Renters' Rights Act: an overview for landlords
The Renters’ Rights Act has changed how landlords let out private properties. These changes came into effect on 1 May 2026.
Applies to England
You must follow the correct processes when renting out your property.
This overview of the main changes is for landlords. Separate guidance is available for tenants.
Changes to tenancies
All existing assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) will change to assured periodic tenancies and new tenancies will be assured periodic tenancies.
Assured periodic tenancies will run on a rolling basis, for example, monthly. You cannot have an end date on your tenancy agreement.
If you have a written record of the agreement between you and your tenant, you do not need to change the tenancy agreement. Instead, you must give your tenants the Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet by the 31 May 2026.
If the tenancy is based entirely on a verbal agreement, you must give your tenant written information about the key terms of their tenancy agreement. You must give this to your tenant by the 31 May 2026.
Letting out your property
You cannot ask for, encourage or accept a payment of rent before you and your tenant have signed the tenancy agreement.
You cannot discriminate against potential tenants who are on benefits or who have children.
Your tenant or potential tenant can ask to keep a pet in the property. You can only refuse this if you have a valid reason.
If you want to advertise your property, you will need to publish an asking price. This does not include ‘to let’ signs. It is illegal for you to encourage people to bid and offer to pay higher rent for your property. You cannot 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 called the section 13 process.
You cannot increase rent more than once a year and tenants will be able to challenge a proposed rent increase that is above the open market rent.
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:
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you put the deposit into a government approved tenancy deposit scheme, complied with the scheme’s requirements and gave your tenant the correct information
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you returned the deposit to the tenant, in full or with any deductions that you agreed with your tenant
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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 ‘no fault’ eviction. You cannot evict tenants using the section 21 process and will need a legal reason to evict them. These reasons are called grounds for possession.
You must issue your tenants with a section 8 notice, using one or more of the grounds for possession. You must give your 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 can 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 cannot evict your 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 have given 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).
When a tenant owes you rent
You can try to end a tenancy if your tenant is late in paying 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.
Antisocial behaviour
If you need to evict tenants because of antisocial behaviour, the notice period you have to give your tenant is going to be shorter. You can apply to court to start the eviction process immediately.
When a landlord breaks the law
Your local council has new powers to investigate, collect and act on evidence if you break the law.
If your tenant believes you have committed certain offences, or if you have been convicted of certain offences, they can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a rent repayment order (RRO). If the Tribunal finds you have committed the offence, you may be ordered to pay the tenant an amount of rent that was originally paid. Local councils can also apply for an RRO against you for rent paid by Universal Credit.
The list of offences for which an RRO can be awarded has been expanded. The maximum amount a landlord can be ordered to pay has increased from 1 to 2 years’ rent.