For letting agents: what your landlords will ask you this year
Since 1 May 2026 your landlords have been asking you questions that are not your job to answer, and getting one wrong costs you the relationship. Give them a straight answer at the desk, run the number in front of them, and forward a page that settles it. Nothing here is gated, nothing asks your landlord for their details, and none of it costs you anything.
In force
What changed on 1 May 2026, and who it applies to
The tenancy reforms in the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 came into force on 1 May 2026. They reach private assured tenancies. Social-housing assured tenancies were carved out of that wave, so a landlord letting through a housing association is asking you a different question.
Three changes cover most of what lands on your desk. Section 21 is gone, and possession now runs on the Section 8 grounds. Every assured tenancy is periodic. A rent rise goes through a Section 13 notice rather than whatever the tenancy agreement used to say.
It helps to know that the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 rewrote the Housing Act 1988 rather than replacing it. The tenancy you manage is still an assured tenancy, which is why so much of the paperwork looks familiar.
You do not need the commencement detail at the counter. You will want it the first time a landlord asks what became of Section 21, or why a Section 8 notice looks different now. The explainer carries it in full.
In scope
Private assured tenancies
In scope. This is the tenancy you manage for a private landlord, and everything on this page is about it.
Not this wave
Social housing assured tenancies
Carved out of this wave. A landlord letting through a housing association is asking you a different question.
The three changes that cover most of what lands on your desk
Section 21 no-fault possession
Gone. Possession runs on the Section 8 grounds
A fixed term, then a statutory periodic tenancy
Every assured tenancy is periodic from the start
A rent rise on whatever the tenancy agreement said
A rent rise goes through a Section 13 notice
The Act rewrote the Housing Act 1988 rather than replacing it. The tenancy you manage is still an assured tenancy, which is why so much of the paperwork looks familiar.
Not commenced
The two things that are still not running
Two of the things your landlords have read about are in the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 and are not running. One is the landlord database. The other is the landlord redress scheme.
Neither duty has been switched on, so neither puts anything on your landlord today. The database has no commencement date at all, and on the redress side the only part in force is a boundary provision about which ombudsman handles which complaint. The power to write the rules is live. The rules are not written.
When the database opens, your landlord will need an entry before a property can be marketed. When the redress regime starts, it will be a regime of approved schemes rather than one named ombudsman, which is a distinction worth holding on to.
No registration fee exists in law, so a figure quoted at you by a landlord has come from somewhere that made it up. Your own agency redress membership is a separate and much older duty, and the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 did not touch it.
The landlord database
No commencement date at all. It puts nothing on your landlord today. When it opens, they will need an entry before a property can be marketed.
The landlord redress scheme
The only part in force is a boundary provision about which ombudsman handles which complaint. The power to write the rules is live and the rules are not written. It will be a regime of approved schemes rather than one named ombudsman.
Your own agency redress membership
A separate and much older duty, and the Renters' Rights Act 2025 did not touch it. Do not let a landlord's database question turn into a question about yours.
No registration fee exists in law. A figure quoted at you by a landlord has come from somewhere that made it up.
Tenancy shape
The periodic switch, and the two questions it generates
Every private assured tenancy is periodic now, and two questions follow from that. The first is what notice the tenant has to give. The second is what happened to a fixed term that was still running on 30 April 2026.
Neither of them is the rent question. Putting the rent up runs on the Section 13 route instead, and that is a once-a-year decision rather than a consequence of the switch.
Both pages below were written for the landlord rather than for you, which is what makes them worth forwarding. You should not have to explain the conversion yourself twice a week.
Every private assured tenancy is periodic now
- What notice does the tenant have to give?
- What happened to a fixed term that was still running on 30 April 2026?
- How does the landlord put the rent up?Not a consequence of the switch. Rent runs on the Section 13 route, and it is a once-a-year decision.
The first two follow from the switch. The third does not, and answering it as though it did is the mistake this section exists to stop.
The band E floor
What your landlords believe about EPC, and what the law says
A landlord will tell you the property has to reach EPC C by 2030. That is government policy. It is not enacted, and no regulations have been laid to make it law.
The standard in force is EPC E. Once a landlord has spent £3,500 including VAT on getting there, they can register an exemption instead of spending more. Give the enacted position first and the policy second, and you have given your landlord a straighter answer than the article that sent them to you.
Enacted, and the answer to give first
EPC E
The standard in force. This is the one a landlord has to meet today.
Policy, not law
EPC C by 2030
What your landlord has read. It is government policy, it is not enacted, and no regulations have been laid to make it law.
£3,500
Including VAT. Once a landlord has spent that much getting to band E, they can register an exemption instead of spending more.
Note: Example figures displayed
Quarterly updates
Who files what under Making Tax Digital
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is the landlord’s obligation and not yours. You do not file for them and you are not part of the submission. What your statement does is feed their categories: the gross rent you collected, your commission, the management fee and anything else you deducted.
One trap is worth knowing, because it costs a landlord money rather than time. If they treat the net figure you paid them as their income, both their income and their costs come out understated. The test that decides whether they are in the regime at all runs on the gross figure.
Not yours
You do not file, and you are not in it
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is the landlord’s obligation. You are not part of the submission.
Yours
Your statement feeds their categories
Every line on it becomes a line in their quarterly update, so the shape of your statement decides how easy their filing is.
What your statement has to carry
- Gross rent you collectedThe test runs on this
- Less your commission
- Less the management fee
- Less anything else you deducted
- Net paid to the landlordNot their income
The trap costs money, not time. A landlord who treats the net figure you paid them as their income understates both their income and their costs, and the test that decides whether they are in the regime at all runs on the gross figure.
At check-out
Deposits and the landlord’s tax position
Deposits raise a tax question, and it is not the one landlords expect. It is not about holding the money. It is about the end of the tenancy, when a deduction is made and the landlord keeps part of what was paid.
That is the point where a landlord asks you what to tell their accountant, and the page below is the answer to send. Your agency’s own client-money obligations are a separate regime and are not covered here.
During the tenancy
Holding the deposit is not the question
This is the part landlords expect to be asking about, and it is not where the tax point is.
At check-out
A deduction is made and the landlord keeps part of what was paid
That is the moment, and it is the point where a landlord asks you what to tell their accountant.
Your agency’s own client-money obligations are a separate regime and are not covered here.
Free tools
Calculators you can run on a landlord's question
Run the number in front of them instead of doing the sum on the back of a viewing sheet. Every one of these is free, needs no sign-up, and can sit on your own website: the embed section below is one line of HTML.
The most-asked of the five is the stamp duty calculator, because the buy-to-let surcharge is the figure landlords most often get wrong on their next purchase.
What you get
Put the calculators on your own site
Every calculator on this page can sit on your website instead of ours, under your own branding and beside your own listings. It costs nothing and it takes a copy and a paste.
One line of HTML
Per calculator, copied from the gallery. It drops into your site the way a video embed does, and there is nothing to install.
Rates kept current by us
When a rate or a threshold moves, the tool on your site moves with it. You never have to think about it again.
No cost, one condition
The small “Powered by Property Tax Partners” line stays where it is. That is the whole agreement.
Open URLs
Forwarding these to your landlords
Every page linked from here is written to be sent. They answer the landlord’s question rather than describing the law at them, and they sit on open URLs, so you can paste one into a reply and move on.
Written to be sent
They answer the landlord's question rather than describing the law at them.
Open URLs
Nothing is gated. Paste one into a reply and move on.
No details asked of your landlord
No sign-up, no email wall, nothing that lands your landlord on a list.
There is always one question a page cannot settle. Send us that one and we will answer it, or tell you the landlord needs their own accountant.
Send us the one you cannot answerFor agents
Have a landlord question you cannot answer at the desk?
Send it to us. We answer property tax questions for letting and estate agents, and we will tell you if the landlord needs their own accountant rather than us.
- Property tax onlySection 24, CGT and MTD every day
- Fixed fees, quoted upfrontIn writing, before any work starts
- 24-hour responseUsually the same working day
No obligation and no hard sell. If the answer is simple, we will just tell you.