Renters' Rights Act 2025: What Changed for Tenants

The main changes for tenants are:

• ✓Yes: From 1 May 2026 you can no longer be evicted using the 'no fault' section 21 process, even if your tenancy agreement says you can
• ✓Yes: Most existing assured shorthold tenancies automatically became assured periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026
• ✓Yes: Your landlord can only increase your rent once a year, and not in the first year of your tenancy
• ✓Yes: You can ask to keep a pet, and your landlord must consider your request and should give you a reason if they refuse
• ✓Yes: Your landlord cannot ask for, encourage or accept a payment of rent before you have signed the tenancy agreement
• ✓Yes: Your landlord cannot accept or encourage offers above the advertised rent
• ✓Yes: A landlord cannot refuse to rent a property to a tenant who is on benefits or has children

Different rules apply if you:

• ✗No: Rent from a housing association or local council
• ✗No: Live in student halls of residence
• ✗No: Are a lodger

The government worked closely with the Welsh and Scottish Governments to extend the rental discrimination provisions to Wales and Scotland.

From 1 May 2026 you can no longer be evicted using the 'no fault' section 21 process, even if your tenancy agreement says you can. If your landlord wants to end your assured periodic tenancy after 1 May 2026, they will need to give you a reason for evicting you when they ask you to leave. These reasons are called grounds for possession.

Your landlord must use the correct forms and give the correct amount of notice. This is usually 4 months but it can be shorter for some grounds. If the court process was started before 1 May 2026, in some cases it can be completed after that date.

See the section 21 guide for the history and transition details, and the Section 8 grounds guide for the grounds landlords use now.

Most existing assured shorthold tenancies automatically became assured periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026. If you agree a new tenancy agreement with a private landlord on or after 1 May, it will be an assured periodic tenancy. Assured periodic tenancies run on a rolling basis, for example weekly or monthly. It is no longer possible to have an assured tenancy agreement with an end date, and if your tenancy agreement has an end date in it, this will no longer apply. You did not need to do anything for this change to take effect.

If you already had a written tenancy agreement, you do not need a new one. Instead, your landlord or their letting agent must give you a government-produced Information Sheet telling you about the changes to your tenancy before 31 May 2026. If they do not do this, they could receive a fine.

If you want to end an assured periodic tenancy after 1 May 2026, you can end it by giving 2 months' notice in writing, for example by letter, email or text, on the day the rent is due or the day before. You will need to continue to pay rent during the notice period.

A tenancy cannot be an assured periodic tenancy if:

• ✗No: Your landlord lives in the same accommodation
• ✗No: Your landlord is a local council
• ✗No: The property is purpose-built student accommodation, the tenants are university students and the landlord has signed up to the National Code of practice
• ✗No: Your tenancy has a fixed term of over 21 years
• ✗No: The rent is more than £100,000 a year
• ✗No: The rent is less than £250 a year (less than £1,000 in London)
• ✗No: It is a business tenancy or tenancy of licensed premises
• ✗No: The property is a holiday let

If you have an assured periodic tenancy, your landlord can only increase your rent once a year. They cannot increase your rent in the first year of your tenancy. The landlord must give you at least 2 months' notice, by giving you a completed Form 4A: Landlord's notice proposing a new rent. This is known as the section 13 process. They can give notice in person, by post, or by email if your tenancy agreement allows it.

The First-tier Tribunal may be able to help you if you think the rent increase is higher than the open market rent, which is the rent your landlord would expect to receive if they were to relet the property on the open market. HMRC's Valuation Office will become responsible for decisions on challenges to rent increases in England. While the government develops these reforms, renters who want to challenge a rent increase must still apply to the First-tier Tribunal, and if they do they will not have to pay the higher rent until the Tribunal has made its final decision.

A landlord must include a specific price in any written advertisement or offer, and cannot accept or encourage offers above the advertised rent. If your local council agrees that rental bidding has happened, it can fine a landlord or letting agent up to £7,000. Once you have signed the tenancy agreement, you can be asked to pay a maximum of 1 month's rent in advance.

A landlord or letting agent can ask for a holding deposit of up to one week's rent. The tenancy deposit can be up to 5 weeks' rent if the rent for the year is less than £50,000, or up to 6 weeks' rent if it is £50,000 or more. They must keep your deposit safe in a government-approved tenancy deposit protection scheme.

Some of the reasons your landlord can legally use to evict you from 1 May 2026 are that they need to sell or move into the property, which they cannot use in the first 12 months of the tenancy; that the student ground for houses of multiple occupation applies if you do not move out at the end of the academic year; that you have not paid your rent on time; or that you, others living with you, or visitors commit antisocial behaviour in or near the property.

Under Ground 8, a landlord can evict you if you owe at least 3 months' rent if you pay monthly, or 13 weeks' rent if you pay weekly or fortnightly, on the day they give notice and on the day of the hearing. They must give 4 weeks' notice. Your landlord cannot ask you to leave within the first 12 months of a new tenancy because they intend to sell or because they or a close family member intend to move in. They can give notice during those 12 months, but it cannot expire before the 12 months have ended.

A landlord can end a tenancy using ground 4A at the end of the academic year if all the tenants were full time students when they signed the tenancy or expected to become students during it, the landlord intends to let to students when they next let the property, the tenancy was signed less than 6 months before the date you could move in, the property is a house in multiple occupation or part of one, you received written notice before signing that you may be evicted under ground 4A, and you were given 4 months' notice that ends between 1 June and 30 September.

Tenants can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a rent repayment order if they believe their landlord has committed certain offences. The list of offences has been expanded, and the maximum a landlord can be ordered to pay has increased from 1 to 2 years' rent. A landlord could be given a financial penalty of up to £7,000 for breaches such as claiming to let the property on a fixed-term tenancy instead of a rolling tenancy, claiming to end a tenancy verbally, or trying to end the tenancy using a notice to quit or a purported notice of possession. For certain offences the financial penalty can be up to £40,000 as an alternative to prosecution.

See the full Section 8 grounds guide for every ground and its notice period.

All landlords must sign up to the new 'Register your rental property' service as it rolls out across the country. It will be a legal requirement and risks a fine if not completed. It launches on 15 December 2026, starting in the West Midlands and moving on to other areas over 12 months. When an area is called forward to register, landlords with properties in the region will have a three-month period to sign up. All landlords actively letting property will need to have registered by 14 November 2027. In the future, prospective landlords will also need to register, and tenants will be able to see whether their landlord or prospective landlord has signed up.

The government will introduce a Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman Service, which all private landlords in England with assured or regulated tenancies will be required by law to join, including those who use a managing agent. Tenants will be able to use it for free to complain about a landlord's actions or behaviours, and it will have powers to compel landlords to issue an apology, provide information, take remedial action and pay compensation. The administrator of the service will be appointed as soon as possible after the Act's provisions are commenced, and landlords will be given notice of the date by which they must sign up.

The measures in the Act will allow new requirements to be set requiring private rented sector landlords to address hazards, such as damp and mould, within a specified time period. The Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025 apply to lessors of social homes in England, whenever the lease was granted.

See the Awaab's Law guide and the damp and mould guide for what applies now.

If you want to keep a pet, you need to ask your landlord in writing, including a description of your pet in your request. Your landlord cannot refuse without a fair reason. Once you have asked, your landlord has 28 days to respond in writing. You should give additional information about your pet if they ask for it, and if you do not respond they do not have to consider your request. After you give it, they have either the remainder of the original 28 days or an extra 7 days to give their final decision, whichever is later.

It may be reasonable for your landlord to refuse a request if:

• A person you live with has an allergy
• The property is too small for a large pet or several pets
• A freeholder owns the property and they do not allow pets
• The pet is illegal to own

It would usually be unreasonable for your landlord to refuse if they do not like pets, have had issues with tenants who had pets in the past, have general concerns about potential damage in the future, or know the tenant needs an assistance animal, such as a guide dog.

Once your landlord agrees to you having a pet, they cannot change their mind or change your tenancy agreement. If your pet causes damage, your landlord can keep money from your deposit to cover the repair costs, but they cannot claim for the same damage twice.