Advice and Support: For Landlords

As a landlord, it is your responsibility to read the Renters Rights Act guidance in full. You must make the necessary changes to your letting practices to ensure you’re ready and compliant with the new law when it’s implemented on 1st May 2026.  The government has just launched it awareness campaign for landlords  and also produced a readiness checklist.

• Update tenancy agreements to periodic templates - If you already have a written record of the terms of the tenancy agreement,  then you won’t need to change or reissue it. Instead, you’ll need to provide the tenant with a government-produced information sheet explaining how the tenancy has changed. The government will publish this information sheet in March 2026.  If your existing tenancy doesn’t have any written record of the terms of the agreement – perhaps because it is based on a verbal agreement between you and your tenant – then you’ll need to provide certain information about the tenancy to your tenant in writing. You will need to do this instead of providing the information sheet. The government will publish further guidance on this in January 2026.  
• Familiarise yourself with revised Section 8 grounds for seeking possession of your property.
• Remove rent bidding practices and ensure compliance with rent increase rules.
• Get Ready for the PRS Database and Ombudsman - Gather certificates (Gas Safety, EPC, EICR), deposit compliance proofs, and property licences for registration.
• Responding to Council Investigations - Councils can request documents and inspect premises. Keep accurate records and respond promptly.
• Advertising and Applications - Ensure adverts and policies do not discriminate against families or benefit recipients.
• What will happen if a landlord does not comply with the Renters Rights Act 2025 - As a landlord, it’s important to familiarise yourself with the new requirements and take any necessary actions to make sure you comply. If you don’t comply with the law, local councils may impose a civil penalty on you of up to £40,000, start a criminal prosecution as well as other legal actions such as rent repayment orders (RRO's).

Updating of tenancies

On or from 1 May 2026 if you are letting a property as a private landlord, all tenancies (both existing and new) will become an assured periodic tenancy.

A tenancy will be an assured periodic tenancy if all of the following apply:

• you do not live in the property
• the property is your tenants’ main accommodation
• tenants have their own room, but might share a bathroom or kitchen with other tenants

A tenancy will not be an assured periodic tenancy if:

• you live in the property
• the tenancy has a fixed term of over 21 years
• the rent is more than £100,000 a year
• the rent is less than £250 a year (or less than £1,000 in London)
• it’s a business tenancy or tenancy of licensed premises
• the property is a holiday let

The end of assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs)

All assured shorthold tenancies will automatically become assured periodic tenancies on or after 1 May 2026 and all existing tenants with on an AST must be provided with the government Information Sheet - The Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 - GOV.UK.

If you are a landlord and have a letting agent who manages the property on your behalf, then the agent must provide the Information Sheet to the tenant, even if you have also provided it. You will need to do this before you sign a new assured periodic tenancy agreement (APT) or otherwise agree the tenancy.

You must give this Information Sheet if the tenancy:

• is an assured or assured shorthold tenancy
• was created before 1 May 2026
• has a wholly or partly written record of terms (including a written tenancy agreement)
• is a new Assured Periodic Tenancy (APT) granted after the 1 May 2026.

You must give this Information Sheet by 31 May 2026, or you could be fined up to £7,000.

You do not need to give it to lodgers.

A copy must be given to every tenant named on the tenancy agreement.

The Information Sheet is only valid when downloaded from the government webpage a copy can be found here The Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 - GOV.UK

You must provide this to the tenants by either:

• printing a hard copy, which is posted or given to the tenants by hand
• sending the PDF electronically as an attachment, for example, to an email or text message

You must not email or text a link to the PDF to the tenant, as this will not be valid.

If you have a tenancy based entirely on a verbal agreement, that was made before 1 May 2026, then you cannot give this Information Sheet. You must provide certain written information about key terms of the tenancy instead.

You can find more information about Tenancy agreements: written information for your tenant on GOV.UK.

Letting out your property

You will not be able to ask for, encourage or accept a payment of rent before you and your tenant have signed the tenancy agreement.

You will no longer be able to discriminate against potential tenants who are on benefits or who have children.

Your tenant or potential tenant will be able to ask to keep a pet in the property. You will only be able to refuse this if you have a valid reason.

If you want to advertise your property in the future, you will need to publish an asking price. This does not include ‘to let’ signs. It will be illegal for you to encourage people to bid and offer to pay higher rent for your property. You will also not be able to accept offers above the advertised rent.

Increasing rent

If you want to increase the rent, you will need to fill out form 4A and give it to your tenant with at least 2 months’ notice. This is also called the section 13 process. Form 4A will be published on GOV.UK for use on or after 1 May 2026.

You cannot increase rent more than once a year and only after 12 months has passed since the last rent increase. Tenants will be able to challenge a proposed rent increase that is above the market rent or a significant increase from previous rent levels.

Evicting tenants

If your tenant paid you a deposit, a court will only give a possession order to evict them, if one or more of the following things have happened:

• you have put the deposit into a government approved tenancy deposit scheme, complied with the scheme’s requirements and given your tenant the correct information
• you have returned the deposit to the tenant, in full or with any deductions that you have agreed with your tenant
• your tenant challenged you through the court on whether the deposit protection requirements have been met, and the case has been decided, settled or withdrawn.

Previously, you could evict tenants without a reason, this was known as a section 21 eviction. From the 1 May 2026 you will no longer be able evict tenants using the section 21 process and will need a legal reason to evict them. These reasons are called grounds for possession and can be found as s8 Grounds in the Housing Act 1988.

Existing valid s21 Notices that were served before the 1 May 2026 may still be able to be relied on but only if court possession proceedings/applications are started before the 31 July 2026.

If you serve a s21 notice after the 1 May 2026 you may be committing an offence and you could be fined between £7,000 and £40,000.

From the 1 May 2026 You will need to issue your tenants with a section 8 notice, using one or more of the grounds for possession. You will need to give the tenants the right notice period. In many cases this is 4 months, although for some grounds it is shorter.

If the tenant has not left by the end of the notice period, you must apply to court if you want to get your property back. This is called applying for a possession order.

If your tenant does something wrong, you will be able to give notice using the relevant grounds at any point in the tenancy. This includes where a tenant commits antisocial behaviour, is damaging the property or owes you rent.

If you need to sell or move into your property, you will not be able to evict tenants for this reason within the first 12 months of a tenancy.

If you are renting to students, you may be able to evict them using the new possession ground to relet the property to students in the new academic year. To do this, you will need to give notice at the start of the tenancy. The ground does not apply to all student properties, such as purpose built student accommodation. It covers full-time students on a joint contract in a house in multiple occupation (HMO).

What if the tenant owes rent

Landlords can try to end a tenancy if your tenant is late in paying rent. Landlords do not need to wait for the initial 12 month protected period to end a tenancy if rent if tenants are over 3 months late with rent. If they do not leave after you give notice, the court only needs to give a possession order to evict them if they owe you 3 months’ rent. If a tenant owes less than 3 months’ rent, the court may decide the tenant can stay.

What if the tenant is causing antisocial behaviour

If a landlord needs to evict tenants because of antisocial behaviour, the notice period you will have to give your tenant is going to be shorter. Landlords do not need to wait for the initial 12 month protected period to end a tenancy if the tenants are causing antisocial behaviour. You will be able to apply to court to start the eviction process immediately.

Advice and training

A number of national organisations are already providing advice, training and toolkits for landlords to support them to prepare for the Renters Rights Act.

The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) everything you need to know support package and compliance checklist can be found here.

Leaders Estate and Letting Agents has produced a guide for landlords that can be found here.

DASH Services has launched free eLearning courses to support the implementation of the Renters Rights Act. The courses can be accessed here.