Renters' Rights Act: What Is in Force in 2026 and What Is Not

Your landlords keep asking the same question, and they keep asking it in the wrong words. Here is the version you can send them.

The one-line answer

The tenancy reform is live and the registration reform is not. Since 1 May 2026 the assured shorthold tenancy is abolished, Section 21 is gone, every private assured tenancy is periodic, and rent increases run through the Section 13 procedure. The landlord database and the landlord redress scheme are still not open, so none of your landlords has to register for either.

That is the whole of it, in three lines. Everything below is for the landlord who argues with them.

One naming point first, because it causes half the confusion in your inbox. The Act is the Renters' Rights Act 2025, which almost every landlord searches for as the Renters' Rights Act 2026, because 2026 is when it started to bite. Royal Assent was 27 October 2025. Every 2026 date you see is a commencement date, not the name of the Act.

Does this apply to every tenancy on your books?

No, and that is the most useful thing on this page if you run a mixed book. The 1 May 2026 wave applies to private assured tenancies only. The commencement regulations carve out assured tenancies let by social housing providers, so a housing association let did not convert on 1 May. Social housing is expected to follow in a second phase in 2027, though nothing has appointed that date.

Two carve-outs sit alongside it. Fixed terms of more than 21 years are outside the assured regime. Fixed terms of 7 to 21 years are outside too, but only where they were granted before the Act passed or inside a short transitional window, so a new ten-year term does not escape the regime. Most company lets and business tenancies were already outside it, so you can leave them where they are.

What is already in force?

You can say all of this in the present tense, and you should. It applies to private assured tenancies from 1 May 2026.

• Periodic tenancies are the default, and every assured tenancy is periodic from grant.
• Section 21 is abolished and the assured shorthold tenancy regime has ended.
• The reformed Section 8 grounds are the only possession route.
• Rent increases run through the statutory Section 13 procedure, and the tribunal route for challenging one is open.
• Advance rent is prohibited, before the tenancy and during it.
• Tenants have a right to request a pet, and the landlord has to answer in writing.
• Nobody can invite or accept a bid above the advertised rent.
• Discrimination protections for tenants with children or on benefits apply.
• A landlord who takes possession to sell or to move in cannot re-let for twelve months.
• Financial penalties and offences apply, and a Rent Repayment Order can now reach two years' rent.

Two earlier dates explain why you saw so little happen in the first year. The general provisions took effect at Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. A further tranche, including local authority investigatory powers, took effect on 27 December 2025.

One later date matters too. From 22 June 2026 a council can impose a civil penalty of up to £7,000 on a landlord you act for, for a category 1 hazard, and can put the proceeds towards enforcement involving superior landlords. That is hazard enforcement. The Decent Homes Standard is a different thing and it has not arrived, whichever headline said otherwise.

When does the Renters' Rights Act come into force?

In waves, which is why you get asked about it again and again. Here is where each wave sits today. The last four rows have no appointed date, so read them as the government's stated intention and nothing more. Until the regulations are made, none of them reaches a landlord on your books.

What	Status	Date
Royal Assent; whole Act in force for the purpose of making regulations	In force	27 October 2025
Preparatory provisions, enforcement designations, investigatory powers	In force	27 December 2025
Tenancy reform wave, private assured tenancies only	In force	1 May 2026
Written statement of terms and information sheet duty	In force	1 May 2026; existing tenancies by 31 May 2026
Category 1 hazard civil penalties up to £7,000	In force	22 June 2026
Social housing assured tenancies	Not in force; stated intention	Phase 2 expected 2027
Landlord database	Not in force; stated intention	Regional rollout expected from late 2026
Landlord redress scheme membership	Not in force; stated intention	Expected 2028
Decent Homes Standard for the private rented sector	Not in force; stated intention	Proposed 2035 or 2037

Why is part of the Act still not law?

Because Royal Assent and commencement are two different things, and that distinction settles most of the arguments you will have. Royal Assent puts the text on the statute book. Commencement switches a section on. An unswitched section sits there doing nothing to anybody.

There is one twist you should know, because it explains a headline your landlords will show you. The whole Act came into force for the purpose of making regulations at Royal Assent. So the power to write the database rules and the redress rules is live now, while the duties those rules will create are not. The government can write the rules, and until it does, nobody has to do anything. That is why you can say the database is in the Act and also say it is not in force, and be right both times.

What is not in force yet?

Everything in this block needs conditional grammar. Say any of it in the present tense and a landlord will quote you back to you.

The landlord database. The provisions are in the Act and the database duty is marked prospective. There is no commencement order. The power to set a registration fee is live, but no fee regulations have been made, so no fee figure exists in law. If you see one circulating, somebody invented it. When the database opens, your landlords will need an active entry before they can market or let. The roadmap expects a regional rollout from late 2026, and that is what the government expects, not what the law says. Our page on the landlord database and ombudsman registration requirements has the detail.

The landlord redress scheme. One provision took effect on 1 May 2026 and the rest is regulation-making only. No landlord redress scheme instrument exists at all, so there is nothing for your landlords to join and nothing for you to diary. The roadmap expects mandatory membership in 2028, and that is an expectation too. Our landlord redress scheme enrolment page carries the penalties, the scheme structure and what enrolment will involve.

The Decent Homes Standard. The preliminary provisions came into force in two tranches, on 27 December 2025 and 22 June 2026. The substantive standard for the private rented sector awaits a further commencement order, and the government has proposed 2035 or 2037. Treat that as a proposal.

What is the Renters' Rights Act information sheet?

It is a statutory duty, not a leaflet, and it is the one your landlords miss. Since 1 May 2026, a landlord granting a new tenancy has to give the tenant a written statement of terms and the information sheet. For tenancies that already existed on 1 May 2026, the landlord had until 31 May 2026 to give the tenant the information sheet.

Do not host your own copy. The sheet gets updated, so point your landlords at the current version on gov.uk and serve that. If you serve it for them, record the date you sent it and the version you used.

How do your landlords raise the rent now?

One route only, and you run it. A rent increase goes through the Section 13 procedure, once per twelve-month period, on two months' written notice. The prescribed notice is Form 4A, and Form 5A is the version for assured agricultural occupancies. Rent review clauses in the tenancy agreement are unenforceable for rent increases, so a landlord waving a contractual review date at you is quoting a clause that no longer works.

Two points settle most tenant pushback. The tribunal cannot set a rent above the amount the landlord proposed, so a challenge cannot backfire into a higher rent. And notices served before 1 May 2026 are protected by the transitional rules. The Section 13 and tribunal route page covers the challenge mechanics. For the forms, use gov.uk's live assured tenancy forms page rather than a saved copy: the possession notice is whatever version the Secretary of State has published at the time.

What happened to fixed terms?

They ended, and this is the order you need.

1. Every fixed term assured shorthold tenancy still running on 30 April 2026 became periodic on 1 May 2026.
2. Rent periods became monthly, with a maximum of one month, so six-monthly and annual rent periods are gone.
3. Tenants can end the tenancy on two months' written notice at any point.
4. The next rent increase goes through Section 13, and it resets the twelve-month clock.

For the conversion mechanics and the obligations that follow, send your landlords to our complete guide to periodic tenancy and to the periodic tenancy switch obligations page.

One flat, from fixed term to first rent rise

Take a two-bed flat in your managed portfolio, let on a fixed term that ran to August 2026, with a rent review clause every April.

On 1 May 2026 the fixed term ended early and the tenancy became periodic. The August date stopped meaning anything, and the April review clause stopped working. If a Section 21 notice had been served before 1 May, the transitional rules govern it. If not, that route closed, and possession needs a Section 8 ground.

To raise the rent, you serve Form 4A and give two months' notice. Once that increase takes effect, the next one cannot take effect for another twelve months. Nothing on that flat touches the database or the redress scheme, because neither is open.

What your landlords will ask you, and what to say

These are the four you will hear most.

"Can I still evict my tenant?" Yes, on a Section 8 ground. The ground has to be a real one and you have to be able to evidence it: arrears, a breach, or the landlord selling or moving back in. Take possession to sell or to move in and the property cannot be re-let for twelve months.

"Do I have to re-issue every tenancy agreement?" No. The conversion happened by force of law on 1 May 2026, so the tenancy carried on without a new agreement. What the landlord did owe the tenant was the information sheet, and any tenancy you have granted since then needs the written statement of terms with it.

"My agreement says I can review the rent in April." That clause is unenforceable for a rent increase. The route is Form 4A with two months' notice, once every twelve months.

"Someone offered me more than the asking rent." Nobody can invite or accept it. The advertised rent is the ceiling while the property is on the market.

What has not changed?

Half your inbox is about things the Act left alone. Here they are, so you can say so and move on.

• Deposit protection. The rules and the scheme adjudication route are the same as they were.
• Right to Rent checks. Unchanged.
• Gas, electrical, smoke and carbon monoxide safety. Same duties, same certificates, same timing.
• HMO and selective licensing. A separate regime under separate law. The Renters' Rights Act did not fold it in.
• Your own redress obligation. Agents have had to belong to an approved redress scheme since 1 October 2014, under a separate instrument that the Renters' Rights Act did not touch; the database and redress page sets it against the new landlord duty.
• The tenant's two months' notice. It is real, but it comes from an amendment to the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, not from the periodic mechanic. It would be there even if the tenancy had stayed on a fixed term.

What to do next

Three things, in this order.

1. Split your book into private assured tenancies and everything else, because only the first group converted on 1 May 2026.
2. Check that every existing tenant on that list has had the information sheet from you or from the landlord, and that new tenancies get the written statement of terms with it.
3. Move rent reviews onto a Section 13 diary: Form 4A, two months' notice, one increase per twelve months per tenancy.

Then leave the database and the redress scheme alone until regulations exist. The rest of the questions you will field this year are answered on our hub for letting agents. If a landlord asks what the reform does to their tax position, that is a different question, and it has its own page.

Where these dates come from: Renters' Rights Act 2025 (2025 c. 26) s.145; SI 2025/1354; SI 2026/421; SI 2026/324; SI 2026/354; SI 2026/638.