Field note · Lettings
Four months into the Renters’ Rights Act: the clocks an agent keeps.
The Renters’ Rights Act received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and its first phase took effect on 1 May 2026. Every private tenancy in England became periodic on that day. What an agent manages now is less a set of contracts than a set of deadlines, and most of them are new.
The short answer
Since 1 May 2026, section 21 no-fault evictions are abolished in England and every private tenancy is periodic. Rent can rise once a year by a section 13 notice giving at least two months; landlords must publish an asking rent and cannot accept bids above it; advance rent is capped at one month. A private rented sector database and a mandatory ombudsman follow from late 2026, and civil penalties run from £7,000 for a first breach to £40,000 for repeats.
On 1 May 2026, the government said, new laws “kicked in” for eleven million renters in England. The headline was the end of section 21. The working reality for a letting agent is everything that replaced it: a system where the tenancy does not end unless somebody follows a procedure, and where each procedure has a notice period, a cap, or a fine attached.
So here is the Act as a list of clocks. Each one is a date an agent has to notice, on time, across every property they manage.
Clock one: the rent
Rent goes up by one route only: a section 13 notice setting out the new rent and giving at least two months’ notice, at most once a year. A tenant can challenge it at the tribunal before the new rent begins. For an agent with two hundred managed properties that is two hundred anniversary dates, two hundred notice windows, and a tribunal timetable behind each one.
Clock two: the letting
Landlords and agents must publish an asking rent, and it is illegal to accept an offer above it. Once a tenancy is signed and before it starts, a landlord can require at most one month’s rent in advance (28 days’ rent where the period is shorter). The bidding ban is enforced at the point of offer, which means the record of what was advertised and what was accepted is the evidence.
Clock three: possession
With section 21 gone, possession runs on grounds. The two most agents will meet — the landlord selling, or moving in — need four months’ notice and cannot be used in the first twelve months of a tenancy. Existing fixed terms converted to periodic tenancies on 1 May, so the twelve-month clock is already running on every tenancy that started after that date.
Clock four: pets
A landlord cannot unreasonably refuse a request to keep a pet and must consider every request on its own facts. Refusals can go to the ombudsman or to court. A request is therefore a dated event that needs a dated, reasoned reply, and an unanswered one is the worst outcome.
Clock five: registration and the ombudsman
Phase two starts from late 2026. The private rented sector database will be rolled out by area; landlords will be legally required to register themselves and their properties, and letting or advertising a property that is not registered will be enforceable. All private landlords in England with assured or regulated tenancies will be required to join the new ombudsman, and will be given notice of the date by which they must.
What missing a clock costs
Civil penalties of up to £7,000 for an initial or minor breach and up to £40,000, or criminal prosecution, for serious, persistent or repeated non-compliance — the same scale applies to the database and ombudsman duties. Local councils enforce.
What this has to do with us
Nothing about the law is automatable and nothing about the calendar should be done by hand. The judgement — is this rent the market rate, is this pet request reasonable, is this ground made out — stays with a person. The noticing — the anniversary is in nine weeks, the notice must go by Friday, the registration for this area opens next month, this request has been open six days — is exactly the kind of work that gets missed at two hundred properties and never at twenty.
That is a document-chasing and diary agent with a very specific rulebook: read the tenancy dates, compute the windows, write to the named negotiator with the property, the clock and the deadline, and log that it did. The chasing offer is the same machine; the rulebook is the Act. And because the ombudsman and the council will both ask what was sent and when, the record is the point.
What to do this quarter
- Put every managed tenancy’s start date and last rent increase in one list. Those two dates generate most of the clocks.
- Record the asking rent on every listing, dated, and keep it with the accepted offer.
- Watch for your area’s database rollout — it is by area, from late 2026, and letting an unregistered property is the breach.
- Answer every pet request in writing, with reasons, within days. The unanswered request is the one that goes to the ombudsman.
Questions people actually ask
When did the Renters’ Rights Act come into force?
It received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and its first phase took effect on 1 May 2026, when section 21 was abolished, every existing private tenancy in England converted to a periodic tenancy, and the new rules on rent increases, rental bidding, advance rent and pets began. The second phase — the private rented sector database and the landlord ombudsman — follows from late 2026.
How often can rent be increased under the Renters’ Rights Act?
Once a year, to the market rate, by a section 13 notice that sets out the new rent and gives at least two months’ notice before it takes effect. Tenants can challenge the increase at the tribunal before the new rent begins.
What are the penalties for breaching the Renters’ Rights Act?
Civil penalties of up to £7,000 for an initial or minor breach, and up to £40,000 or criminal prosecution for serious, persistent or repeated non-compliance, enforced by local councils. The same scale applies to failing to register on the private rented sector database or to join the ombudsman scheme.
Can a landlord still take six months’ rent in advance?
No. Once a tenancy agreement is signed and before it starts, a landlord can require at most one month’s rent in advance, or 28 days’ rent for tenancies with a rental period shorter than a month. Landlords and agents must also publish an asking rent and cannot accept offers above it.
Sources
- GOV.UK, “When will the Renters’ Rights Act come into force?”, news story published 30 April 2026: “On 1 May 2026, new laws kicked in” for 11 million renters; the database “will be rolled out gradually by area from late 2026”; the ombudsman is part of phase two “from late 2026 onwards”. source ↗ — primary; the department re-checked every 6 months
- GOV.UK, “Guide to the Renters’ Rights Act”, updated 6 November 2025: Royal Assent 27 October 2025; existing fixed terms convert to periodic tenancies; rent increases once a year by section 13 notice with at least two months’ notice; asking rent must be published and offers above it are illegal to accept; advance rent capped at one month or 28 days; pets cannot be unreasonably refused; sale and move-in grounds need four months’ notice and cannot be used in the first twelve months; civil penalties up to £7,000 and up to £40,000 or prosecution; ombudsman membership required for all private landlords in England with assured or regulated tenancies; letting or advertising an unregistered property is enforceable. source ↗ — primary; the department’s own guide re-checked every 6 months
- The framing of the Act as a set of clocks, and the observation that the noticing rather than the judging is what fails at scale, is ours. The Act applies to England; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own tenancy law. — our own argument, and a scope limitation, stated
Checked 11 September 2026. Next scheduled check 10 March 2027. Numbers that move — leaderboards, live indices — are re-checked every 30 days; annual datasets and rules in force every six months; dated research once a year. If something here has gone stale before we got to it, tell us and we will correct it and say what changed.
Two hundred properties is two hundred calendars.
We build the agent that keeps them: it reads the tenancy dates, computes every notice window the Act creates, writes to the named negotiator with the property and the deadline, and logs what it sent. The decision about the rent, the pet or the possession stays with your people. The noticing does not have to.
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