The Renters Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and is now in force. The Act represents the greatest change to legislation for residential rented accommodation in a generation.
It should be noted that the Act will only apply to England.
On 13 November 2025, the Government published its roadmap for reforming the Private Rented Sector. In this document, it outlines the timetable for implementation of the Act. The reforms will be implemented in two phases. In the first phase, fixed-term tenancies and Section 21 “no fault” evictions will be abolished.
Detailed below is an overview and reminder of the main changes:
- Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) will be a thing of the past. All tenancies will convert to Assured Periodic Tenancies which will be known as Private Residential Tenancies. This will happen on 1 May 2026.
- There will be no fixed terms for the tenancies. Tenants will be able to give two months’ notice at any time to end their tenancy.
- Landlords will only be able to end the tenancy if they can make out one of the statutory grounds for possession.
- So called “no fault” (or more accurately “no reason”) evictions will become a thing of the past. Landlords will only be able to evict tenants if they can rely on one of the grounds in the Act.
- Whilst most of the possession grounds that landlords can rely on are in the current Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988, there are several new grounds including if the landlord wishes to sell the property, or if they or a close family member wish to move into the property.
- In these circumstances, landlords will need to give 4 months’ notice of their intention to seek possession, and the notice cannot be given until 12 months after the start of the tenancy. They can then not re-let the property for a period of 12 months.
- As a general rule, landlords need to give more notice to tenants than they do under the current regime.
The new regime places additional obligations on landlords which they will need to comply with. These are summarised below:
- New measures are designed to prevent discrimination against families and those claiming benefits. These will be in force from 1 May 2026.
- Landlords will also need to consider requests from tenants who want to have a pet living with them. There had been proposals for mandatory pet damage insurance but these have been dropped. This provision also takes effect from 1 May 2026.
- Landlords will need to be members of a mandatory redress scheme. It is anticipated that the new ombudsman scheme will go live in 2028.
- The Decent Homes Standard and Awaab’s Law set timeframes for dealing with serious hazards. Landlords must comply with these timeframes to avoid the risk of fines, legal action or potential criminal prosecution. Awaab’s Law is already in force for Social Housing Providers. The Decent Homes Standard for the Private Rented Sector is likely to come into force in 2035 or 2037.
- All properties which are privately rented will need to be registered on a Private Rented Sector Database. This will be a national database of all properties and we are awaiting further information as to how landlords will register. It is anticipated that this will go live in late 2026.
- Local Authorities will have increased enforcement powers. The penalties for non-compliance will be increased substantially and the maximum rent repayment order will be extended from 12-24 months.
Awaab’s Law
The Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025 (more commonly known as Awaab’s Law) are in force from 27 October 2025.
These apply to all social landlords who must now address all emergency hazards and damp and mould hazards that present a significant risk of harm to tenants within fixed time frames. Failure to comply with the provisions could lead social landlords having claims made against them by tenants for breach of contract, or complaints via the social landlord’s complaints procedure and the Housing Ombudsman Service.
It is imperative that social landlords are aware of the provisions of the Regulations and that they comply with them.
The Government has also announced that Awaab’s Law will also apply to private landlords in due course. The Decent Homes Standard in the Private Rented Sector will come into force in 2035 or 2037. We await confirmation as to whether Awaab’s Law will be extended into the Private Rented Sector at the same time as this, or earlier.
Commencement of the Renters Rights’ Act 2025
There are still many unanswered questions as we wait for the commencement of the Act.
The Government has stated that it will digitise every stage of the Court process for repossession. However, all cases will still need to go before a judge and it is unclear whether the Courts will be able to cope with the number of cases it needs to deal with. The timescale for the digitisation of the Court process is unknown.
There are also uncertainties around student accommodation. The Ground 4 provision allows landlords of HMOs (3 or more bedrooms) to regain possession of properties at the end of the academic year. However, the House of Lords has voted to extend this to include 1 and 2 bedroomed properties. This could have a detrimental effect on the supply of student accommodation which is already in decline.
Tenants will be able to challenge excessive rent increases through the First Tier Tribunal. The government has given ministers power to amend the rent increase and tribunal procedure if the tribunal becomes overwhelmed. However, it is difficult to see how the procedure could be changed, and how ministers would know if the tribunal was overwhelmed given the difficulties in obtaining data on tribunal use.
The Private Rented Database has been discussed but there is no clarity as to the cost for landlords, and what landlords will need to do to ensure compliance. We know that this will come into force in late 2026.
The Government has stated that landlords will need to issue tenants with a leaflet explaining the changes from Assured Shorthold Tenancies to Private Residential Tenancies. These leaflets will need to be issued within one month of the commencement date.
Landlords are still able to serve and enforce Section 21 notices and section 8 notices and will be able to do so until the day before commencement of the Renters Rights Act, provided that the application to Court for a possession order is made within 3 months. The last day for serving Section 21 notices will be 30 April 2026.
Therefore, if landlords are considering recovering possession in the next 6-9 months, we would recommend that they use the current regime and serve a Section 21or Section 8 notice before 30 April 2026 if they are able to.
It is clear that the new regime, whilst giving greater security to tenants, will create additional bureaucracy and increase costs for landlords. Landlords will need to ensure compliance with the new regime as soon as the provisions of the Renters Rights Act are implemented, to avoid the risk of receiving hefty fines for non-compliance.
We will provide further updates in future newsletters as more information becomes available.
