The Renters' Rights Act 2025 Explained: A Complete Guide for England Landlords

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 explained in one sentence is this: it is the single biggest reform of the private rented sector in over thirty years, and it has swept away fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) and “no-fault” Section 21 evictions, replacing them with open-ended periodic tenancies that a landlord can only end on specific legal grounds. The first wave of changes came into force on 1 May 2026, and, crucially, they apply to your existing tenancies, not just new ones.

This guide walks through what the Act actually changes, what it deliberately leaves alone, and what is still to come. It is written for England only, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each have their own separate regimes that this Act does not touch. Where a step turns on a legal deadline or a prescribed form, we flag it so you can verify the current position on GOV.UK before you act.

What is the Renters’ Rights Act 2025?

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 is the legislation that finally carried the previous government’s Renters (Reform) Bill across the finish line. The Reform Bill fell when Parliament was dissolved before the 2024 general election; the incoming government reintroduced and strengthened the proposals as the Renters’ Rights Bill, which received Royal Assent and became the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. You can read the Act itself on legislation.gov.uk and the government’s evolving landlord guidance on GOV.UK.

Most of the Act works by amending the Housing Act 1988, the statute that already governs assured tenancies, rather than starting from a blank sheet. That matters in practice: the familiar architecture of “assured tenancy”, “Section 8 grounds” and “Section 13 notices” survives, but the rules inside that architecture have changed substantially.

The core policy aim is to give tenants greater security of tenure while preserving genuine routes for landlords to recover their property when they have a legitimate reason, sale, moving a family member in, serious rent arrears or anti-social behaviour, for example. The Act is not an attempt to make eviction impossible; it is an attempt to make it reason-based.

The headline changes for landlords

Here are the reforms that affect day-to-day letting in England right now, in force from 1 May 2026.

Section 21 “no-fault” eviction is abolished

This is the defining change. You can no longer serve a Section 21 notice to end a tenancy without giving a reason. Any possession action must now use a Section 8 notice citing a specific statutory ground. If you still have old Section 21 templates saved anywhere, delete them, they are legally useless, and trying to rely on one will simply get your claim thrown out.

There is no transitional window in which a “section 21” notice served after 1 May 2026 remains valid. The route is gone. We cover the detail and the common misconceptions in Section 21 abolished: what landlords need to know in 2026 and the practical replacement workflow in Section 21 abolished: what landlords in England must do instead from May 2026.

Fixed-term ASTs are gone, all tenancies are periodic

There are no more fixed terms and no more assured shorthold tenancies. Every assured tenancy is now a rolling periodic tenancy that continues until it is lawfully ended. There is no “initial 12-month term” any longer, and no “renewal”, the tenancy simply rolls on.

A tenant can leave by giving two months’ notice at any point. You, as landlord, can only end the tenancy using a valid Section 8 ground (or by agreeing a surrender with the tenant). If your business model depended on locking a tenant in for a fixed period, that model no longer exists in the same form. For the mechanics of the new default, see What is a periodic tenancy in England? The 2026 Renters’ Rights Act explained.

Section 8 grounds have been expanded and rebalanced

Possession now runs entirely through Section 8, which carries roughly 37 grounds split between mandatory grounds (where the court must grant possession if the ground is made out) and discretionary grounds (where the court decides whether it is reasonable). Some of the key points under the new regime:

• Ground 8 (serious rent arrears) now requires at least three months’ (or 13 weeks’) arrears both when the notice is served and at the hearing, up from the old two months. A tenant who clears the balance below the threshold before the hearing can defeat the mandatory ground.
• Ground 1A (selling the property) requires four months’ notice and cannot be used in the first 12 months of the tenancy.
• Ground 1 (landlord or family moving in) also generally requires four months’ notice and is restricted in the early months of the tenancy.
• Ground 2 (mortgage lender repossession) requires four months’ notice.
• Several legacy grounds, the old grounds 3, 4 and 16, have been abolished.

Always use the current prescribed Section 8 form on GOV.UK, do not rely on a cached PDF or a third-party template that may be out of date, because serving on the wrong form can invalidate the whole notice. For a fuller treatment see Section 8 notice explained: how landlords regain possession in England (2026) and the comparison in Section 8 vs Section 21: what changed after the Renters’ Rights Act 2025.

Rent increases: Section 13 only, once a year

You can now raise the rent on a periodic tenancy by one route only: a Section 13 notice, served no more than once every 12 months. The headline rules:

• Use the current prescribed Section 13 form on GOV.UK.
• Rent-review clauses in tenancy agreements are banned, you cannot contract around the once-a-year statutory limit by writing escalators into the agreement.
• A tenant can challenge the proposed rent at the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber), which can confirm or reduce the figure but can never set the rent above the amount you proposed. That last point reverses the old risk that a tribunal challenge might backfire on the tenant.
• The increase takes effect from the date stated in the notice, provided you give the minimum notice period.

Our step-by-step walkthrough is in How to increase rent legally after the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, and the form-specific detail is in Section 13 rent increases explained: the 2026 rules for England landlords.

A statutory right to request a pet

Tenants now have a statutory right to request a pet (inserted as sections 16A–16B of the Housing Act 1988). You can no longer impose a blanket “no pets” ban in the tenancy agreement. When a tenant makes a written request:

• You must give your decision in writing within 28 days (with up to a further 7 days if you reasonably need more information to decide).
• You may only refuse where it is reasonable to do so, for example, where a superior lease prohibits pets, or the property is genuinely unsuitable.
• There is no deemed consent if you miss the deadline, but failing to respond properly leaves you exposed to a complaint and undermines any later refusal.
• You cannot require the tenant to take out pet insurance as a condition of consent (sections 16A–16B). You may, however, factor reasonable conditions into a consent.

See Can a landlord refuse a pet in England in 2026? The new RRA rules and the practical workflow in How to refuse a pet request in writing without breaking the law.

What the Act does not change

It is just as important to know what stayed the same, because there is a lot of misinformation suggesting the whole rulebook was rewritten.

• Deposit protection is unchanged. You must still protect a deposit in an authorised scheme and serve the prescribed information within the statutory window (Housing Act 2004, sections 213–215). The penalties for getting it wrong, up to three times the deposit, plus a bar on possession, are unchanged.
• The deposit cap is unchanged, five weeks’ rent (or six weeks where the annual rent is £50,000 or more) under the Tenant Fees Act 2019.
• The holding deposit cap is unchanged, one week’s rent, also under the Tenant Fees Act 2019.
• Gas, electrical and EPC safety duties continue to apply exactly as before. The Act does not relax any of your existing compliance certificates.
• Right to Rent checks remain a legal obligation for lets in England.

For a refresher on the deposit rules that survived intact, see Tenancy deposit protection in England explained (2026 landlord guide).

Quick reference: before vs after 1 May 2026

A worked example: how a single tenancy is affected

Consider Priya, who lets a two-bedroom flat in Leeds to a tenant on what was, until 1 May 2026, a 12-month AST with a rent-review clause and a “no pets” term. Here is how her position changed overnight.

1. The tenancy converted. On 1 May 2026 the fixed term fell away and the tenancy became a rolling periodic assured tenancy. Priya cannot rely on the old fixed end date, and the tenant can now give two months’ notice to leave at any point.
2. Her rent-review clause died. The escalator built into the agreement is unenforceable. To raise the rent, Priya must serve the current prescribed Section 13 form on GOV.UK, no more than once a year, and the increase cannot take effect until the minimum notice period has passed.
3. Her “no pets” clause is unenforceable. When the tenant emails asking to keep a cat, Priya has 28 days to respond in writing. She cannot simply say “the agreement says no pets.” She can refuse only with a reasonable, stated reason, and she cannot demand pet insurance as a condition.
4. Her possession options narrowed. When the tenant later falls two months behind on rent, Priya discovers she cannot use Ground 8 yet, that mandatory ground now needs three months’ / 13 weeks’ arrears. She can pursue a discretionary arrears ground, but the mandatory route is not available until the arrears deepen.
5. Her deposit duties are unchanged. The deposit she protected at the start of the tenancy remains validly protected; she does nothing new there.

The lesson: the Act reaches into live tenancies, so the exposure is immediate even though some flagship institutions (below) are still being built.

What is still to come (not yet in force)

Several flagship measures are phasing in later, so treat everything below as future, conditional and subject to confirmation on GOV.UK. As at 18 June 2026, none of these are live obligations:

• A new PRS Landlord Ombudsman, a single redress scheme that all private landlords will be required to join, expected to arrive around 2028.
• A Private Rented Sector Database that landlords will need to register on before marketing or letting, expected to phase in across late 2026 into 2027.
• Awaab’s Law, fixed timescales for investigating and fixing serious hazards such as damp and mould, being phased into the private rented sector.
• A Decent Homes Standard for the PRS, setting a minimum quality bar for let homes, also being phased in.

Do not assume any of these are live duties today, and do not let a template or a third-party article tell you otherwise. For the provision-by-provision schedule, see Renters’ Rights Act 2025 commencement dates: the full timeline for England.

The penalty backdrop you cannot ignore

The Act sits alongside a strengthened enforcement regime. Councils can impose civil penalties for breaches, and tenants can apply for rent repayment orders that claw back up to 12 months’ rent where a landlord has committed certain offences. Getting the basics wrong is no longer just a procedural irritation; it can be expensive.

For the full picture, see Landlord fines in England 2026: the complete list of penalties you can face and Rent repayment orders explained: when tenants can reclaim up to 12 months’ rent.

What you should do now

1. Bin old templates. Section 21 notices, fixed-term AST agreements and tenancy clauses with rent-review or blanket “no pets” terms are no longer compliant. Keeping them around only invites mistakes.
2. Switch to a compliant periodic tenancy agreement for new lets, and review the terms you rely on for existing tenants.
3. Use the prescribed GOV.UK forms for Section 8 and Section 13, and check you are on the current version each time you serve one.
4. Put a pet-request process in writing so you can reliably meet the 28-day decision deadline.
5. Diarise your possession timings. With four-month notice periods on key grounds and a higher arrears threshold, planning ahead matters more than ever.
6. Work through a structured checklist so nothing slips, see the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 compliance checklist for England landlords and the dated What landlords must do before 1 May 2026: Renters’ Rights Act action plan.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Renters’ Rights Act apply to my existing tenancies, or only new ones?

It applies to existing tenancies too. On 1 May 2026 fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies converted into rolling periodic assured tenancies, and the new rules on possession, rent increases and pets apply across the board. You did not need to sign anything for the conversion to happen, it took effect by operation of law.

Can I still serve a Section 21 notice?

No. Section 21 has been abolished. Any “no-fault” notice served after 1 May 2026 is invalid. To recover possession you must use a Section 8 notice on a valid ground, using the current prescribed form on GOV.UK. See Is Section 21 still valid in 2026? for the full answer.

How much notice do I need to give now to regain possession?

It depends on the ground. Many of the major grounds, including Ground 1A (sale) and Ground 2 (mortgage repossession), now require four months’ notice. The serious-arrears mandatory ground (Ground 8) needs at least three months’ / 13 weeks’ arrears to be available. Always check the notice period attached to the specific ground you are relying on, because they vary.

Can I increase the rent more than once a year?

No. Rent on a periodic assured tenancy can be increased only by a Section 13 notice, and only once every 12 months. Rent-review clauses that tried to build in automatic or more frequent increases are now unenforceable. If a tenant challenges the figure, the First-tier Tribunal can confirm or reduce it but cannot set it higher than you proposed.

Can I still say “no pets” in my tenancy agreement?

A blanket ban is no longer effective. Tenants have a statutory right to request to keep a pet, and you must respond in writing within 28 days (plus up to 7 more days if you reasonably need further information). You can refuse only where it is reasonable, and you cannot require pet insurance as a condition of consent.

What hasn’t changed under the Act?

Deposit protection, the deposit and holding deposit caps, gas and electrical safety duties, EPC obligations and Right to Rent checks all continue unchanged. The Act reshaped tenancy security, possession and rent increases, it did not rewrite your safety and deposit compliance.

Coming soon

Tenancy Pilot is an all-in-one compliance platform built for England landlords under the new regime, a command-centre dashboard with deadline alerts, plus document generators for compliant periodic tenancy agreements, Section 8 notices, Section 13 rent increase notices, pet-request decisions and more, all kept aligned with the Renters’ Rights Act. It is launching soon. Join the waitlist to be first in when we open the doors.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. The law changes and individual circumstances vary. Always check the current position on GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk, and consult a qualified solicitor before acting on a possession, rent or compliance matter.