The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and the main provisions commenced on 1 May 2026. If you let a house in England, the tenancy you had on 30 April is not the tenancy you have now. Nothing you need to do is difficult, but a few things are no longer optional.
What actually changed
- Section 21 is abolished. You can no longer end a tenancy simply because a fixed term has finished. The last day a valid section 21 notice could be served was 30 April 2026.
- All tenancies are now assured periodic tenancies. Existing fixed terms converted automatically on 1 May. There is no such thing as a new twelve-month fixed AST.
- Possession runs through Section 8 grounds only. Selling the property, moving family in, serious rent arrears, antisocial behaviour and breach of tenancy are all grounds — but each has its own notice period and its own evidence requirement, and you have to be able to prove it.
- Tenants give two months’ notice to leave, at any point.
- Pets. A tenant can request a pet and you must consider it. You can refuse with a good reason; you cannot refuse by default.
- Rent increases come once a year, by the statutory notice, and are challengeable at tribunal if they exceed market rent.
- Bidding wars are out. You advertise a rent and you may not accept more than it.
What this means in practice for a small landlord
Honestly? For a decent landlord with a decent tenant, less than the headlines suggest. The tenancy rolls on as it always did, the rent is reviewed once a year as it usually was, and the tenant leaves when they want to leave.
Where it bites is getting a house back. Under the old rules you served a section 21, waited two months, and did not need a reason. Now you need a ground, a notice period matched to that ground, and evidence you can put in front of a judge. If you plan to sell in the next year, tell us now rather than in month eleven, because Ground 1A (selling) needs four months’ notice and cannot be used in the first twelve months of a tenancy.
The three things to check this week
- Your paperwork. Any agreement still describing a fixed term and a section 21 route is out of date. Ours were reissued to every managed landlord in April.
- Your compliance file. Gas safety, EICR, EPC, smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms, deposit protection and the How to Rent guide. Under the new regime a defect in this file is the thing that loses you a possession claim.
- Your rent. If you have not reviewed for three years, you cannot catch up in one jump any more. Once a year, in line with the market, evidenced.
The database and the ombudsman. The Act also creates a national landlord database and a compulsory landlord ombudsman scheme. Both are being rolled out in stages through 2026 and 2027. We register our managed landlords as each stage opens; if you are self-managing, watch for the commencement dates rather than waiting to be told.
Is it still worth letting?
For most of our landlords, yes. Rents in Stamford and Oakham are up about four per cent year on year, void periods across our managed portfolio averaged eleven days in the last twelve months, and demand for good two- and three-bedroom houses is comfortably ahead of supply. What has changed is that being a casual landlord is harder. The paperwork is now the job.
We manage 312 homes and the compliance side is included in the 12% + VAT. If you would rather not track commencement dates for the rest of the decade, that is what we are for.
