Renters' Rights Act 2025: what it means for tenants in England

The short answer

If you rent privately in England, the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changed your tenancy on 1 May 2026. Your landlord can no longer evict you with a "no fault" section 21 notice. Your tenancy now rolls on with no end date, and your landlord needs a legal reason and a court order to make you leave. Rent can go up only once a year, on Form 4A, and you can challenge it at the First-tier Tribunal. You can leave by giving 2 months' notice (GOV.UK tenant overview; commencement by SI 2026/421 reg 2).

Some parts of the Act were not in force when we checked on 30 October 2026: the landlord database, the landlord ombudsman, the Decent Homes Standard and Awaab's Law for private renting. They are covered below, with what has and has not happened.

This guide is for England. The Act extends to England and Wales, with one chapter for Scotland (s.144), but its tenancy changes are for England. Wales has its own system under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 (GOV.WALES), Scotland has private residential tenancies (mygov.scot), and Northern Ireland is not covered by the Act (nidirect). The ban on discriminating against renters with children or on benefits does apply in Wales (from 1 June 2026, WSI 2026/6) and Scotland (from 1 May 2026, SSI 2026/125).

Different rules apply if you rent from a council or housing association, live in student halls, or are a lodger (GOV.UK). If you are a landlord, see our Renters' Rights Act guide for landlords.

Your tenancy now: rolling, with no end date

On 1 May 2026 most assured shorthold tenancies automatically became assured periodic tenancies, whether or not the fixed term had ended. Any end date in your agreement no longer applies, and you did not need to do anything. A new private tenancy agreed on or after 1 May 2026 is periodic from the start, and each rent period can be no longer than a month (GOV.UK tenant guide; Housing Act 1988 s.4A).

If you already had a written agreement, your landlord had to give you the government's Information Sheet about the changes by 31 May 2026. If your agreement was only spoken, your landlord must give you the key terms in writing (GOV.UK).

Eviction: the end of section 21 and the grounds your landlord must use

From 1 May 2026 you cannot be evicted under section 21, even if your agreement says you can. A section 21 or section 8 notice served on or before 30 April 2026 could only be used if the landlord asked the court to issue a claim by 31 July 2026; cases started by then can continue (GOV.UK).

Now your landlord must serve a section 8 notice stating one or more grounds for possession. If you do not leave when the notice ends, they must apply to court. Your landlord cannot end the tenancy any other way: it ends only when a court possession order is carried out (Housing Act 1988 s.5(1), (1A)). On a mandatory ground the court must order possession if the ground is proved; on a discretionary ground it decides whether eviction is reasonable. If you paid a deposit, the court can usually make a possession order only if it is protected in an approved scheme and the scheme's requirements were met. That bar does not apply to Grounds 7A and 14 (serious antisocial or criminal behaviour), or where the deposit has been returned or a court claim about it has been settled or decided (Housing Act 2004 s.215(4)-(5); MHCLG grounds guidance).

Sources: Housing Act 1988 s.8(4AA) (notice periods), Schedule 2 (grounds) and the MHCLG grounds guidance. This is not every ground; the guidance lists them all.

• Moving in or selling. Your landlord can serve notice during the first 12 months, but it cannot end before those 12 months are up (MHCLG). After relying on Ground 1 or 1A, the landlord must not re-let or market the home for letting from the date of the notice until 12 months after the earliest date the notice gave for starting court proceedings (s.16E, s.16M). If they do, you may be able to claim a rent repayment order, even after moving out.
• Rent arrears and Universal Credit. For Ground 8, any rent unpaid only because you had not yet received a Universal Credit payment for housing is ignored when working out the arrears (Schedule 2, Ground 8). The arrears must be at the Ground 8 level both when the notice is served and at the hearing, so paying them below that level before the hearing takes Ground 8 off the table (MHCLG).
• Students in shared houses. Ground 4A is for student lets, usually in an HMO. For a tenancy agreed on or after 1 May 2026, you must have been given a written statement before the tenancy that the landlord might use it (Schedule 2, Ground 4A). For a tenancy that already existed on 1 May 2026, the statement had to be given by 31 May 2026 (RRA 2025 Schedule 6 para 13).

If you get a notice, get advice early: Shelter and Citizens Advice can check whether it is valid. Your local council can investigate a landlord who breaks the rules (GOV.UK).

Rent increases: once a year, and you can challenge them

Your landlord can raise the rent only by serving Form 4A (the section 13 process), with at least 2 months' notice. The new rent cannot start until 52 weeks after the tenancy began, or until 52 weeks after the last increase took effect (53 weeks in some cases) (Housing Act 1988 s.13). An increase made any other way, including through a rent review clause, has no effect (s.13(4A)). If your last increase was before 1 May 2026, by Form 4 or a rent review clause, the next one still cannot take effect until a year after it (GOV.UK tenant guide).

If you think the proposed rent is more than the open market rent, apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) before the date the new rent is due to start. The tribunal can also decide whether the notice was valid. GOV.UK puts the application fee at £47. There is no fee if the notice is dated before 1 May 2026 or you live in a social rented property, and help is available if you are on certain benefits or a low income (GOV.UK: apply for an open market rent determination).

• It cannot go higher than your landlord asked. After the tribunal decides, you pay the market rent it set if that is lower than the proposed rent, and the proposed rent otherwise (s.14ZB(5)).
• You do not pay the higher rent until the tribunal decides. The new rent starts on the date in the notice if the decision comes first, or otherwise at the first rent period after the decision. If paying from that date would cause you undue hardship, the tribunal can set a later start date, up to two months after its decision (s.14ZB(3)-(4)).
• Challenging a new tenancy's starting rent. In the first six months of a tenancy you can ask the tribunal to decide whether the rent is above market rent. It can lower the rent, but it cannot increase it (s.14(A1)-(A2), s.14ZA).

Announced, not yet law: in September 2026 the government said HMRC's Valuation Office will in future make the first decision on rent increase challenges in England. Until then, challenges still go to the First-tier Tribunal (MHCLG, 9 September 2026).

Finding a home: advertised rent, bidding, rent in advance and deposits

• No rental bidding. A written advert or offer must state a fixed rent, and the landlord or agent must not invite, encourage or accept offers above it (RRA 2025 s.56). A "to let" board outside the property does not have to show the rent. You can report a breach to your council, which can fine the landlord or agent up to £7,000 (s.57), even if you made the higher offer yourself after being encouraged to (GOV.UK).
• No rent before you sign. A landlord or agent must not ask for, encourage or accept rent before the tenancy agreement is signed (s.9, inserting Tenant Fees Act 2019 s.5A).
• Limited rent between signing and moving in. For tenancies agreed on or after 1 May 2026, only the first rent period's rent can be asked for before the tenancy starts (plus any period ending within its first 28 days), and later rent cannot be made due before the period it covers (Housing Act 1988 s.4B). GOV.UK puts it as usually one month's rent if you pay monthly, or 28 days' rent if you pay weekly (GOV.UK). You can still choose to pay early once the tenancy has started.
• Deposits are unchanged. A holding deposit of up to one week's rent; a tenancy deposit of up to 5 weeks' rent if the annual rent is under £50,000, or 6 weeks' if it is £50,000 or more, which must be protected in a government-approved scheme (GOV.UK).

Children and benefits: no blanket bans

A landlord or letting agent must not stop you enquiring about a property, getting information about it, viewing it or renting it because you have children (living with you or visiting) or because you claim benefits. They also must not apply a rule or practice designed to make people in those groups less likely to rent it (RRA 2025 s.33, s.34).

There are limits. A landlord can still check whether you can afford the rent (s.41). The children rule does not apply where the landlord shows the conduct is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, and both rules have an exception for certain insurance terms. Councils can fine a landlord or agent up to £7,000 for a breach (s.40). The Equality Act 2010 still protects you as well.

Asking to keep a pet

Every private assured tenancy now includes a term that your landlord must not unreasonably refuse a request to keep a pet (Housing Act 1988 s.16A). Ask in writing and describe the pet (s.16B). Your landlord must reply in writing within 28 days. If they ask for more information in that time, they can wait until 7 days after you provide it; if they need a superior landlord's consent, they can wait until 7 days after getting an answer; and you can agree a later date between you (s.16A(2)-(4)). If you do not provide information they reasonably ask for, they do not have to decide.

Refusal can be reasonable where a superior lease bans pets. GOV.UK also lists an allergy of someone you live with, a home too small for the animal, or an illegal animal. Disliking pets, past problems with other tenants' pets, or general worries about damage are usually not reasonable. Once agreed, your landlord cannot change their mind. Pet damage can come out of your deposit (GOV.UK tenant guide). If a landlord breaches the duty, a court can order them to comply (s.16B(5)).

Ending your tenancy: 2 months' notice

You can end an assured tenancy by giving at least 2 months' notice, or a shorter period your landlord agrees in writing (Protection from Eviction Act 1977 s.5(1ZA), inserted by RRA 2025 s.20). GOV.UK says to give it in writing (letter, email or text) so the tenancy ends on a day your rent is due or the day before. You keep paying rent during the notice period (GOV.UK).

• Your landlord cannot dictate how you give written notice. If you change your mind, you can withdraw the notice only if your landlord agrees in writing (s.21, inserting PEA 1977 s.5A).
• In a joint tenancy, one tenant's notice usually ends it for everyone. A shorter notice period needs all the tenants to agree it with the landlord (GOV.UK; s.20).
• If your tenancy started before 1 May 2026, the notice period in your agreement may still apply and can be shorter than 2 months; your landlord cannot ask for more than 2 months (GOV.UK).

Repairs and safety standards

In force: since 22 June 2026 your council can fine a landlord up to £7,000 when a home has a category 1 hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System that it would have been reasonably practicable to remove (Housing Act 2004 s.6A, commenced by SI 2026/638). Report serious hazards such as severe damp and mould to your council.

Still to come: Awaab's Law, which sets legal deadlines for fixing serious hazards, applies to social housing. The Act's provision extending it to private renting (s.60) had not been commenced when we checked on 30 October 2026. The government's consultation on how and when to extend Awaab's Law to private tenancies runs from 9 October to 18 December 2026. When we checked on 30 October 2026, no start date had been set (consultation, press release). A new Decent Homes Standard is also coming: in January 2026 the government confirmed it will apply from 2035 in both social and private renting (government response).

Rent repayment orders: getting rent back

If your landlord commits certain offences, you can ask the First-tier Tribunal to order them to repay rent, using Form RRO1. For offences committed on or after 1 May 2026 you can apply up to 2 years after the offence, and the order can cover up to 2 years' rent (Housing and Planning Act 2016 s.41, s.44, as amended by RRA 2025 s.98). For offences before 1 May 2026 the old limits of one year apply (SI 2026/421 reg 11; GOV.UK).

The offences include illegal eviction or harassment, running an unlicensed HMO or other licensable property, failing to comply with an improvement notice or prohibition order, breaching a banning order, and the new offences of misusing a possession ground, re-letting or marketing after using the moving-in or selling ground, and continuing breaches of the tenancy rules (s.40(3)). Universal Credit paid towards your rent is deducted from what you can get back (s.44(3)), and GOV.UK says you cannot apply for rent paid by Housing Benefit either (GOV.UK). You must prove the offence beyond reasonable doubt, but the landlord does not need to have been convicted.

Still to come (as at 30 October 2026)

Landlord register (the Private Rented Sector Database)

GOV.UK guidance published on 29 October 2026 sets out registration on the new Register your rental property service region by region, starting from 15 December 2026. Each region has a 3-month window, from the West Midlands (15 December 2026 to 14 March 2027) to the South West (15 August to 14 November 2027). The registration fee is paid by landlords. In future the government says tenants will be able to check whether a landlord is registered (GOV.UK guidance; MHCLG). The Act's database provisions (s.75 onwards) had not been brought into force by commencement regulations when we checked on 30 October 2026. The same guidance says rent repayment orders for landlords who give false information to the register, or keep breaching its rules, become available in each area once its registration period opens.

Landlord Ombudsman

The government's November 2025 roadmap expects to make membership of the PRS Landlord Ombudsman compulsory for landlords in 2028, with notice given in advance. It will let tenants take complaints about a landlord to an independent ombudsman without going to court (roadmap). Regulations for approving redress schemes took effect on 17 September 2026 (SI 2026/1033), but when we checked on 30 October 2026 no landlord was yet required to join one. Complaints about letting agents already go to the agent's redress scheme (GOV.UK).

Stamp Duty on rent: Budget 2026 announcement

Budget 2026 (28 October 2026) announced that Stamp Duty Land Tax will be removed on rent paid under assured tenancies in England, effective from 1 May 2026, through the Finance Bill 2026-27 (Budget 2026). This is announced, not yet law: until that Bill is passed, the existing SDLT rules for leases still apply.

When each part came into force

Every commencement instrument listed on legislation.gov.uk on 30 October 2026. The 1 May 2026 changes apply to private tenancies; the government's grounds guidance says they reach housing association tenancies from 2027 (MHCLG).

Related guides and calculators

• Renters' Rights Act 2025: landlord guide - the same changes from the landlord's side.
• Universal Credit calculator - estimate UC, including the housing element for renters.
• Council Tax Reduction guide - help with council tax if you are on a low income.
• Benefit cap guide - how the cap can reduce the housing help you get.