Renters’ Rights Act 2026: The Complete Landlord Checklist

The Renters’ Rights Act is the biggest shake-up of private renting in a generation, and since the main reforms took effect on 1 May 2026 every landlord in England is affected — whether you own one flat or a portfolio of fifty. Section 21 has gone, fixed terms have gone, and there are new rules on rent, pets and paperwork that carry real financial penalties if you get them wrong. The change is not cosmetic: it rewires how tenancies begin, how they continue, how rent rises and how they end.

This is the complete Renters’ Rights Act landlord checklist — everything you need to do now, in plain English, with a deep-dive guide behind each change. The aim is to turn a daunting piece of legislation into a sequence of practical, do-able tasks. Work through it once to bring every tenancy up to standard, then keep it to hand for every new let and every awkward situation that comes up.

It’s written for England, where the Act applies. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own, separate regimes, so if you let across borders treat each nation on its own terms.

Key takeaways

• Section 21 is gone. You can no longer evict without a reason — possession now needs a valid Section 8 ground that you can prove.
• Every tenancy is now periodic. Assured shorthold tenancies became open-ended assured periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026, and tenants can leave on two months’ notice.
• Rent rules tightened. One increase a year via a Section 13 notice, no rental bidding, and rent in advance capped at one month.
• Pets are harder to refuse. You must answer a written pet request within 28 days and can’t refuse unreasonably.
• Paperwork has teeth. Existing tenants should already have received the government information sheet (deadline 31 May 2026); miss key duties and penalties reach £7,000, or more for serious or repeat breaches.
• More is coming. A landlord database, an ombudsman, Awaab’s Law and the Decent Homes Standard will follow in later phases — plan ahead.

What the Renters’ Rights Act changed, and when

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, and the first and largest phase of reforms commenced on 1 May 2026 under the government’s implementation roadmap. Crucially, the reforms applied to existing tenancies as well as new ones, so there was no transition period to wait out and no grandfathering of old fixed terms. If you were mid-tenancy on 30 April 2026, your tenancy changed shape overnight.

The single biggest structural change is the abolition of the assured shorthold tenancy. In its place sits one open-ended assured periodic tenancy that simply rolls on, period to period, until either the tenant ends it or the landlord establishes a legal ground to recover possession. Fixed terms no longer bind a tenant, and the “no-fault” Section 21 notice that underpinned the old model is gone. Everything else in this checklist flows from that one shift.

The checklist below groups the changes the way you’ll actually meet them in practice — tenancies and possession, rent, pets, and paperwork — then covers enforcement and what’s still to come. Each area links to a full standalone guide so you can go deeper when a specific situation lands on your desk.

The Renters’ Rights Act landlord checklist

1. Tenancies and possession

This is where the Act bites hardest. With Section 21 abolished, every possession claim must now rest on a grounds-based Section 8 notice, and the grounds carry conditions, notice periods and evidence requirements that reward preparation and punish guesswork.

• Stop using Section 21. No-fault eviction is abolished. A possession claim built on a Section 21 notice will now fail — read our full guide to Section 21 ending and what replaces it.
• Update your tenancy agreements. Fixed terms are no longer valid; tenancies are open-ended and periodic. Retire old assured shorthold tenancy agreements and use a compliant periodic agreement for new lets.
• Learn the grounds you’re likely to need. If you may want to move in or sell, Grounds 1 and 1A require four months’ notice, can’t be used in the first 12 months of the tenancy, and bar re-letting for 12 months afterwards. For serious arrears, Ground 8 now needs at least three months’ (or 13 weeks’) arrears at both the notice and the hearing.
• Get your compliance prerequisites in order. Deposit protection, a current gas safety record, an EICR, working alarms and the right prescribed documents are not just good practice — gaps in them can defeat an otherwise valid possession claim.
• If you let to students or sharers, the picture differs again — see our guide to student vs professional HMOs and the student-only Ground 4A.

The practical takeaway: you no longer control the calendar the way you did. A tenant can stay indefinitely so long as they pay and behave, and can leave whenever they like on two months’ notice. Underwrite each let for the long term, reference thoroughly, and treat a stable, well-documented tenancy as the goal.

2. Rent: increases, advance and bidding

Three separate rules now govern money at the start of and during a tenancy, and all three are easy to fall foul of out of habit.

• Raise rent the right way. One increase per 12 months, by a Section 13 notice on Form 4A, with at least two months’ notice — and the tenant can challenge it at the First-tier Tribunal, which can’t set the rent higher than you proposed. See Section 13 rent increases explained.
• Don’t take large rent in advance. You can’t ask for any rent before the tenancy is signed, and no more than one month’s rent in advance after that — details in the rent in advance and bidding ban guide.
• Don’t run a bidding war. Advertise a fixed asking rent and don’t invite or accept offers above it. You can still choose between applicants on affordability and references.

Together these rules push landlords toward pricing realistically from the outset and managing risk through referencing and guarantors rather than upfront cash or competitive bidding.

3. Pets

The default “no pets” clause is effectively dead. Tenants now have a right to request a pet, and you have a duty not to refuse unreasonably.

• Answer pet requests within 28 days, in writing, and refuse only on reasonable, property-specific grounds. Miss the deadline and the request can be treated as granted. The full rules — and how to protect your property — are in pets in rental properties.
• Don’t demand pet insurance from the tenant — the requirement allowing that was dropped before the Act passed. Recover genuine pet damage from the standard deposit instead.
• Remember assistance animals are not “pets”. A disabled tenant’s assistance dog is protected under the Equality Act and a blanket refusal could be discrimination.

4. Paperwork and compliance

The Act layers a new duty on top of the prescribed-information regime landlords already know. The discipline that matters here is record-keeping: serve the right documents, at the right time, and keep proof.

• Serve the government information sheet. Existing tenants should have received it by 31 May 2026, and every new tenant must get it at the start — see the information sheet deadline guide.
• Keep the rest of your prescribed information current — deposit protection and prescribed information, a gas safety record (CP12), an EICR, the How to Rent guide and an EPC. These underpin both compliance and any future possession case.
• Maintain safety: gas, electrics, and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. These duties continue unchanged.
• Keep evidence of everything you serve. Dated emails, delivery receipts and a per-property file will save you if a dispute reaches the tribunal or court.

Penalties and enforcement: why this matters

The Act is enforced primarily through civil penalties issued by local councils, rather than relying on tenants to take court action. That changes the risk calculus: a breach can be acted on without a tenant lifting a finger. Lower-level or first breaches — such as failing to provide the information sheet — attract penalties of up to £7,000, while serious, repeated or continuing breaches can reach substantially higher figures. Separately, misusing the moving-in or selling grounds and then re-letting within the restricted period can attract a penalty of up to £40,000.

The cheapest compliance is the kind you build into a routine. A consistent new-tenancy checklist, a rent-review diary and a tidy document folder per property remove most of the risk for very little effort.

What’s still coming

Phase one is the part that affects you today, but more is scheduled. Treating these as “later” is a mistake — the ones that involve property works reward landlords who start early.

• The PRS Database — a national private-rented-sector database is due to begin rolling out from late 2026, region by region, with landlords expected to register.
• A landlord ombudsman — a redress scheme that landlords will have to join, giving tenants a route to resolve complaints without going to court. It follows in a later phase, with mandatory landlord membership expected around 2028.
• Awaab’s Law — legally binding timeframes to fix serious hazards such as damp and mould, extended from social housing to the private sector in a later phase.
• The Decent Homes Standard — minimum condition standards applied to private rentals, also in a later phase. Plan property upgrades, including damp and energy-efficiency work, now rather than under deadline pressure.

A worked example: bringing one tenancy up to standard

Say you have a two-bed flat let to a couple on an old assured shorthold tenancy that began in 2023. On 1 May 2026 that tenancy automatically became an assured periodic tenancy. To get fully compliant you would: serve the government information sheet and keep proof; confirm the deposit is still protected with the prescribed information served; check the gas safety record and EICR are in date; make sure smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are present and working; and file everything in one place. If you later want to raise the rent, you would serve a Section 13 notice on Form 4A with two months’ notice, no more than once a year. If the couple ask to keep a cat, you would respond in writing within 28 days. None of these steps is hard in isolation; the value is in doing them consistently across every property.

Your landlord compliance kit

Most of the Act is paperwork and process, but a few inexpensive items make the safety side of the checklist easier to keep on top of across a portfolio.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Serving a Section 21 notice. It’s no longer valid — a possession claim built on one will fail at the first hurdle.
• Issuing a new fixed-term AST. Use a compliant periodic agreement instead; a fixed term won’t bind the tenant.
• Increasing rent informally or more than once a year. Only a valid Section 13 notice works now.
• Ignoring a pet request. Miss the 28-day window and it can be treated as granted.
• Skipping the information sheet. It’s a hard duty with a fine attached, and it’s quick to do.
• Treating the move-in or sale grounds as a workaround. The 12-month bars and the re-let restriction mean they aren’t a back-door no-fault eviction.

Conclusion: get compliant, stay compliant

The Renters’ Rights Act rewards organised landlords and punishes ad-hoc ones. The good news is that none of it is beyond a careful individual landlord — it is mostly about doing ordinary things consistently and keeping evidence. Work through this checklist once to bring every tenancy up to standard, then lean on the linked guides whenever a specific situation comes up: a rent review, a pet request, a possession case, a missed deadline. Get the process right and the Act is entirely manageable; cut corners and the penalties are real and increasingly easy for councils to enforce.

Written by the Landlords Portal editorial team. This article is general information for UK landlords, not legal advice. The Renters’ Rights Act is being implemented in phases and guidance continues to be updated — confirm the current position on GOV.UK or with the NRLA before acting.

A note on Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

This checklist is for England. Housing law is devolved, so Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each run their own, separate systems — Wales under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act, Scotland under its private residential tenancy regime, and Northern Ireland under its own framework. If you let across borders, don’t assume the English rules transfer; check the position in each nation and treat each tenancy on its own terms. Where you’re unsure, a national landlord association or a local solicitor can confirm what applies.

Where to get help

You don’t have to navigate the Act alone. GOV.UK publishes the official guidance and the prescribed documents; the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) offers members detailed guides, template notices and an advice line; and a good letting agent or housing solicitor can handle the trickier situations. When a problem is high-stakes — a contested possession, a complex arrears case, an uncertain compliance gap — paying for advice early is almost always cheaper than fixing a mistake later. Use this checklist to stay on top of the routine, and bring in expertise for the exceptions.

Frequently asked questions

When did the Renters’ Rights Act start?

The Act received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, and the main tenancy reforms — including the end of Section 21 and the switch to periodic tenancies — commenced on 1 May 2026, applying to existing and new tenancies alike.

Do I need to re-issue my tenancy agreements?

Existing tenancies converted automatically to periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026, so you don’t have to re-sign them, but you should give tenants the government information sheet and use a compliant periodic agreement for new lets.

What’s the single biggest change for landlords?

The end of Section 21. Every possession now needs a valid reason under Section 8, which makes accurate paperwork, rent records and compliance far more important than before.

Can a tenant leave whenever they want?

Broadly yes. Under the periodic regime a tenant can end the tenancy at any time by giving two months’ notice, which makes thorough referencing and a good landlord-tenant relationship more valuable than ever.

How are the new rules enforced?

Mainly through civil penalties issued by local councils, so a breach can be acted on without a tenant going to court. Penalties start at up to £7,000 for lower-level breaches and rise for serious or repeat offences.

What happens if I don’t comply?

You risk a civil penalty — for example up to £7,000 for failing to serve the information sheet — and non-compliance can also sink a possession claim, leaving you unable to recover your property when you genuinely need to.

Is there anything I should be doing ahead of the next phases?

Yes. Plan condition and energy-efficiency upgrades now in anticipation of Awaab’s Law and the Decent Homes Standard, and keep an eye out for the PRS Database registration as it rolls out from late 2026.