlords and others, and making connected provision. The explanatory notes say the Act is designed to transform private renting by abolishing section 21 evictions, reforming possession grounds, standardising rent increases, restricting rent in advance, prohibiting rental bidding and discrimination, enabling Awaab’s Law and a Decent Homes Standard for the private rented sector, and introducing the new Ombudsman and Database framework.

Despite the popular shorthand “UK”, the Act is not a single UK-wide tenancy code. Its core tenancy reform is primarily about England’s private rented sector. However, the Act also contains separate chapters on rental discrimination in England, Wales and Scotland, and some provisions have broader extent. Official guidance also makes clear that the rental bidding provisions apply only in England.

Structurally, the Act has five Parts and six Schedules. Part 1 covers tenancy reform and related market rules; Part 2 creates the Ombudsman and PRS Database architecture; Part 3 enables the Decent Homes Standard; Part 4 creates enforcement, sanction and investigatory systems; Part 5 contains general provisions, including extent, commencement and transitional machinery.

The official implementation roadmap says the policy purpose is not just legal reform in the abstract, but a staged change programme: first, to create a new tenancy system and end section 21 evictions; second, to build a data and redress infrastructure; and third, to raise physical housing standards through the Decent Homes Standard and Awaab’s Law.

Definitions, affected tenancies and commencement

The most important practical concept is now the assured periodic tenancy. Official landlord guidance says that all existing ASTs become assured periodic tenancies, and new private rented tenancies are also assured periodic tenancies. They run on a rolling basis, usually aligned to the rent period, and landlords can no longer set a contractual end date in the old AST sense.

A second central concept is the abolition of the assured shorthold tenancy as the default private-sector tenancy. The Act abolishes the AST category, and the explanatory notes say that tenants who previously would have had an assured tenancy or assured shorthold tenancy move onto a single periodic tenancy system.

The Act also uses the category “relevant low-cost tenancy” to preserve different rent-increase mechanics for some social rented tenancies. Official guidance says those low-cost tenancies keep current social rent review mechanisms rather than moving fully onto the revised private-renting section 13 model.

For pets, the Act defines a “pet” as an animal kept mainly for personal interest, companionship, ornamental purposes, or a combination of those purposes.

For transitional purposes, the Act distinguishes existing tenancies from new ones and contains extensive saving and transition rules in Schedule 6. Existing fixed-term assured tenancies convert into periodic assured tenancies on the relevant commencement date; a fixed-term assured tenancy and its statutory periodic continuation are treated as a single tenancy for specified legal purposes; and there are special savings for notices, rent increases and deposit issues already underway before the new regime started.

The tenancies most clearly affected are ordinary private rented assured tenancies in England, including the vast bulk of former ASTs. Official and charity guidance also make clear that lodgers with a resident landlord are not brought into this main assured-tenancy reform.

The tenancies most clearly excluded or specially treated include certain long tenancies, some financial services products, parts of the social sector, and categories tied to student, supported, temporary homelessness or employment-linked housing. The explanatory notes say fixed-term tenancies of more than 21 years are added to the excluded category, and that some existing fixed-term tenancies of more than 7 years but 21 years or less entered into before 27 December 2025 are also excluded. The Act and roadmap also preserve or create special grounds and exemptions for student accommodation, supported accommodation, homelessness duties and other specialist sectors.

The implementation roadmap further says that Phase One on 1 May 2026 applied the new tenancy regime to both new and existing private rented tenancies in England, but did not initially extend the same change to the social rented sector. Shelter’s tenant guidance says housing association tenants are expected to receive equivalent changes later, and it describes autumn 2027 as the expected timing, though the government’s own roadmap only commits to a later phase rather than a hard date.

The most important commencement dates and later milestones are:

The dates above are taken from the Act, its explanatory notes, the implementation roadmap, official commencement instruments and later government policy statements. Where fuller secondary legislation is still to come, I have said so expressly.

Major provisions

The table below summarises the most important “old versus new” changes for England’s private rented sector. It is drawn from the enacted Act, the official guide and landlord guidance, and Shelter’s post-commencement tenant summary.

Abolition of fixed terms and ASTs is the foundation of the new regime. Section 1 makes assured tenancies periodic, with a rent period not exceeding a month, and section 2 abolishes assured shorthold tenancies. Official landlord guidance says all former ASTs convert and new tenancies are periodic by default. Section 13 also prevents landlords or agents from purporting to grant fixed terms, to end tenancies orally, or to use sham possession notices.

For tenant exit, the new rules are more standardised. Section 20 replaces the old notice-to-quit timing so that an assured tenant generally gives at least two months’ notice, unless a shorter period up to two months has been agreed in writing. Section 21 also says terms dictating the means by which a tenant must give written notice are ineffective, and it preserves the rule that even a single joint tenant can validly end a joint assured tenancy. Shelter reflects this practically by telling tenants that they now usually need to give two months’ notice.

On landlord possession, the largest change is the end of section 21. The official guide says landlords can now recover possession only through section 8 grounds, and must prove those grounds in court if the tenant stays. The guide’s Table 1 gives the key reformed notice periods. Ground 1 (landlord or family occupation) and new Ground 1A (sale) are both mandatory, but cannot be used in the first 12 months of a tenancy and require 4 months’ notice. Ground 8 for rent arrears now requires at least 3 months’ arrears and carries 4 weeks’ notice. Anti-social behaviour grounds remain faster: severe ASB Ground 7A and discretionary Ground 14 allow proceedings to begin immediately.

To prevent abuse of the moving-in and sale grounds, landlords face a 12-month protected period at the start of a tenancy and then a restricted period after relying on Ground 1 or 1A. The official guide says landlords cannot market or re-let a property for 12 months after using those grounds, with a limited shared-ownership exception. The Act itself reinforces that by prohibiting re-letting, licensing or marketing within the restricted period after reliance on Ground 1 or 1A. These are important anti-evasion provisions, and in practice they also strengthen protection against retaliatory or bad-faith eviction.

The Act also creates and adjusts a large suite of specialist possession grounds, including grounds for student accommodation, supported accommodation, temporary accommodation used for homelessness duties, employment-linked housing, stepping-stone accommodation, redevelopment, decant accommodation, and compliance with enforcement action. The official guide’s possession table is the clearest practical summary of these. For ordinary private landlords, the most important specialist new ground is often the student HMO ground to recover property for the next academic cycle, but government landlord guidance says that ground is not available for all student property types, such as purpose-built student accommodation.

On rent, the Act standardises increases through the revised section 13 procedure. Section 6 amends section 13 so that landlords must give two months’ notice, and section 7 expands tribunal rights to challenge both the amount of rent early in a tenancy and later proposed increases. The official guide says rent can be increased only once per year and only to the market rate, and that rent review clauses or other routes are ineffective in the private rented sector. The guide is also explicit that the government does not support rent controls, and nothing in the Act prevents market-rent increases as such.

The tribunal changes matter. The Act prevents backdating and provides that, if the tribunal considers the normal effective date would cause undue hardship, it can defer the new rent by up to two months from determination. The official guide also says tenants who challenge a rent increase can ask the tribunal to set a lower market rent, but the tribunal cannot set a rent higher than the landlord proposed. Shelter’s guidance adds an important tenant-facing point: a landlord cannot evict a tenant merely for challenging a rent increase because section 21 has gone and a lawful section 8 ground is still needed.

The Act sharply restricts rent in advance. The explanatory notes say that before a tenancy agreement is signed, landlords may not invite, encourage or accept rent. After signature but before occupation begins, a landlord may require no more than one month’s rent, or 28 days’ rent where the rental period is shorter than a month. Once the tenancy has started, terms requiring rent in advance beyond the due dates are ineffective. Shelter’s tenant guidance simplifies this for renters as a new one-month limit on rent in advance.

The Act also creates a simple but useful right to repayment of rent paid for days after the end of the tenancy. If a tenant has paid rent covering a period beyond the tenancy’s end date, the overpaid part is repayable.

On pets, section 11 implies a right to request consent. The landlord must respond in writing within 28 days, unless the timetable is validly extended for further information, superior landlord consent, or agreement with the tenant. Consent must not be unreasonably refused, and the Act gives examples where refusal is reasonable, especially where a superior landlord agreement prevents pets. The pet request regime applies to assured tenancies other than social housing assured tenancies. Official guidance says tenants may escalate an unreasonable refusal to the Ombudsman once that service is live, or to court.

On discrimination, the Act prohibits conduct by landlords and agents that disadvantages prospective tenants because they have children or because they receive benefits. The explanatory notes say this is aimed at both explicit “No DSS” style conduct and indirect practices, such as imposing higher deposits or rent in advance on those groups. In England, breach can attract a financial penalty of up to £7,000. The anti-discrimination chapters also extend to Wales and Scotland, though enforcement mechanisms differ there.

On pre-tenancy marketing, the Act creates a new English rule requiring a landlord or agent to state the proposed rent and prohibiting them from asking for, encouraging or accepting bids above it. Breach of section 56 can attract a local authority penalty of up to £7,000. Official guidance confirms this is an England-only rule.

On written terms and information, section 12 inserts section 16D into the Housing Act 1988 and requires landlords to provide a written statement of specified terms and prescribed information, usually before the tenancy starts. The 2026 Regulations then specify what must be included and require, for existing written tenancies, service of the official Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026. Official landlord guidance says landlords with existing written tenancy records must serve the information sheet by 31 May 2026, while wholly verbal arrangements require written key terms by the same date.

On deposits, section 26 extends tenancy deposit rules from ASTs to assured tenancies generally. The new section 215 sanction means the court should not grant possession unless the deposit is protected and prescribed information requirements have been met, unless the deposit has been returned or court proceedings about it have already concluded or settled. There is an exception to that bar for ASB grounds 7A and 14. The official landlord overview expresses the same point in plainer terms. Schedule 6 also contains a transitional carve-out so that the section 26 amendments do not apply to certain existing non-AST assured tenancies.

On fees and charges, section 27 updates the Tenant Fees Act 2019 so it continues to work in the new assured-tenancy landscape. The key practical point is continuity rather than liberalisation: the tenant fees ban remains in place and the Act adds new restrictions around rent in advance and rental bidding. I have not identified any official source showing that the Act created a new tenancy-deposit cap distinct from the existing Tenant Fees Act framework; the deposit changes in the Act are about scheme coverage and sanctions, not a new cap. That specific point should therefore be treated as unchanged in the sources reviewed, rather than as a newly specified reform.

On repairs and safety, the Act does not merely rely on the old repairing covenant. It expands the legal architecture for dealing with hazards in privately rented homes. Section 60 amends the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 so the hazard-remedying provisions can apply to dwelling-houses in England more generally, rather than only social housing leases. Section 61 creates a similar regulatory framework for certain licensed accommodation. The explanatory notes say the Act also enables Awaab’s Law to be applied to the private rented sector, allowing legally enforceable timeframes to be set in regulations for making homes safe where serious hazards exist. However, the official roadmap and guide both say the detailed PRS Awaab framework is still to be consulted on, so the operative time limits are not yet specified in the sources reviewed.

The same is true, for now, of the future Decent Homes Standard in the PRS. Part 3 gives the Secretary of State power to set minimum standards by regulations, and the explanatory notes say the Act amends the Housing Act 2004 to support enforcement. But the precise standard is not yet in force. A later official policy statement says the new DHS will apply from 2035, and the roadmap says details and timing are still linked to consultation.

The Act also removes the old abandoned premises recovery route that had existed for ASTs under the Housing and Planning Act 2016. Practically, that means landlords cannot rely on that old shortcut in the post-AST regime.

Part 2 introduces two major future compliance infrastructures. First, the Landlord Ombudsman system: the explanatory notes say landlords of assured or regulated tenancies in England will be required to join, regardless of whether they use an agent, and the Ombudsman will be able to require an apology, explanation, remedial action or compensation. Second, the PRS Database: landlords will have to register themselves and their let properties, and regulations will later fix operational detail, what information is public, and renewal/fee rules. The roadmap says landlord registration to the database is planned from late 2026, with an annual fee to be confirmed later, and mandatory Ombudsman membership is expected in 2028, subject to readiness. Those fees and charging models are therefore not yet specified.

These future Part 2 duties will connect directly to possession rights. The explanatory notes say the court will be prevented from granting a possession order where the residential landlord has failed to keep the necessary active database entry, except in anti-social behaviour cases. That is a significant future compliance lever.

On enforcement and penalties, the Act materially strengthens local authority powers. Section 107 creates a duty on every local housing authority to enforce the relevant landlord legislation in its area. Sections 111 to 113 provide for a lead enforcement authority that can issue guidance, disclose information, advise the Secretary of State and in some cases take over or support enforcement. The roadmap says new investigatory powers, including the power to inspect, demand documents and access third-party data, came into effect from 27 December 2025.

The penalty architecture is extensive. For breaches of the new landlord duties in Housing Act 1988 sections 16D and 16E, local authorities can impose penalties up to £7,000, and more serious offence-based penalties up to £40,000. Anti-discrimination and rental bidding penalties run up to £7,000. Ombudsman- and database-related breaches can attract £7,000 for requirement breaches and £40,000 for offence-level conduct. Government’s April 2026 funding announcement also says rogue landlords will face fines of up to £40,000 and that local authorities were given £60 million in total support ahead of commencement.

Finally, the Act strengthens rent repayment orders. The explanatory notes and roadmap say RROs are extended to superior landlords, the maximum penalty is doubled, the application period is doubled, and repeat offenders can be required to pay the maximum amount. The Act also contains specific sections on RRO liability for landlords, superior landlords, and directors. The exact later operation should still be checked against the updated Housing and Planning Act 2016 text and tribunal practice, but the direction of travel is plain and significant.

Practical implications and likely impacts

For tenants, the Act’s strongest immediate benefit is security. The end of section 21 means a tenant should no longer face a no-fault eviction notice served simply because they complained, challenged an increase, or wanted repairs done. Shelter’s guidance also frames the reforms this way: most private tenants now have an assured tenancy, a landlord needs a legal ground to evict, and rent-increase challenges have more real bite because they are no longer shadowed by section 21. That said, tenants still need to respond promptly to notices, challenge rent increases before the proposed start date, and preserve evidence.

For landlords, the practical burden is substantial but manageable. Compliance is no longer mainly about having the “right AST template”; it is about using the correct processes, forms, timings and evidence. Landlords now need to think operationally: how they advertise rent, what they ask for before move-in, how they document pet decisions, whether they have correctly served the information sheet or written terms, whether their deposit compliance is possession-proof, and whether they could actually evidence any section 8 ground in court. Official landlord guidance repeatedly emphasises process discipline rather than contractual drafting alone.

For letting agents, the risk profile is especially acute at the pre-tenancy stage. Advertising and applicant-handling processes now sit directly inside the statutory regime. Asking-rent publication, no-bidding compliance, anti-discrimination rules, rent-in-advance restrictions and information duties all require staff training, workflow changes and record-keeping. Because the Act often regulates “relevant persons” and not just landlords personally, agents are directly in scope for important parts of the enforcement regime.

For local authorities, the Act is both an opportunity and a capacity challenge. The legal change is significant: section 107 creates a duty to enforce, the Act provides broader investigatory powers, and later phases will add oversight of the Ombudsman and PRS Database ecosystem. Government says councils received £60 million in total ahead of Phase One, including £41.12 million announced in April 2026. But the same implementation roadmap recognises that councils need training, communications support and system preparation to make the regime work. In short, the legislation is stronger, but outcomes will still depend heavily on local enforcement capability.

The likely legal-system impact is a shift away from the old documentary section 21 route toward more contested section 8 and tribunal work. Government’s own roadmap acknowledges the need to prepare courts and tribunals, and the April 2026 funding announcement refers to investment in the civil courts alongside the Act. That implies that, even if relatively few cases reach a hearing, the system will rely far more on evidence-based possession claims and timely tribunal challenge processes than under the old model.

The likely market impact is more mixed. The Act is not a rent-cap regime, and government has said so directly. At the same time, renters’ affordability remains tight. ONS says average private rents in England reached £1,438 in the 12 months to April 2026, up 3.5% year on year. The Act may reduce some exploitative practices and improve bargaining power, but it does not change the underlying market truth that rent levels will still largely reflect supply, demand and local affordability.

A further, more nuanced market effect is differentiation across sub-sectors. The Act preserves or creates specific student, supported-accommodation and homelessness-related routes, and the roadmap says compliant private PBSA will be exempted from the assured-tenancy system. That means some providers will operate outside the main rolling-tenancy model, while smaller landlords in ordinary student HMOs will need to use the new student possession framework very carefully. It is reasonable to expect some re-pricing, stock reallocation or business-model change in those sub-markets, although the size of that effect is not yet specified in official sources.

The Act also sits against a clear policy push on housing quality. Government statistics released just after commencement show why. The English Housing Survey says 14% of PRS tenancies ending in the previous 12 months had ended due to eviction, and over 626,000 private rented households had paid rent in advance in addition to the deposit in 2024–25. Separately, official housing-quality data say damp was more prevalent in the private rented sector than in owner-occupied housing. Those baseline conditions help explain why the Act combines tenure reform with later quality and enforcement measures.

Compliance checklists and step-by-step guidance

The checklist below is a practical synthesis of the official Act, roadmap, landlord guidance, written-information regulations and Shelter’s tenant guidance. Where a later fee, timetable or regulation is still outstanding, I have marked it as not yet specified.

For landlords, the most reliable compliance sequence is:

1. Identify the tenancy type and date. Work out whether the tenancy is an existing PRS tenancy that converted on 1 May 2026, a new tenancy created after that date, or a tenancy in an excluded/special category such as a lodger arrangement, long tenancy, social housing tenancy, PBSA exemption or specialist supported/student arrangement.
2. Fix the paperwork baseline. If the tenancy was already in writing, ensure the tenant received the Information Sheet by 31 May 2026. If it was wholly verbal, issue the required written terms and information. For new tenancies, use an up-to-date form of agreement or written record containing the prescribed content.
3. Change pre-tenancy practice. Train staff or agents not to demand rent before signature, not to solicit higher offers, and not to use discriminatory filters against households with children or on benefits. Ensure adverts clearly state an asking rent.
4. Audit deposit practice. Confirm every deposit is protected and the prescribed information has been served. Deposit errors may still cripple a possession claim even though section 21 has gone.
5. Use the pet process rather than “no pets” boilerplate. Respond in writing within the statutory time, ask only for genuinely relevant extra information, and record reasons for any refusal.
6. Use rent review only through section 13. If you want to increase rent, use the prescribed form and give at least two months’ notice. Remove internal reliance on contractual rent-review clauses for ordinary PRS assured tenancies.
7. Prepare evidence for possession before serving notice. Since section 21 has ended, possession is now primarily an evidential question. For sale, keep sale evidence; for occupation, keep proof of intended occupation; for arrears, keep rent schedules; for student grounds, prove the student/HMO conditions and any required initial notice.
8. Track future phases. Set diary reminders for forthcoming Database and Ombudsman requirements, because later non-compliance will affect both enforcement exposure and possession rights.

For tenants, the most useful sequence is:

1. Check what tenancy you now have. If you were a normal private tenant on an AST before 1 May 2026, you likely now have an assured periodic tenancy. If you are a lodger living with your landlord, your rights may be largely unchanged. If your landlord served a valid possession notice before 1 May 2026, transitional rules may still matter.
2. Collect the documents. Keep the tenancy agreement, information sheet, rent-increase forms, deposit paperwork, repair messages and any pet request correspondence.
3. Challenge rent properly and on time. If a landlord proposes a rent increase above market level, consider an application to the First-tier Tribunal before the proposed new rent starts.
4. Use the new writing-based rights. Put repair complaints, pet requests, deposit disputes and notice queries in writing, because the new system is heavily document-based.
5. Check the possession ground carefully. If you receive a section 8 notice, look at the ground, the notice period and any obvious factual errors. Some grounds are mandatory, some discretionary, and some cannot be used in the first 12 months.
6. Do not assume the Act freezes rent or bans all affordability checks. It improves process and challenge rights, but it does not cap market rents generally.
7. Use advice and later redress routes. For immediate help, existing advice routes remain important; when the Ombudsman is introduced, it should become a free route for unresolved landlord complaints.

Open questions and limitations

Several important operational details remain unspecified or not finally fixed in the official sources reviewed as at 28 May 2026. These include: the final annual database fee, the final Ombudsman charging model, the full Awaab’s Law timetable for the private rented sector, and the final detailed Decent Homes Standard regulations, even though the policy statement indicates a 2035 implementation point. Where the law depends on future regulations or guidance, I have said so expressly rather than guessing.