Renters' Rights Act: what landlords and property professionals need to know

In this episode of Podcasts by Brodies, legal director Lisa Stratford and associate George Cohen unpack the Renters’ Rights Act and what it means for landlords, managing agents and investors in England.

Described as the most significant change to renting in a generation, the Act’s first phase kicked in from 1 May 2026 and introduces sweeping reforms. This includes the end of section 21 “no fault” evictions, a shift to periodic tenancies, tighter rent controls and new compliance obligations.

Lisa and George explain the key changes, the policy drivers behind them and the practical implications for tenancy management, possession and enforcement. They also discuss the risks facing landlords, the likely impact on rents and how the market may respond as the reforms start to take effect.

Transcript

00:00:05 David Lee, podcast host

Hello and welcome to Podcast by Brodies.

I'm your host, David Lee, and in this episode we discuss the recent reforms to the Renters’ Rights Act and what landlords and property professionals need to know.

I'm joined for this podcast by two Brodies experts, Lisa Stratford, legal director, and George Cohen, associate.

Welcome to you both.

And we always like to start these podcasts with clear definitions. So George, can you tell us first of all, what is the Renters’ Rights Act and when did it come into force?

00:00:39 George Cohen, Associate

It's a piece of legislation that was introduced in England only – there are other pieces of legislation that affect Scotland and Wales – and it is a major overhaul of regulation in the sector.

We'll cover all the changes in detail, I'm sure, in this podcast.

But the key changes are that assured shorthold tenancies have been abolished, which means that rather than having the possibility of fixed term tenancies, which end after six to 12 months, all tenancy fees will be on a rolling monthly basis, basically. It came into force in October 2025 but most of the provisions weren't activated, so to speak, and they're going to be activated on a phased basis.

And the first key stage of activation was on 1st of May, and that abolished fixed term tenancies and section 21.

The next phase will be in late 2026, and that will introduce a PRS database that landlords will be required to register with and an ombudsman for settling certain disputes outside of the courts.

And then phase three will be much later, possibly 2035, and that will be the introduction of a decent home standard and the extension of AWAB's law from the social housing sector to the private sector.

00:02:06 David Lee, podcast host

Okay, thanks. Thanks very much, George.

And Lisa, it's been called by some the biggest change to renting in history. Do you agree with that?

00:02:15 Lisa Stratford, Legal Director

I think it's certainly fair to say that it's the biggest change in a generation.

I think the last change that was, you know, truly comparable in scale was the introduction of Section 21, which George mentioned earlier, under the Housing Act, which was 1988.

And that reshaped really the balance of power between landlords and tenants because it allowed for possession to be granted to landlords without any fault of the tenant.

Since then, I think reforms have been incremental and there have been some important ones but nothing quite as wholesale as this piece of legislation.

So things like the gas safety certificates, energy performance certificates and the how to rent guide being requirements.

Those things were important but they weren't absolutely fundamental and structural.

This piece of legislation removes section 21 entirely, so essentially it does reverse the balance of power again, this time in favour of the tenants.

The shift as well from fixed term tenancies to open-ended periodic tenancies is significant. So I think this is probably the biggest structural change that we've seen for quite some time.

00:03:24 David Lee, podcast host

Okay, thanks very much Lisa. And George, when any new piece of legislation comes in, it's normally trying to address a problem or as Lisa talked about, an imbalance there. 

Can you just summarise what the Act was trying to do? What, you know, what were the main drivers for its introduction?

00:03:42 George Cohen, Associate

I think the core policy driver was insecurity of tenure on the part of tenants who felt that they were being evicted out of the blue without a reason and that was widely publicised.

And I think the government considered that was something perhaps unfair that needed to be addressed.

And then the other issue, again, which has found its way into the press quite a lot, is property conditions – particularly in terms of damp and mould and other poor conditions.

And finally, there were some reports – I think everyone accepts they are in a minority – but should we say unscrupulous landlords who really didn't ensure that their properties were fit for tenancies.

So the legislation was intended to address all of those things, I think.

00:04:31 David Lee, podcast host

Okay, and we know, Lisa, that there's quite a lot in this legislation. Before we go into the detail, can you give us the brief headlines, if you like?

00:04:41 Lisa Stratford, Legal Director

Okay, well, the biggie is that section 21, the no fault eviction ground has gone. The tenancies, as I mentioned, have now switched in structure. So rather than being the assured short hold tenancies we used to have that were usually for six months, they're now assured periodic tenancies, so they run from month to month usually.

The rent increase procedure has been tightened, so that gives the tenants more certainty and assurance.

The process in section 13 of the Housing Act has been retained, but it is a lot more stringent than it used to be.

For example, the landlord must give two months’ notice and there can only be one increase per year. 

Contractual rent reviews have been banned and it's also easier for the tenant to challenge a proposed rent increase in the first tier tribunal. 

Other changes in relation to the advertisement of tenancies have kicked in. So landlords and letting agents can't accept a rent that's higher than the property was listed or advertised at. 

Rental bidding has been banned in that way and there's limitations on the landlord's requirement that the tenants pay rent in advance. They can only now require a tenant to pay one month in advance.

So no huge requirement of full payment of rent before a tenancy starts.

And one of the other big things is the prohibition of discrimination, specifically in relation to prospective tenants because they have children or receive benefits and the one that everybody seemed very excited about was that tenants now have a right to request permission for a pet to be allowed in the property and the landlord must consider that request and can't unreasonably refuse it.

There are some immediate compliance requirements which we'll touch on later but essentially landlords and agents are required to provide prescribed information to tenants by the end of this month, May 2026.

There are some expanded enforcement powers and as George mentioned earlier, there's the PRS database and the landlord ombudsman coming down the line.

00:06:50 David Lee, podcast host          

Wow, so quite a lot. And as you say, it's always the pets that get the headlines.

Just going into a bit more detail on the ‘headline headline’, if you like, Lisa, just again, section 21 – just a little bit more on that and what that means because that really is probably the ‘headline headline’ as I say.

00:07:09 Lisa Stratford, Legal Director

It is, I think. So section 21 used to give the landlord the right to terminate the tenancy on two months’ notice. That was it. There were no conditions that had to be met, you know, subject to compliance with the regulatory things that were in place like having provided various documents to the tenant beforehand.

That is no longer available.

It's not quite accurate though to say that all no fault evictions have been prohibited by the legislation. It is still possible for the landlord to recover possession even if the tenant isn't in breach, but the circumstances are much more limited than they were when section 21 was available.

So these non-fault grounds that existed previously – so where the tenant's not in breach but the landlord wants possession, for example, the landlord to move back in – they're the retained and expanded non-fault grounds on which possession can be sought still.

There's a wider group of close family members that can be included if in the landlord moving back in group as well. But the essential change is that possession is now only possible if one of the statutory grounds applies and the landlord can prove that ground to the court.

00:08:23 David Lee, podcast host

Okay, and so George, what I'm hearing there is, as well as pets, a lot of the coverage she was talking about, the end of no fault evictions, that's a bit of a misnomer then.

00:08:33 George Cohen, Associate

Yeah, I think that's right.

I think that's a catchy headline.

But what I think has changed is it used to be the case that a tenant could be hit with a possession claim out of the blue without the landlord having to give a reason.

Now there always would have been a reason. It might have been rent arrears, but they didn't want to rely on Section 8.

It might have been because they wanted to sell the property, or it might have been because there was just a breakdown in relationship between the landlord and the tenant.

So now the crucial point is that tenants will be aware of what the grounds on which they could potentially lose possession of their property would be and the landlord has to go to court to prove that ground applies.

00:09:18 David Lee, podcast host       

And what about changes to possession more generally, George, particularly when we're talking about section 8 of the Act?

00:09:26 George Cohen, Associate

Yeah, absolutely. When the government first announced plans to get rid of section 21, they promised that the section 8 grounds would be expanded. And as originally drafted, they were.

But what's happened over the course of a few years is that those expansions have actually been reduced. And what has happened, in fact, is that the key section 8 grounds have been weakened. 

So the crucial grounds, I think, that are most relied on by landlords, are to do with rent arrears and antisocial behaviour. And in the case of rent arrears where the threshold for a mandatory possession order was two months arrears, that's been extended to three months arrears. Also the notice period used to be two weeks, now it's four weeks. 

And in the case of antisocial behaviour, again, the government promised that ground would be expanded and it's actually been made slightly more difficult to be able to rely on that ground because the court must consider any attempts by the tenant to comply with requests from the landlord to cease the behaviour.

I'm not saying that's unreasonable, but what is absent, what I think landlords wanted was some clearer guidance on, is what would be considered anti-social behaviour or what would be considered serious enough anti-social behaviour to justify a possession order and that hasn't been given.

So I think landlords are deeply concerned that they've lost section 21 and also the the new grounds on which they'll be able to get possession are weaker than they were before.

00:11:05 David Lee, podcast host

Okay, thank you.

And Lisa talked earlier on, George, about that balance between the landlord and the tenants. You know, the government in bringing forward this legislation characterised the old system as failing tenants and good landlords.

Do you think that's a fair characterisation of where the law was before?

00:11:24 George Cohen, Associate

In terms of tenants, I think it is an overstatement because as Lisa alluded to earlier, there have been developments over decades really introducing more and more protections for tenants.

And the problem was that there were still some loopholes and also enforcement wasn't pursued as perhaps it should have been.

So I think what was needed maybe was attempts to fix the loopholes rather than, change or revolutionise everything.

In terms of landlords, I think the old system was failing landlords, but in the sense that the regulation was unclear, it was fragmented between lots of different pieces of legislation and highly technical.

So compliance was very difficult for even very good, well-intentioned, competent landlords, and that issue has been made worse and not better.

00:12:20 David Lee, podcast host

Okay. Coming back to you Lisa, let's talk a bit about tenancy management.

What are the main changes in that respect?

00:12:28 Lisa Stratford, Legal Director

The automatic move to periodic tenancies, which I know I keep banging on about, but that is quite a different one.

The fixed tenancy end dates that we saw before are now largely irrelevant.

There are immediate paperwork obligations in terms of the information sheet that's required this month.

Rent increases as I mentioned are now formalised and limited to one per year. The advertising practices for new lettings have changed. The landlord can no longer say that they want to let a property a rent in the region of or offers over. It needs to be a specific rent that is advertised and no rent above that should be accepted by letting agents or landlords.

Rent collection rules have been tightened as well. I mentioned the pet requests being formalised and the landlord having to consider those requests reasonably and the discrimination issue in terms of when you might want to refuse a tenancy.

It's really important for landlords and managing agents to ensure that all of these decisions and requests are documented properly and records of those are kept so that they can be justified later on if needed.

00:13:45 David Lee, podcast host

Okay, thanks very much. And George, you touched a little bit on what this means for the landlord community.

So what about the reaction? How have landlords as a group reacted to the changes in the Act?

00:14:04 George Cohen, Associate

I think most landlords I've spoken to and read about in the press are pretty concerned. On the one hand, you've got smaller scale landlords who are just concerned that they're not going to be able to keep up with all the new regulations and, however well-intentioned, that they're going to fall foul of one or more of them and be liable for heavy fines.

And it's also worth just pointing out that, I mean, I personally know a few people who have inherited rental property and they could effectively be inheriting a ticking time bomb. There might already be breaches on the part of whoever's bequeathed the property.

So they will be very concerned and it is possible that some of these smaller landlords are just going to feel that they're going to have to exit the market because the regulation is too stringent.

In terms of institutional landlords, they have the systems and expertise to be able to keep on top of the changes, but it's more a question of additional costs of keeping up with everything.

00:15:09 David Lee, podcast host

Okay, brilliant. Thanks very much for that.

And we've touched a little bit already on compliance, George, but what are the most urgent compliance issues under the new act that landlords need to really be thinking about now?

00:15:22 George Cohen, Associate

I think there's two. The first is for existing tenancies that were in place before the 1st of May, all landlords need to get an information sheet to any tenants on the tenancy agreement by the 31st of May. So that's a very quick deadline.

The good news is the information sheet is very readily available from the government website and it's easy to give that document. The guidance specifies that it can be given by e-mail and be posted. So it should be easy to comply with but it is an urgent one because there are quite significant fines if you don't do it.

And then the other one is to update any precedent tenancy agreements that you have because they will need to comply with the various requirements in the new legislation.

00:16:09 David Lee, podcast host

Okay, and Lisa, any further thoughts from you about what landlords need to be thinking about right now?

00:16:13 Lisa Stratford, Legal Director

I think it's just important that landlords start thinking about this now and assembling and organising their compliance evidence, both in anticipation of local authority enforcement being a lot stronger and proactive and ahead of the introduction of the PRS database that George has mentioned.

And in practical terms, I think, registration on that database will require landlords to register both themselves and their properties to demonstrate compliance with the core legal requirements, including things like up-to-date gas safety certificates, electrical safety reports, EPCs and the other mandatory documentation.

So the earlier landlords start preparing for that, the easier it will be.

00:16:58 David Lee, podcast host

And George, you've talked about, concerns among landlords. Some of them may be thinking about exiting the market.

What are, how would you summarise the main areas of risk that landlords are seeing in the act?

00:17:13 George Cohen, Associate

I think the main thing is for falling foul of one of these requirements, like the requirement to either give the information sheet.

As I said, that's not a difficult thing to do, but if you're a small scale landlord, you just might not be aware of that. And then there is a lot of information that's needed to be put into new tenancy agreements that start after the 1st of May. And again, one slip up there could lead to a fine.

Another interesting area where fines are issued is serving the wrong type of notice or relying on a ground that you were not entitled to rely on. So let's say you served a notice on rent grounds and it transpired that there was a mistake with the bank. If the ground did not in fact apply and there weren't rent arrears, then there could be fines there as well. So they'll need to be very careful when serving any type of notices.

And I think particularly for institutional landlords, challenges of rent in the tribunal – and this is very technical, so I'll try to keep to the key points – under the old regime, if a tenant took a landlord to the tribunal to challenge a rent increase, the tribunal could assess that the rent was actually higher than the landlord proposed, but that's not possible anymore. It is capped at whatever the landlord proposes and it is only reducible.

And also crucially, under the old regime, whatever the rent was decided, it would be backdated to, I think, the date of the application or the date of the notice. And now that's not the case.

The increase or the rent reduction will only take effect from the date of the tribunal. And that means that it's in the tenant's interest to challenge every single rent increase because at the very least they'll get a few weeks or months at the same rent or possibly less.

00:19:13 David Lee, podcast host

And that could clog up the tribunal system, presumably.

00:19:16 George Cohen, Associate

Yeah, absolutely. That is a big concern.

00:19:19 David Lee, podcast host

Okay. We've talked a lot about landlords. Let's just talk about a couple of other players in the market. Lisa, first of all, managing agents. What are the main areas of change and risk if you're a managing agent in this sector?

00:19:33 Lisa Stratford, Legal Director

Well, essentially they're the same issues because agents often carry direct responsibility for transition compliance and they'll need to most likely be the one serving the information sheet that needs to go out this month.

On a more practical level, lettings teams will need to adapt their marketing and offer handling processes to comply with the rental bidding ban.

I think tenant selection policies will need to be revised to eliminate any discriminatory practices. You know, you used to see adverts regularly saying no DHSS or whatever it was. So those things need to change.

Agents will increasingly be responsible for maintaining possession, evidence and compliance records.

Ultimately, landlords pay letting agents to take care of all of this for them, so it's just as important for the agents as it is for the landlords themselves.

And errors will expose ultimately both the agent and the landlord to any enforcement actions, so it's really important that everybody involved is on top of these.

00:20:38 David Lee, podcast host

Great stuff. And George, what about investors in the private rented sector? How do you see the changes affecting them?

00:20:47 George Cohen, Associate

Well, I think all of the issues we've talked about above will apply to, as they apply to landlords, will apply prospectively to investors because investors will be buying a much riskier in terms of all the fines and whatnot and a more uncertain asset.

So I think investment strategy is going to have to account for a lot more risk, basically.

00:21:22 David Lee, podcast host

Okay, so there's lots happening here. When you take everything into account that we've talked about, George, do you think that the new act represents a positive change overall when it comes to this area of the law?

00:21:29 George Cohen, Associate

I think it remains to be seen. There were certainly some problems that need to be fixed and it is worth pointing out there have been publicised stories as a result of poor tenancy conditions. So that's perhaps a good thing.

The rest of it, I am, to be honest, concerned that it's going to affect both landlords and tenants. Landlords for all the reasons we've discussed and tenants because I think many landlords are going to have to are going to see no option but to increase the rent in order to deal with all of these changes.

And ultimately, the rent level is going to be one of the biggest concerns for tenants. So the question is, do the other protections outweigh what is likely to be higher rents?

00:22:15 David Lee, podcast host

And what about from the tenant’s perspective, specifically, Lisa, how do you view that?

00:22:22 Lisa Stratford, Legal Director

I mean, like George says, there have been some absolute horror stories and anything that prevents any more of those is a good thing.

I think on the face of it, these changes from the tenant perspective are positive in terms of giving them a little bit more protection, moving the balance of power that we talked about a little bit.

But as George said, I think there is a real concern that the result of all of these things is that rents are just going to go up across the board, especially because if a landlord can't put offers in the region of for new tenancies, then they're going to put the best possible rent they can think of.

If they're prevented from having rent reviews where they could go up, they're going to put in the highest possible figure that they can justify for the tribunal.

So I think the practical effect may well be, especially whilst we see how this beds in and how things pan out essentially.

I think that landlords will take a more cautious approach by demanding higher rents to start with. So there will be, I think, a bit of a jump.

Whether that will continue or not – we'll have to wait and see.

00:23:31 David Lee, podcast host

Okay, thanks very much. And George, we've talked a little bit about the milestones.

Just summarise again briefly as the changes bed in the milestones ahead for those involved in this sector.

00:23:44 George Cohen, Associate

I think for the changes already introduced, I think it will be really interesting to see what happens with the rents, as Lisa and I have just discussed, and also what happens with the courts. Are the courts going to be able to deal with existing backlogs?

There would have also been a flurry of section 21 cases before the act came into force. So it'd be interesting to see how the court and the tribunal, which we've touched on, how they cope with all these changes.

The private rented sector database and the ombudsman are both going to be introduced gradually on a regional basis.

So I mean, one interesting thing there is how much it's going to cost because the ombudsman will be funded by landlords, so have to pay fees and landlords also have to pay fees to update and maintain the landlord register.

So it'd be interesting to see how much of a financial burden that is.

And then, as I said earlier, the changes to the housing standards is expected to come in 2035, which without being too presumptuous may well involve a new government. So it would be very interesting to see if that is in the same form as expected or something completely different.

00:25:05 David Lee, podcast host

Okay, thank you. And lots of changes, Lisa.

What's your advice to anyone listening to this podcast if they're struggling to get their head around what is quite a revolutionary change?

00:25:19 Lisa Stratford, Legal Director

Use the official guidance as a starting point to build a clear phase one compliance checklist, if you like.

It's really important that you get on top of what the changes are and how they affect you.

I think it's important as well that we encourage people to audit their existing tenancies immediately and address any paperwork deadlines like the information that we've talked about that needs to be served this month and taking steps to re-engineer the possession, rent and letting processes rather than relying on the way that things have always been done.

I think it's important to be proactive in that to prevent yourself having problems later on.

00:26:01 David Lee, podcast host

And George, any final thoughts, anything to add there?

00:26:05 George Cohen, Associate

Yeah, just to stress that the official guidance is actually really good. I've been looking at it myself alongside the legislation. Sometimes guidance can be unclear or some cases inaccurate, but so far I've found it really, really helpful. So yeah, do look at that.

And then if there is anything that landlords or agents are concerned about in terms of interpretation of exactly what the obligations are, get legal advice at an early stage so that any changes you make to your procedures and policies can be done properly at the beginning and avoid some of these fines.

00:26:37 David Lee, podcast host

Okay, so thank you very much indeed to Lisa Stratford and George Cohen for their very clear and excellent contributions today about the new Renters’ Rights Act in England.

We've talked about a lot of things, the fear of rents going up, we've talked a bit about pets and I'm very happy to report that my 18-month-old dog Mabel has been very quiet and very well behaved in the room while this podcast's ongoing.

So thank you Mabel!

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