The Renters' Rights Act 2026: What Landlords Must Do Before 1 May

The short version

The Renters' Rights Act comes into force on 1 May 2026. If you are a landlord or letting agent in England, you have just over two weeks to prepare for the biggest change to the private rented sector in a generation. Section 21 no-fault evictions will be gone. Fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies will be gone. In their place is a single periodic tenancy, a mandatory landlord database, a new ombudsman, and tighter standards for the condition of your properties.

This is not a gentle transition. From commencement day, the penalties for getting it wrong will run from £7,000 civil fines up to £40,000 for serious breaches, and local authorities have been given much sharper enforcement teeth. This guide walks through exactly what is changing, what you need to do before 1 May, and what it means for how you track compliance across your portfolio.

What is changing on 1 May

The Act replaces the old assured shorthold tenancy (AST) regime with a new-style assured tenancy that is periodic from day one. There is no fixed term. Tenants will be able to give two months' notice at any point. Landlords will only be able to end a tenancy by using one of the expanded Section 8 grounds for possession, each of which requires evidence.

The key changes in plain English:

• Section 21 will be abolished. You will not be able to serve a no-fault eviction notice on or after 1 May. Every possession claim will have to rely on a Section 8 ground — rent arrears, anti-social behaviour, sale of the property, moving in yourself, and so on — and you will have to prove it.
• All tenancies become periodic. Fixed-term tenancies will no longer exist for new lets from 1 May. Existing fixed-term ASTs will convert to the new-style tenancy on the commencement date.
• The Private Rented Sector Database goes live. Every landlord in England will have to register every property they let. You will not be able to market a property, serve a notice, or rely on most Section 8 grounds unless the property is on the database.
• Ombudsman membership becomes mandatory. Every landlord will have to join the new Private Rented Sector Ombudsman, and membership will be enforced through the database.
• The Decent Homes Standard will apply to private renting. The same standard that has applied to social housing for twenty years will extend to your properties.
• Awaab's Law will apply to the PRS. Serious hazards — damp, mould, fire risks, electrical dangers — will have to be investigated and fixed within statutory deadlines.
• Rent increases will be capped to once per year and must be served using a Section 13 notice. Mid-tenancy uplifts by agreement will no longer be valid.
• Rental bidding will be banned. You will have to advertise a property at a fixed rent and cannot accept offers above it.
• Blanket bans on tenants with children or on benefits will be unlawful, and refusing pet requests without good reason will also be unlawful.

Taken individually, each of these is manageable. Taken together, they fundamentally change what compliance looks like for a landlord or letting agent.

Your pre-commencement checklist

Here is what every landlord with a let property in England needs to have in place before 1 May 2026.

1. Get ready to register on the PRS Database

The database is the single biggest operational change. From 1 May, before you let a property, you will need to register:

• Your details as the landlord (individual or company)
• The property address and basic characteristics
• Your current gas safety certificate
• Your current EICR
• Your current EPC
• Evidence of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms
• Any licences the property holds (selective, additional, or HMO)

The database will be used by local authorities, tenants, and the courts to verify that you are a legitimate and compliant landlord. Letting a property that is not registered will be a civil offence with fines of up to £7,000, and repeat or serious breaches will carry penalties of up to £40,000 or criminal prosecution.

Crucially, you will not be able to rely on most Section 8 possession grounds if the property is not registered. If you try to evict a non-paying tenant after 1 May and the property is not on the database, the court will be able to refuse your claim.

What to do now: pull together the paperwork for every property — gas safety certificate, EICR, EPC, alarm evidence, licence details — so you can register in the first available window. Landlords waiting until the last minute will be competing for the same portal.

2. Arrange Ombudsman membership

Membership will be mandatory for every landlord who lets a property in England, whether you self-manage or use an agent. The Ombudsman will handle tenant complaints about service, conduct, and property condition, and will be able to order compensation of up to £25,000.

You will need to:

• Register as a member and pay the annual fee
• Display your membership details in tenancy agreements and marketing
• Respond to any complaint within the Ombudsman's timeframes
• Comply with any determinations made against you

Ignoring an Ombudsman decision will itself be a breach and can lead to removal from the database — which in turn means you cannot let the property.

What to do now: identify the scheme, check the fee, and diarise the renewal so membership never lapses.

3. Audit your properties against the Decent Homes Standard

Your properties will have to meet a four-part standard covering:

• Statutory minimum condition (no Category 1 hazards under HHSRS)
• Reasonable state of repair
• Reasonably modern facilities and services
• Reasonable degree of thermal comfort

Local authorities will inspect properties against the standard and will be able to serve improvement notices, prohibition orders, or civil penalties for breaches. Unlike the old regime, the Decent Homes Standard is measurable and inspectors will come armed with a checklist.

What to do now: walk every property before 1 May. Anything borderline — ageing kitchens, poor insulation, damp patches, dated bathrooms — is where inspectors will focus first.

4. Set up a hazard-response process for Awaab's Law

Awaab's Law will set statutory deadlines for responding to serious hazards in the home. In broad terms:

• Emergency hazards (risk to life or serious injury) must be made safe within 24 hours
• Significant hazards must be investigated within 14 days and repaired within a further fixed window
• You must issue a written report to the tenant at each stage

Damp and mould are the flagship cases, but the same rules apply to electrical faults, serious leaks, structural issues, and fire risks. From 1 May, missing a deadline will be a breach even if you eventually fix the problem.

This is where record-keeping becomes critical. If a tenant complains six months later and the Ombudsman or a court asks when you were notified, when you inspected, and when you repaired — you will need documentary proof for each step.

What to do now: write down a simple three-step process — how a tenant reports an issue, who inspects and when, and how the fix is recorded — and agree it with your contractors before commencement day.

5. Keep the existing compliance certificates current

None of the pre-existing regulations have been repealed. You still need:

• A valid gas safety certificate (CP12) renewed annually
• A valid EICR, with the next inspection on or before the fifth anniversary
• A valid EPC at a rating of E or better (with the tightening to C on the horizon)
• Smoke alarms on every storey and carbon monoxide alarms in every room with a fixed combustion appliance
• Legionella risk assessments where applicable
• Right to Rent checks for every adult occupier

The difference under the new regime is that these certificates will be visible on the database and actively checked. Letting a property without a valid CP12 has always carried a £6,000 fine on its own. After 1 May it will also be capable of triggering a database-related breach, an Ombudsman complaint, and a tenant rent repayment order — stacking penalties from one missed renewal.

6. Update how you handle rent increases

From 1 May, rent will only be increaseable:

• Once every 12 months
• Using a Section 13 notice, served in the prescribed form
• With at least two months' notice
• At a level that does not exceed the market rate for the local area

Tenants will be able to challenge an increase at the First-tier Tribunal, and the Tribunal will only be able to confirm or reduce the proposed rent — it will no longer be able to order an increase above what the landlord asked for. Informal rent increases agreed by email will not be valid.

What to do now: cancel any planned informal uplifts and reschedule them into the new Section 13 process.

7. Review your marketing and tenant selection

Several practices that were legal last year will be unlawful from 1 May:

• Rental bidding — you must advertise a fixed rent and cannot accept offers above it
• Blanket bans on families with children or tenants receiving benefits
• Unreasonable refusals of pet requests — you can require pet insurance but cannot refuse without good reason
• Guarantor demands that are disproportionate to the risk

Letting agents should review property listings, application forms, and tenant referencing criteria before commencement and remove any language or practice that would be discriminatory or unlawful under the Act.

8. Update your tenancy agreements

Every agreement you issue on or after 1 May needs to be a new-style periodic tenancy. That means removing:

• Any fixed-term clauses
• Any Section 21 notice provisions
• Any rent review clauses that conflict with the annual cap
• Any pet or occupier bans that would be unlawful

And adding:

• Ombudsman membership details
• Database registration reference
• Updated rent increase mechanism
• Updated grounds for possession under the new Section 8

Using an old template from 1 May onwards is the single fastest route to serving an invalid notice.

Enforcement: what to expect from councils

Local authorities have been given significantly expanded powers under the Act, coming into effect on 1 May:

• Civil penalties of up to £40,000 for serious breaches, without the need to go through the criminal courts
• Rent repayment orders covering up to 24 months of rent, issued directly to tenants
• Banning orders preventing a landlord from letting property for up to five years
• Database removal, which effectively shuts down your ability to let in England

Several councils have already publicly committed to early enforcement activity — focusing on unregistered properties, Ombudsman non-membership, and failures to respond to hazard reports within the Awaab's Law windows. Expect the first penalty notices within weeks of commencement, not months.

The pattern is clear: the enforcement burden is shifting from tenant-initiated court claims to proactive authority action, and from 1 May the evidence of compliance will have to be there when they ask.

What this means for tracking compliance

Under the old regime, compliance was mostly about holding a handful of certificates. Under the new regime, from 1 May, it will be about being able to prove, on demand, that:

• Every property is registered and the database record is current
• Every certificate is valid and has been uploaded to the database
• Every hazard report was acknowledged and fixed within Awaab's Law deadlines
• Every notice was served correctly, using the right form, in the right order
• Every rent increase followed the Section 13 process
• Every tenant received the right paperwork at the right point in the tenancy

That is a lot of moving parts across a portfolio. One missed gas safety renewal used to be a £6,000 problem. After 1 May it will be capable of cascading into a database breach, an Ombudsman finding, a rent repayment order, and a banning order — all from the same missed date.

This is the core reason a dedicated compliance system has gone from "nice to have" to operational necessity. Proplio tracks every certificate and every deadline across your portfolio, gives you a colour-coded dashboard of compliance status for every property, and sends automatic email reminders at 90, 60, 30, 14, and 7 days before anything expires. When a local authority or the Ombudsman asks you to prove compliance, the evidence is already organised.

The pitfalls to avoid from day one

Based on how the Act is written and how similar regimes have played out, the highest-risk mistakes in the first months will be:

1. 1Serving a Section 21 notice by mistake after 1 May, usually because someone is working from an old template
2. 2Letting a property before its database registration is complete — the listing is up but the record is still pending
3. 3Treating Ombudsman membership as annual admin and missing a complaint deadline
4. 4Not documenting hazard responses, so when a tenant complains there is no proof the 24-hour or 14-day window was met
5. 5Verbal rent increases that cannot be enforced because no Section 13 notice was served
6. 6Old pet or occupier bans in tenancy agreements that are now unlawful

Each of these is avoidable with a good process agreed before commencement and a reliable record of what was done and when.

Key takeaways

• 1 May 2026 is the commencement date. Every landlord in England needs to be ready.
• Section 21 will be abolished. Every possession claim from 1 May will need a Section 8 ground and evidence.
• All tenancies become periodic from commencement. Fixed-term ASTs will not exist for new lets.
• You will have to register every property on the PRS Database before letting it, and keep the record current.
• You will have to join the Private Rented Sector Ombudsman and comply with its determinations.
• The Decent Homes Standard and Awaab's Law will apply to private rentals, with statutory deadlines for hazard response.
• Rent increases will be capped to once a year and must be served via Section 13.
• Rental bidding, blanket bans, and unreasonable pet refusals will all be unlawful.
• Civil penalties will run up to £40,000 and rent repayment orders will cover up to 24 months.
• Compliance from 1 May is evidence-based — you will have to prove it on demand, not just hold the certificates.

*This article is for general guidance and applies to England. Regulations differ in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and individual provisions of the Act may have separate commencement dates or transitional rules. Always check the current position with a qualified adviser before serving a notice or taking enforcement action.*