The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 is now fully in force in England, and the transition period is over. The core reforms took effect on 1 May 2026, and the last legacy Section 21 and Section 8 claims had to reach the court by 31 July 2026. Any notice that missed that deadline has lapsed. From here, every possession claim in the private rented sector runs through Section 8 grounds.
This guide sets out what the Act actually requires of you as a landlord now, in August 2026 — the tenancy structure, the possession grounds and their notice periods, how rent increases work, the money rules, the penalties for getting it wrong, and the phases still to come. It covers England only; Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own regimes.
Key takeaways
- Section 21 is gone. The last valid legacy notices had to be at court by 31 July 2026. Possession now means proving a Section 8 ground.
- Fixed terms no longer exist for assured tenancies. Every tenancy is periodic and open-ended; tenants can leave on two months’ notice.
- Rent rises once a year, by Section 13 notice on Form 4A, with two months’ notice. Rent review clauses are void.
- Grounds 1 and 1A (moving in or selling) need four months’ notice, can’t be used in the first 12 months, and lock you out of re-letting for 12 months afterwards.
- The rent arrears threshold rose to three months (13 weeks if rent is weekly or fortnightly) at both notice and hearing.
- Breaches carry civil penalties up to £7,000, rising to £40,000 for offences and repeat breaches — and rent repayment orders now reach 24 months’ rent.
- Still to come: the PRS Database (regional rollout from late 2026), the PRS Landlord Ombudsman (expected 2028), Awaab’s Law for private rentals, and EPC C by 2030.
Renters’ Rights Act: the implementation timeline
England — private rented sector
2025
Royal Assent
27 October 2025
2026
Main commencement
S21 abolished, all tenancies periodic
2026
Information Sheet deadline
Fine up to £7,000
2026
Legacy notices close
Old S21 & S8 claims time-barred
2026
PRS Database
Phased regional rollout begins
Landlord Ombudsman
Membership becomes mandatory
What the Renters’ Rights Act changed, at a glance
The Act rewrites the Housing Act 1988 rather than replacing it, so the familiar machinery — assured tenancies, Section 8, Section 13 — is still there. What changed is how it works. Here is the before-and-after in one place.
| Area | Before 1 May 2026 | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Tenancy type | Assured shorthold tenancy, usually a 6 or 12-month fixed term | Assured periodic tenancy, open-ended, no fixed terms |
| No-fault possession | Section 21, two months’ notice, no reason needed | Abolished — Section 8 grounds only |
| Tenant’s notice | Usually one month, or tied to the fixed term | Two months, any time |
| Rent increases | Rent review clause or Section 13, one month’s notice | Section 13 on Form 4A only, once a year, two months’ notice |
| Rent arrears ground | Two months’ arrears (Ground 8) | Three months’ arrears (13 weeks if weekly/fortnightly) |
| Pets | Landlord could refuse outright | Tenant can request; refusal must be reasonable |
| Advance rent | Six or twelve months up front was common | Maximum one month’s rent, after the agreement is signed |
| Benefits and children | “No DSS” adverts widespread | Discrimination against benefit claimants and families unlawful |
| Bidding | Offers above asking rent accepted | Unlawful — you must advertise a price and cannot exceed it |
Section 21 is gone: how possession works now
This is the change that matters most. Since 1 May 2026 you cannot serve a Section 21 notice at all, and the transitional window for notices served before that date shut on 31 July 2026. If you were relying on an old Section 21 and did not ask the court to issue a claim form in time, that notice is dead — you must start again under Section 8.
Every possession claim now requires a ground: a specific, evidenced reason set out in Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 as amended. Mandatory grounds oblige the court to grant possession if proved; discretionary grounds leave it to the judge. You must use the prescribed Form 3A notice and state the ground and the facts you rely on.
The grounds landlords use most, and their notice periods
| Ground | Use | Notice | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground 1 | You or a close family member want to move in | 4 months | Mandatory |
| Ground 1A | You want to sell the property | 4 months | Mandatory |
| Ground 4A | Possession of a student HMO for the next academic year | 4 months | Mandatory |
| Ground 8 | At least 3 months’ rent arrears (13 weeks if weekly or fortnightly) at notice and hearing | 4 weeks | Mandatory |
| Ground 10 / 11 | Some arrears, or persistent late payment | 4 weeks | Discretionary |
| Ground 12 | Breach of the tenancy agreement | 2 weeks | Discretionary |
| Ground 13 | Deterioration of the property | 2 weeks | Discretionary |
| Ground 14 | Antisocial behaviour or criminal activity | Proceedings can begin immediately | Discretionary |
The practical shift is one of planning horizon. Under Section 21 you could recover a property in about two months. Under Ground 1A you are looking at four months’ notice plus court time — and that is before you factor in the restrictions below. If you are dealing with a tenant who has stayed past a notice, our guide on what to do when a tenant won’t leave now Section 21 is gone walks through the court route step by step.
The 12-month protected period and the 12-month re-let ban
Two restrictions sit on top of Grounds 1 and 1A, and they catch people out:
- Protected period. Neither ground can take effect in the first 12 months of a tenancy — the notice cannot expire before the first anniversary. A new tenant effectively has a year’s security before you can ask them to leave so you can move in or sell.
- No re-letting for 12 months. Once you have used Ground 1 or 1A, you cannot market or re-let the property for 12 months from the date the notice said the tenant should leave. Re-letting or re-marketing without taking reasonable steps to avoid it is an offence, punishable by a civil penalty of up to £40,000 or prosecution.
The message is blunt: don’t use the sale ground as a substitute for Section 21. If the sale falls through, you are locked out of the rental market for a year. If you genuinely intend to sell with a tenant in place, read our guide to selling a property with a tenant before serving anything.
Deposit compliance is now a gateway to possession
Under the old regime, a deposit protection failure blocked a Section 21 but not a Section 8. That has changed. A court will now only make a possession order if your deposit position is clean: the deposit is protected in an approved scheme with the prescribed information served, or it has been returned in full (or with agreed deductions), or any deposit claim has been resolved. If your protection is sloppy, fix it before you serve notice — see our deposit protection schemes guide.
Fixed terms are gone: every tenancy is periodic
Assured shorthold tenancies no longer exist. On 1 May 2026 every existing AST converted automatically into an assured periodic tenancy — you did not need to sign anything, and any fixed term still running simply fell away. New lettings are periodic from day one.
What that means in practice:
- Tenants can leave on two months’ notice, at any point. There is no minimum term to hold them to. In practice it is often slightly longer, because the notice must expire at the end of a rent period.
- Rent periods can’t exceed one calendar month. Quarterly, six-monthly and annual rent cycles are out.
- Break clauses, fixed-term renewals and rent review clauses are meaningless. Any clause in your agreement that assumes a fixed term is unenforceable.
- A written statement of terms is compulsory. Every tenant must have one. If your tenancy was purely verbal, the deadline to provide it was 31 May 2026.
If you are still issuing documents headed “Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement”, replace them. Our updated guide to tenancy agreements explains what the replacement document needs to contain.
Student lets
Student landlords lost the ability to align a fixed term with the academic year, which is why Ground 4A exists. It lets you recover a student HMO in time for the next cohort, but it is narrow: it applies to properties let to full-time students, you must have told the tenants in writing before the tenancy began that you might use it, and it requires four months’ notice. Purpose-built student accommodation sits outside the assured tenancy regime altogether. We cover the detail in our guides on student landlords and fixed-term contracts and student versus professional HMOs.
Rent increases: Section 13 and Form 4A, once a year
There is now exactly one lawful way to raise the rent on an assured tenancy: a Section 13 notice on prescribed Form 4A. Rent review clauses have no effect, and you cannot ask a tenant to sign a side agreement to a higher figure that bypasses the process.
- Once every 12 months — no more frequent increases.
- At least two months’ notice, expiring at the end of a rent period (double the old one month).
- The proposed rent must be at or below open market rent for a comparable property.
If the tenant challenges it
The tenant can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) before the increase date. Since 13 July 2026 the application fee for these challenges has been £47, with the hearing fee waived entirely. It is deliberately low so that cost is not a barrier, so expect challenges to be more common than they were.
Two changes make this riskier for landlords than the old system:
- The tribunal can no longer set the rent higher than you proposed. It can confirm your figure or reduce it. There is no downside for the tenant in trying.
- The increase is not backdated. It takes effect from the date the tribunal determines, not the date in your notice, and the tribunal can defer it by up to a further two months where paying immediately would cause the tenant undue hardship.
The practical answer is evidence. Build a small comparables file — three or four current listings of similar properties in the same area, dated and screenshotted — before you serve. A defensible, modest increase served annually beats an ambitious one that gets knocked back and costs you months of uplift. Our step-by-step on how to complete a Section 13 notice and the wider guide to increasing rent during a tenancy cover the mechanics.
Money at the start of a tenancy: bidding, advance rent and deposits
The Act closed off several things that were routine before 2026.
- No rental bidding. You must advertise a stated rent, and you cannot ask for, encourage or accept an offer above it. Inviting sealed bids is unlawful.
- No rent before signing. You cannot request or accept any rent before both parties have signed the tenancy agreement.
- Advance rent capped at one month (or 28 days’ rent where the rental period is shorter) once the agreement is signed and before it starts. The old practice of asking for six or twelve months up front from students or overseas tenants is over — a guarantor is the legitimate alternative.
- Deposit caps are unchanged by the Act: five weeks’ rent where the annual rent is under £50,000, six weeks’ where it is £50,000 or more. Holding deposits remain capped at one week’s rent.
Prohibited payments under the Tenant Fees Act 2019 (as amended by the Renters’ Rights Act) carry a civil penalty of up to £5,000 for a first breach, rising to £30,000 or prosecution for a repeat within five years. Our Tenant Fees Act guide lists what you can and cannot charge.
Pets, benefits and families
Pets. Tenants now have a statutory right to request a pet, in writing and with details of the animal. You must consider the request and can only refuse on reasonable grounds — and you should respond within 28 days. Reasonable grounds include a superior landlord or head lease that prohibits pets, a property genuinely unsuitable for the animal’s size or needs, or another occupant with a serious allergy. Not reasonable: a blanket dislike of pets, a bad experience with a previous tenant’s dog, or a general worry about damage. Note that you cannot charge a pet deposit or require pet insurance as a condition — the deposit cap absorbs it.
Answer every request in writing, with your reason, and keep the correspondence. Our guide on when a landlord can refuse pets sets out defensible wording, and how to define pet rules for tenants covers what you can still put in the agreement.
Benefits and children. Blanket bans are unlawful. You cannot advertise “no DSS”, “professionals only” or “no children”, and you cannot apply an unwritten policy to the same effect. Affordability referencing is still allowed — you may assess whether a specific applicant can pay — but the test must be applied to everyone, not used as a proxy. Keep your criteria written down and consistent.
Penalties: what non-compliance actually costs
Local authorities can now issue civil penalties directly, without going to court. Two tiers apply.
Breaches — up to £7,000. These include telling a tenant their tenancy is fixed-term when it is not, purporting to end a tenancy verbally, failing to give the written statement of terms or the Information Sheet by 31 May 2026, serving an invalid notice to quit, and using a possession ground without a reasonable belief that a court would grant it.
Offences — up to £40,000, or prosecution. These bite where the conduct is deliberate or repeated: re-letting or re-marketing within 12 months of using Ground 1 or 1A without reasonable steps to avoid it; knowingly using a ground you are certain a court would reject, where the tenant then leaves within four months without a court order; committing a further breach within five years of a previous penalty or offence; or letting a breach run for more than 28 days after a penalty is issued.
Rent repayment orders — up to 24 months’ rent. The RRO cap doubled from 12 months on 1 May 2026, and the list of triggering offences expanded from seven to thirteen. Tenants and local authorities can both apply to the First-tier Tribunal, and the Act also makes superior landlords liable in rent-to-rent arrangements. For a portfolio landlord this is now the single largest financial exposure in the Act — larger than any civil penalty.
One nuance on the Information Sheet that trips people up: it must be handed over as a printed copy or a PDF attachment, downloaded from GOV.UK. Sending a tenant a link does not discharge the duty. If you served a valid Section 8 or Section 21 notice before 1 May 2026, you had one month from the point that notice became invalid or proceedings ended to provide the sheet.
Property standards and what is still to come
The tenancy reforms are done. The standards and oversight reforms are not, and they arrive in phases.
| Reform | Expected timing | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| PRS Database | Phased regional rollout from late 2026 | Registering yourself and each property, with an annual fee. Expect it to become a condition of using possession grounds. |
| PRS Landlord Ombudsman | Expected 2028 | Mandatory membership for all private landlords; binding decisions on tenant complaints. |
| Awaab’s Law (private sector) | To be confirmed after consultation | Fixed timescales for investigating and fixing serious hazards, including damp and mould. |
| Decent Homes Standard | Consulted on 2035 or 2037 | A minimum condition standard for private rentals for the first time. |
| EPC C (MEES) | 2030 target | Minimum EPC C for privately rented homes under the Warm Homes Plan. |
Two of these deserve attention now rather than later. Damp and mould is where Awaab’s Law will land hardest, and the existing fitness for human habitation duty already bites — start keeping a dated record of every report and every response, as our damp and mould evidence log explains. And EPC C by 2030 is a capital-spend problem: fabric upgrades take planning and money, so model the cost now. Our EPC C upgrade guide and MEES guide break down the options.
For the database and ombudsman specifically, we track announcements in our guide to when the PRS Database and Landlord Ombudsman arrive and our explainer on how the Landlord Ombudsman will work.
Your compliance checklist right now
Six things to check this month
Hard copy or PDF attachment, not a link. The deadline was 31 May 2026 — if you missed it, serve it now and reduce your exposure.
Including any tenancy that was only ever agreed verbally.
Remove fixed terms, break clauses and rent review clauses. They are unenforceable and asserting them is a breach.
Protected in time, prescribed information served, within the 5 or 6-week cap. It is now a gateway to any possession order.
Form 4A, two months’ notice, one increase per year, with comparables saved before you serve.
No “no DSS”, no “no children”, a stated rent with no bidding, and a written pet-request procedure.
Common mistakes landlords are making
- Telling a tenant they are “in a fixed term”. This is now a breach carrying a penalty of up to £7,000, even if it is said casually and even if the agreement says so.
- Using Ground 1A as a soft Section 21. If you don’t sell, the 12-month re-let ban still applies and re-letting is an offence.
- Serving Ground 8 on two months’ arrears. The threshold is three months, and it must still be met on the day of the hearing — tenants who pay down below the line before the hearing defeat the ground. Our guide to managing rent arrears covers what to do in the meantime.
- Emailing the Information Sheet as a link. It must be a hard copy or a PDF attachment.
- Relying on a rent review clause. It has no legal effect. Only Form 4A works.
- Refusing a pet by silence. Ignoring a written request is not a refusal on reasonable grounds. Answer in writing within 28 days.
- Taking six months’ rent up front. Capped at one month. Use a guarantor instead.
Conclusion: what to do next
The Renters’ Rights Act has not made letting impossible — it has made it slower and more procedural. The landlords who will find 2026 and 2027 comfortable are the ones who treat compliance as paperwork discipline: correct documents, dated records, written answers to requests, and possession decided months ahead rather than reactively.
If you do one thing after reading this, make it an audit: pull every tenancy file, confirm the Information Sheet and written statement went out, check the deposit protection, and replace any document that still says “assured shorthold”. That single afternoon removes most of your £7,000 exposure. Then look ahead to the PRS Database in late 2026 and start assembling the property records you will need to register — a proper inspection routine is the easiest way to build them.
Frequently asked questions
When did the Renters’ Rights Act come into force?
The Act received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. A first set of provisions commenced on 27 December 2025, and the main tenancy reforms — the abolition of Section 21, the end of fixed terms and the new rent increase rules — took effect in England on 1 May 2026 under the Commencement No. 2 Regulations.
Can I still use a Section 21 notice served before 1 May 2026?
No. Legacy Section 21 and Section 8 notices only remained usable if you asked the court to issue a claim form by 31 July 2026. That deadline has passed, so any notice not already before the court has lapsed. You must now serve a fresh Section 8 notice on a valid ground.
How much notice do I have to give to sell my rental property?
Ground 1A requires four months’ notice, and you cannot use it during the first 12 months of the tenancy. Once you have used it you cannot market or re-let the property for 12 months from the date given in the notice.
How often can I increase the rent?
Once every 12 months, using a Section 13 notice on Form 4A with at least two months’ notice. The proposed rent must not exceed open market rent, and the tenant can challenge it at the First-tier Tribunal for a £47 fee (no hearing fee since 13 July 2026). The tribunal can confirm or reduce your figure but cannot set it higher.
Do I have to allow pets?
You must consider a written request and can only refuse on reasonable grounds — for example a head lease that prohibits pets, an unsuitable property, or another occupant’s serious allergy. Respond in writing within 28 days. You cannot charge a pet deposit or insist on pet insurance.
How much rent can I ask for in advance?
One month’s rent (or 28 days’ where the rental period is shorter), and only after the tenancy agreement has been signed. You cannot ask for or accept any rent before signing. If affordability is the concern, use a guarantor.
When do I have to register on the PRS Database?
A phased regional rollout is expected to begin in late 2026, with registration becoming mandatory as each area goes live. The PRS Landlord Ombudsman, which all private landlords will have to join, is expected in 2028.
Does the Renters’ Rights Act apply in Wales and Scotland?
No. The tenancy reforms apply to England only. Wales operates under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 and Scotland under the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, both of which already abolished no-fault eviction in their own terms.
Written by the Landlords Portal editorial team, drawing on the text of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, the Commencement No. 2 Regulations and current MHCLG guidance. Primary sources: GOV.UK — Renters’ Rights Act: an overview for landlords, GOV.UK — enforcement measures for landlords, Renters’ Rights Act 2025 on legislation.gov.uk and the NRLA’s Renters’ Rights resources.
This article is general information for UK landlords and is not legal advice. Rules change and individual circumstances vary — take advice from a solicitor or your landlord association before acting on a possession, rent or compliance decision.