The Renters' Rights Act 2025: What Changed On 1 May 2026 — And What's Still To Come

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 is no longer something coming down the road. The main tenancy rules commenced on 1 May 2026. If you let property in England, they already apply to you — including to tenancies you signed years ago.

This is what changed, what you have to do, and what is still on its way.

The short version

Assured shorthold tenancies no longer exist. Section 21 no longer exists. Every tenancy now rolls on until someone ends it properly, and ending it as a landlord means proving a specific ground in court. Rent, deposits, pets and advertising all have new rules too.

What happened on 1 May 2026

Assured shorthold tenancies ended

Every AST in the private rented sector became an assured periodic tenancy on 1 May 2026. This happened by itself. You did not have to serve anything, sign anything or agree anything with your tenant.

There is no fixed term any more. The tenancy simply continues, period to period, until it ends.

One transitional point still catches people out. A section 21 or section 8 notice served before 1 May 2026 could still be taken to court after commencement — but only up to a hard stop. Proceedings had to be started by whichever date came first: the date the notice itself ran out, or 31 July 2026. For a section 8 notice the outer limit was twelve months from the date it was given, or 31 July 2026, again whichever came first.

That date has passed. An old notice in a drawer is no longer worth anything. If you still want possession, you start again under section 8 on one of the grounds below.

Section 21 is gone

The "no fault" route is closed. You can no longer end a tenancy simply by giving two months' notice and pointing at the calendar.

To get your property back you now serve a section 8 notice and name a ground. The court decides. Some grounds are mandatory, meaning the court must order possession if you prove the ground. Others are discretionary, meaning the court weighs it up.

The grounds you are most likely to need

Ground 1 — you or a close family member want to move in. Mandatory. Four months' notice. You cannot use it in the first twelve months of a new tenancy, though you can serve notice inside that window so long as it does not expire before the twelve months are up.

Ground 1A — you want to sell. Mandatory. Four months' notice. Same twelve-month protected period. And one exclusion that is easy to miss: you cannot use Ground 1A at all if your tenant has an assured tenancy created before 1 May 2026 that was not an assured shorthold tenancy — sometimes called a "lifetime" assured tenancy. If your tenant has been in the property since the 1990s, establish which kind of tenancy they hold before you serve anything. Getting this wrong loses the claim, and often the sale with it.

Ground 8 — rent arrears. Mandatory. Four weeks' notice. The tenant must be at least three months in arrears if rent is paid monthly, or thirteen weeks if it is paid weekly or fortnightly. The arrears have to be there when you serve the notice and still be there at the hearing. If the tenant pays down below the threshold before the hearing, the mandatory ground falls away. And arrears that exist because the tenant's Universal Credit has not been paid do not count towards the threshold at all — a benefit that has not arrived cannot get you to the mandatory ground.

Ground 14 — antisocial behaviour. Discretionary. No notice period: you can apply to the court straight away. The court cannot make a possession order until fourteen days after you gave notice.

Ground 4A — student HMOs. Mandatory. Four months' notice, for an HMO let to full-time students and needed for a new group of students in line with the academic year, between 1 June and 30 September. Two conditions come with it: you must have given notice at the start of the tenancy that you intend to use this ground, and you cannot use it if the tenancy was agreed more than six months before the tenancy started.

There are more grounds than these. If you are relying on one that is not on this list, take advice before you serve anything — a defective notice costs you months.

Deposits gate possession

A court will not make a possession order if the deposit is not properly protected. If your protection or prescribed information has drifted out of order at any point, sort it out now rather than discovering it in a hearing.

Your tenant can leave on two months' notice

A tenant ends an assured periodic tenancy by giving notice in writing — letter, email or text is fine. The most you can require of them is two months. The notice has to be timed so the tenancy ends on the day rent is due, or the day before.

You can agree something shorter in writing if it suits you both.

If the tenancy is a joint one, note where that leaves you: one joint tenant can usually end the whole tenancy by giving notice, without the others agreeing. If the remaining tenants want to stay, that is a new tenancy agreement, not a continuation of the old one.

Rent increases: not in the first year, and once a year after that

Start with the rule that is easiest to fall foul of: you cannot increase the rent at all during the first year of the tenancy. That is a separate, absolute bar — not the same thing as the once-a-year cap, and not something a rent review clause can override. Serve Form 4A six months into a new tenancy and the notice is not valid.

After the first year, rent rises go through section 13 of the Housing Act 1988 and nothing else. That means Form 4A, at least two months' notice, and no more than once in any twelve months. Rent review clauses in an old agreement do not get you round this either.

For a tenancy that converted on 1 May 2026, the twelve-month clock runs from your last increase, whenever that was. If you put the rent up before 1 May 2026 — by a form 4 notice or by using a rent review clause — you cannot put it up again until at least a year after that increase took effect. And an increase agreed under a rent review clause before 1 May 2026 that was due to take effect after that date does not apply at all.

Your tenant can challenge the increase at the First-tier Tribunal if they think it is above the open market rent for the property.

Rent in advance is capped

You cannot ask for, encourage or accept any rent before the tenancy agreement is signed.

Once it is signed, and before the tenancy starts, you can require up to one month's rent where the tenant will be paying monthly — or twenty-eight days' rent where they will not. The days of asking for six or twelve months up front are over.

Two narrow exceptions let you ask for more: where the local council arranged the tenancy because the tenant was legally homeless, and where the property is let as social or supported housing. Neither applies to an ordinary private letting.

Deposits have not changed

The deposit cap is where it was, under the Tenant Fees Act 2019: five weeks' rent, or six weeks' rent where the annual rent is £50,000 or more. Note the boundary — at exactly £50,000 a year, six weeks applies.

Rental bidding is banned

You have to publish an asking rent, and you cannot accept more than it. You also cannot invite or encourage anyone to offer more. The rules apply to you and to your letting agent alike, and to every written advert — a portal listing, a printed advert, a social media post, an email or a text. A "to let" board outside the property is the one thing that does not count as a written advert.

You cannot refuse a pet without a good reason

A tenant can ask, in writing, to keep a pet. You have 28 days to respond in writing. You cannot unreasonably refuse, and if you do refuse it has to be in writing with your reason.

You can ask for more information — what the animal is, how big it is, how much room it needs. Once the tenant gives it to you, you then have whichever is later: the rest of the original 28 days, or an extra 7 days. If the tenant never answers your request for more information, you do not have to consider the request at all.

"No pets" as a blanket clause is not a reason.

You cannot discriminate against benefit claimants or families with children

Not in your adverts, not in your criteria, not in practice. This applies at the point someone enquires, not just at the point they sign.

The paperwork deadline that has already passed

If you had a written tenancy agreement running on 1 May 2026, you had to give the tenant the government's Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet by 31 May 2026.

If the agreement was only ever spoken, you had to give them the key terms in writing by the same date.

The penalty for not doing it runs to £7,000.

That deadline is behind us. If you did not serve it, do not simply hope: get it served and take advice on where that leaves you. A late sheet is a better position than no sheet.

For any tenancy you grant now, the written information has to go to the tenant before you sign.

Penalties got heavier

Rent repayment orders now reach two years' rent, up from one. Local councils also picked up wider enforcement powers and new investigatory powers, which commenced alongside the tenancy rules on 1 May 2026.

What is still to come

The government is rolling this out in phases. The tenancy rules were phase one. Still ahead:

1. The Private Rented Sector Database. Registration becomes mandatory for every private landlord. Rollout starts from late 2026, in stages — regional first, then wider. You will have to record contact details, property information and safety documents — gas, electrical, EPC — and you will have to pay an annual fee, the amount of which the government says it will confirm closer to launch. Budget for it.
2. The PRS Landlord Ombudsman. Mandatory sign-up is targeted at 2028, after the database is up. Landlords will fund the service through a charging model that is also to be confirmed closer to launch. Government has said landlords will get notice before it becomes compulsory.
3. The Decent Homes Standard for private rentals, and Awaab's Law. Both are coming. Neither has a confirmed date. The government's roadmap says it is still considering consultation responses on the Decent Homes Standard, and will consult on Awaab's Law for the private sector "in due course". Treat any specific year you see quoted as a proposal, not a deadline.

What to do now

If you have not looked at your tenancies since May, three things are worth an hour of your time:

• Check the information sheet went out. This is the one with a fixed deadline and a fixed penalty, and it is the easiest thing to have missed.
• Check every deposit is protected and the prescribed information served. It is now the difference between getting possession and not.
• Read your own tenancy agreement. Rent review clauses, fixed terms, blanket pet bans and break clauses drafted for the old system are dead letters. Worse, quoting one at a tenant can put you on the wrong side of the Act.

And if you are planning to sell or move back in, count backwards. Four months' notice plus court time is not a short runway.

Talking to us

If the plan is to sell up, our conveyancing team can act on the sale. If you are not sure which ground fits your situation, or whether the notice you served last month still works, ask before you spend another month on it.

Sources

Everything above comes from the legislation and from the government's own guidance:

• The Act itself
• What commenced when
• Overview for landlords
• The landlord's guide to assured periodic tenancies — rent, pets, deposits, bidding, notice
• Grounds for possession
• The implementation roadmap
• Notices served before 1 May 2026

This is general information about the law in England, not advice on your tenancy. Rules differ in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.