Landlords have been waiting anxiously for clarity on when the Renters Rights Act is due to come into force.
As you may have already seen, the government has now published its roadmap with implementation dates.
Here they are:
27 December 2025
The first stage we already knew – the new Local Authority investigatory powers will come into effect on 27 December. This will give them greater powers to
- Enter and inspect properties (sometimes without a warrant)
- Demand documents and other information
- Access third party data
This will make proactive inspections and enforcement action against landlords and agents far more common. Particularly as Local Authorities will be under a legal duty to enforce the landlord legislation in their area.
1 May 2026
This is when the main part of the act will come into force. Headline changes are:
- The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions (although section 21 notices can be served before the deadline and used up to 3 months after the deadline)
- The conversion of all ASTs and fixed term assured tenancies to assured periodic tenancies
- New rules about tenancy agreements
- Changes to the rent rules – as discussed in my posts here and (for student landlords) here
- New anti-discrimination rules where applicants are on benefit or have children
- New rules to make it easier for tenants to keep a pet
- New and amended grounds for possession
See all my posts on the new legislation here and here.
Late 2026
This will see the launch of the PRS Database and then, a little later, the PRS Landlord Ombudsman / Redress scheme.
Registration will be mandatory for landlords for both services. No doubt there will be teething problems!
2035-2037
This will see the introduction of the Decent Homes standard and Awaabs law.
However, this is some considerable time away, after consultations, and we could even have a new government by then.
How Landlord Law is preparing
I now have the job of updating my Landlord Law service information, which I have been cracking on with.
I can say now that I was a bit worried about the time available for doing this, as some people had suggested implementation in January! Which would have been difficult. So it was with huge relief that I learned that I have until 1 May!
This will not be a problem.
I have already updated our Checklists and Property Audit Kit and have given members a new ‘pre Renters Rights Act’ tenancy agreement.
The rest of the site will be updated over time. You can see what I have done so far on the Renters Rights Act content page. New updated content can be found linked from here as they are completed.
I’ll also be publishing more tips and guidance articles on this blog, and the odd video on how I am getting on.
Well done. I appreciate it’s a lot of work for you.
Sadly your audience is going to shrink.
The Housing Act 1988 was fully implemented on 15 January 1989. The first Buy-to-Let mortgage was offered to the market on 24 September 1996. It took nearly 10 years for the full effect of the 1988 Act to be seen and for prospective investors and finance providers to gain sufficient confidence to put behind them the years of misery since 1915.
I predict that it will take less than 10 years for the full effects of RRA 2025 to be seen but for the reasons I have posted previously the time will come when only a lunatic will invest in the PRS – and that extends to the idiots promoting large-scale Build-to-Rent projects.
I think it will take 5 years.
I was spot-on with my prediction of how long it would take for the effect of the dis-allowance of mortgage interest as a deductible expense to become apparent to the majority of PRS landlords and I am confident the prediction I make now is correct.
I’m not always right. Southern Housing v Emmanuel goes against my previous posts on here about rights of entry – not entirely but enough for me to admit I wasn’t quite correct. But I think I’m right about this. The PRS will be a lot smaller in 5 years time and there will be very few landlords who might use Landlord law Blog.