A full breakdown of the Renters' Rights Act 2025: the end of Section 21, new eviction grounds, rent increase rules, the rental bidding ban, and every other change now in force in England.
The Renters' Rights Act 2025 is the biggest shake up of England's private rented sector in over 30 years. It received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, and its central reforms, including the end of Section 21 "no fault" evictions, took effect on 1 May 2026. If you rent a home in England or let one out, this Act rewrites the rules you're operating under.
Below is a full breakdown of what's changed, what's still coming, and what it means depending on which side of the tenancy agreement you're on. For the government's own summary, see the Guide to the Renters' Rights Act on GOV.UK.
For decades, Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 let landlords end a tenancy without giving any reason, provided they gave the correct notice. Tenants could be asked to leave even if they'd never missed a payment or broken a single rule. That power is now gone.
From 1 May 2026, assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) no longer exist. Every private tenancy has converted into a single type of agreement: an assured periodic tenancy with no fixed end date. There's no more six month or twelve month contract that automatically expires; tenancies simply continue, rolling month to month, until either side ends them properly.
Tenants can leave whenever they want by giving two months' notice. Landlords can only end a tenancy by using one of a specific list of legal grounds and following the correct notice period for that ground. Blanket, reason free evictions are no longer allowed.
Landlords who wanted to use the old system had until 30 April 2026 to serve a valid Section 21 notice. Where one was served in time, the landlord can still apply to court for possession up to 31 July 2026. Anyone serving a Section 21 notice on or after 1 May 2026 risks a civil penalty from the local council of up to £7,000. Osbornes Law sets out the key dates in full.
Because landlords can no longer evict without cause, the Act sets out clearer, updated grounds they can rely on instead. Some of the notable changes are below.
Selling the property or moving in. Landlords using the "sale" or "landlord wants to move in" grounds must now wait until the tenancy has run for at least 12 months, and must then give tenants four months' notice. Both are longer protections than under the old system.
Rent arrears. The threshold for the mandatory rent arrears ground has been tightened. Landlords now generally need to show three months of unpaid rent rather than two, reducing the risk of eviction over a short term shortfall.
Repairs and redevelopment. New grounds cover situations where a landlord genuinely needs vacant possession to carry out substantial remedial or demolition works.
Repeat abuse of grounds. Landlords who misuse a possession ground, for example by claiming they intend to sell and then re letting shortly after, can face penalties and be barred from using that ground again for a period.
A full, plain English rundown of all the grounds is available from the NRLA's guide to the Renters' Rights Act.
Landlords can no longer build automatic rent increase clauses into a tenancy agreement or raise the rent whenever they like. Under the Act, rent can only be increased once every 12 months, and only by serving a formal Section 13 notice using the prescribed Form 4A.
Tenants who think an increase is excessive can challenge it at the First tier Tribunal. Importantly, the tribunal can no longer set a rent higher than what the landlord proposed, removing a disincentive that previously discouraged tenants from challenging unfair rises. Backdated rent increases are also not permitted; any increase only takes effect from the date set out in the process.
Landlords and letting agents must advertise a single asking rent for a property, and they are legally barred from accepting or even inviting an offer above that advertised price. This targets the practice of encouraging prospective tenants to bid against each other, which had become common in high demand areas and pushed rents up before a tenancy even began. Cope & Co has a good explainer on the new bidding and discrimination rules.
Some landlords previously asked for large lump sums upfront, sometimes six months' or even a year's rent in advance, effectively pricing out tenants who couldn't produce that much cash at once even if they could easily afford the monthly rent. The Act caps requested rent in advance at one month, levelling the playing field for tenants without large savings.
Blanket policies such as "no DSS" (refusing tenants who receive housing benefit or Universal Credit) or refusing to rent to families with children are now explicitly banned. Landlords and agents can't advertise a property as unavailable to these groups, and can't reject an application purely on that basis. Each applicant now has to be assessed on their actual circumstances.
Tenants gained a statutory right to ask their landlord for permission to keep a pet, and landlords can't unreasonably refuse. A landlord who wants to say no needs a legitimate reason, for example a genuine issue with the property or a superior lease that prohibits pets, and generally has 28 days to respond to a written request. Landlords are permitted to require pet insurance or a similar arrangement to cover potential damage.
Landlords must now provide tenants with a written statement of the tenancy's key terms. This closes a gap where verbal or informal arrangements left tenants unclear on their rights and obligations, and it gives councils and the courts a clear document to refer back to in a dispute.
For the first time, private rented homes will be legally required to meet a Decent Homes Standard, a set of minimum quality requirements that has applied to social housing for years but never to private lets. The government ran a consultation on this in early 2026, which proposed 2035 as the earliest date for full application to the private rented sector; a final decision and confirmed date are still pending. Once in force, it will give councils new enforcement powers to act against homes that fall short on issues like serious disrepair, poor insulation, or unsafe installations.
Awaab's Law, introduced after the death of two year old Awaab Ishak from prolonged exposure to mould in a housing association flat, has applied to social housing since 27 October 2025. The Renters' Rights Act gives the government the power to extend the same strict legal deadlines for investigating and fixing serious hazards, such as damp, mould, and dangerous disrepair, to private tenants as well. That extension has not happened yet. It's still subject to consultation, and it isn't expected to come into force for private renters before 2027. Until then, private tenants' main protections against disrepair and mould come from Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, both of which already require landlords to keep a property in good repair and free of hazards like damp and mould.
The Act creates a mandatory database that all private landlords will need to register on, listing key details for themselves and every property they let. This includes contact information, address, property type, number of bedrooms and occupants, and safety compliance records such as gas safety certificates, EICRs (electrical safety reports), and EPCs (energy performance certificates). The rollout is planned in phases starting from late 2026, moving toward full public access and data sharing with councils. It's designed to make it far easier to identify and act against unregistered or non compliant landlords. The Hogan Lovells implementation roadmap summary covers the phasing in more detail.
A new Ombudsman service will give tenants a free, independent way to raise complaints against their landlord without needing to go to court. It will also be able to compel landlords to take action or pay compensation. The Ombudsman is expected to launch after the landlord database is up and running, with mandatory landlord membership anticipated from around 2028.
Rent repayment orders, which let tenants reclaim rent paid to a landlord who has broken the law, for example by illegally evicting them or letting an unlicensed HMO, are being extended to cover superior landlords, not just the immediate landlord. The maximum financial penalty available is being doubled, and repeat offenders will be required to pay the maximum amount rather than a lesser sum, closing a loophole that let some landlords treat penalties as a cost of doing business.
Purpose built student accommodation, whether university owned or run under an approved code of practice such as those overseen by ANUK or Unipol, is exempt from most of the Act's changes. However, most student housing doesn't fall into that category. Smaller HMOs and one or two bedroom flats let to students on standard assured shorthold tenancies are fully covered by the new rules, meaning many student landlords will need to adjust to periodic tenancies and the new grounds for possession like everyone else. Gateley's guide covers the student accommodation changes specifically.
A detailed version of this timeline, updated as the government confirms further dates, is maintained by the House of Commons Library and by The Independent Landlord.
For tenants, the changes add up to considerably more security. There's no more open ended risk of losing a home for no stated reason, clearer limits on rent increases, a ban on discriminatory refusals, and new routes to challenge poor conditions or unfair treatment without going to court.
For landlords, the trade off is more procedural rigor. Ending a tenancy now requires using the right ground, the right notice period, and the right paperwork; getting it wrong can see a possession claim thrown out or a landlord facing a penalty. Registration on the landlord database and eventual Ombudsman membership add new compliance steps, and rent increases must go through a single formal channel rather than being handled informally.
The Renters' Rights Act doesn't finish rolling out for several more years. The Decent Homes Standard alone has a 2035 horizon. But as of mid 2026, its core provisions are already reshaping how every private tenancy in England works.
This article is intended as a general guide and does not constitute legal advice. Landlords and tenants with specific questions about their tenancy should consult a solicitor or a body such as the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) or Shelter.