Overview and Rollout

Renters’ Rights Act 2025

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 is now law. It introduces the most significant changes to private renting in decades, aiming to make renting fairer and more secure for tenants while providing clarity for landlords. A guide to the Renters Rights Act can be found here.

The key changes are:

• Abolish section 21 evictions and move to a simpler tenancy structure where all assured tenancies are periodic – providing more security for tenants and empowering them to challenge poor practice and unfair rent increases without fear of eviction. 
• Ensure possession grounds are fair to both landlords and tenants, giving tenants more security, while ensuring landlords can recover their property when reasonable. The Act introduces new safeguards for tenants, giving them more time to find a home if landlords evict to move in or sell their property, and ensuring unscrupulous landlords cannot misuse grounds.
• Provide stronger protections against backdoor eviction by ensuring tenants are able to appeal excessive above-market rents which are purely designed to force them out. As now, landlords will still be able to increase rents to market price for their properties but only once a year following a formal notification procedure.
• Introduce a new Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman that will provide quick, fair, impartial and binding resolution for tenants’ complaints about their landlord. This will bring tenant-landlord complaint resolution in line with established redress practices for tenants in social housing and consumers of property agent services.
• Create a Private Rented Sector Database to help landlords understand their legal obligations and demonstrate compliance (giving good landlords confidence in their position), alongside providing better information to tenants to make informed decisions when entering into a tenancy agreement. It will also support local councils – helping them target enforcement activity where it is needed most. Landlords will need to be registered on the database in order to use certain possession grounds.
• Give tenants strengthened rights to request a pet in the property, which the landlord must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse.
• Apply the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector to give renters safer, better value homes and remove the blight of poor-quality homes in local communities.
• Apply ‘Awaab’s Law’ to the sector, setting clear legal expectations about the timeframes within which landlords in the private rented sector must take action to make homes safe where they contain serious hazards.
• Make it illegal for landlords and agents to discriminate against prospective tenants in receipt of benefits or with children – helping to ensure everyone is treated fairly when looking for a place to live.
• End the practice of rental bidding by prohibiting landlords and agents from asking for or accepting offers above the advertised rent. Landlords and agents will be required to publish an asking rent for their property and it will be illegal to accept offers made above this rate.
• Strengthen local authority enforcement by expanding civil penalties, rent repayment orders, introducing a package of investigatory powers and bringing in a new requirement for local authorities to report on enforcement activity.

The Act will be introduced in 3 phases.

Phase 1 – Tenancy Reform - From 1 May 2026 for private rented sector tenancies (PRS)

• Abolish section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions – landlords in the PRS will no longer be able to use section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 to evict their tenants. 
• Introduce Assured Periodic Tenancies in the PRS – the vast majority of new tenancies and existing tenancies in the PRS will become Assured Periodic Tenancies. This means tenants will be able to stay in their property for as long as they want, or until a landlord serves a valid section 8 notice (new grounds for possession will be introduced). Tenants will be able to end their tenancy by giving two months’ notice. Currently this only applies to private rented tenancies but changes to social housing tenancies in 2027.
• Reform possession grounds in the PRS so they are fair for both parties – landlords will only be able to evict tenants when they have a valid reason. Possession grounds will be extended to make it easier for landlords to evict tenants who commit anti-social behaviour, or who are in serious persistent rent arrears. 
• Limit rent increases to once a year in the PRS – landlords will have to follow the revised section 13 procedure and provide the tenant with a notice detailing the proposed rent increase at least two months before it is due to take effect. 
• Ban rental bidding and rent in advance – landlords and letting agents will not be able to ask for, encourage, or accept an offer that is higher than the advertised rent. Landlords and agents will also not be able to request more than one month’s rent in advance. 
• Make it illegal to discriminate against renters who have children or receive benefits – landlords and letting agents will not be able to do anything to make a tenant less likely to rent a property (or prevent them from renting it) because they have children or receive benefits. This includes withholding information about a property (including its availability), stopping someone from viewing it, or refusing to grant a tenancy.
• Require landlords in the PRS to consider tenant requests to rent with a pet – landlords will have an initial 28 days to consider their tenant’s request, and they will have to provide valid reasons if they refuse it. 
• Strengthen both local council enforcement and rent repayment orders - civil penalties will be expanded, and there will be a new requirement for local councils to report on enforcement activity. Rent repayment orders will be extended to superior landlords, the maximum penalty will be doubled (up to 24 months), and repeat offenders required to pay the maximum amount.

Phase 2 – From Late 2026 

This will introduce the PRS Database, and PRS Landlord Ombudsman:

• Stage 1: Regional rollout of the Database for Landlords and Local Councils. It is proposed to roll out the Database from late 2026. Signing up to the PRS Database will be mandatory for all PRS landlords and they will be required to pay an annual fee which will be confirmed closer to launch. Regulations will mandate landlord registration, payment of a fee and the provision of key information by landlords.
• Stage 2: National rollout of the Database and Introduction of the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman will provide a redress service for private rented sector tenants when things go wrong. It will also support landlords with tools, guidance and training on handling complaints from tenants early. The Ombudsman scheme will be mandatory for PRS landlords. Landlords will be required to fund the service through a fair and proportionate charging model.

Phase 3 – From 2035 

• Introduce a Decent Homes Standard (DHS) to the PRS for the first time. This will ensure that all PRS properties meet a minimum standard of housing quality and provide local councils with powers to take enforcement action if PRS properties fail to meet it. It is proposed that it is brought into force in either 2035 or 2037.
• The Government has consulted on plans to require all domestic privately rented properties in England and Wales to meet Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) of EPC C or equivalent by 2030 unless a valid exemption is in place. 
• It is proposed to extend Awaab’s Law to the PRS, setting clear legally enforceable timeframes within which PRS landlords must make homes safe where they contain serious hazards. This will empower tenants to challenge dangerous conditions in their homes. The government will consult on the details of this policy, including implementation timescales, in due course.

Further Information

Who can I contact for help?

You can contact the Private Sector Housing team or homelessness team at heretohelp@gloucester.gov.uk or 01452 396396.

National advice services are also available such as Shelter and Citizens Advice.