Friday 1 May 2026 is a significant day for residential landlords and tenants, as many of the key provisions of the Renters Rights Act 2025 come into force. Sarah Taylor, a property litigation partner at Excello, explains the significance of the changes in this summary.
What Renters Rights Act changes come into force from Friday 1 May 2026?
Whilst section 21 notices are abolished, the grounds that landlords can rely on to recover possession change to include the landlord’s family moving in and the landlord wishing to sell the property. Notice periods for Section 8 notices also increase.
It remains to be seen how the already overwhelmed Court system will deal with the increased number of Section 8 notice claims, particularly where landlords are relying on mandatory grounds. There has been discussion as to whether the system will need to be altered to allow mandatory possession claims to be dealt with on paper but this raises a question over whether this would give tenants sufficient ability to defend claims.
In the meantime, all assured shorthold tenancies become assured periodic tenancies with no end date and landlords of existing assured shorthold tenancies must ensure that their tenants are given the government produced information sheet before 31 May 2026.
Landlords are not permitted to discriminate against tenants with families or pets, or those in receipt of benefits.
The process for increasing rent will be governed by statute with landlords only able to increase rent once a year using the Section 13 process and the prescribed Form 4A.
There are further changes which are due to come in including a register of Private Rental Sector (PRS) Landlords which all landlords will need to sign up to when the register is created, and the decent homes standard will be extended to apply to the PRS. There will also be an ombudsman which PRS landlords will be required to join when it is set up. Landlords will likely need to make an annual payment to be on the PRS database and towards the ombudsman.
What might the consequences be for landlords?
If landlords fail to comply with the Act, they may be liable for Rent Repayment Orders. The liability to comply with the legislation applies to superior landlords as well as immediate landlords so the consequences of not complying with the legislation may be far reaching.
The legislation is intended to increase security of tenure for tenants and improve the quality of the rental sector. Recent months have seen many landlords exiting the PRS, and we hope that the legislation does not worsen the very problem that it is intended to solve.
Time will tell.
