Phase 1 came into force on 1 May 2026. Section 21 no-fault evictions are abolished, fixed terms in the private rented sector are replaced by assured periodic tenancies, rent can be increased once a year with two months' notice, and you cannot ask for more than one month's rent in advance.
Article · 21 July 2026
The Renters' Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 as chapter 26. Its first substantive phase came into force on 1 May 2026, and the point landlords most often get wrong is that it applies to existing tenancies as well as new ones. There is no run-off for agreements signed before that date.
Councils got there first: new investigatory powers to inspect properties, demand documents and access third-party data came into force on 27 December 2025. So by the time Phase 1 landed, the enforcement side had already been strengthened.
The Act does not initially apply to the social rented sector.
The rent-in-advance cap is the provision with the clearest financial consequence, because advance rent was doing a job. Where a tenant could not satisfy referencing — a student without a UK guarantor, someone newly self-employed, a tenant arriving from overseas — six or twelve months up front was one way the letting was made to work. One month is now the maximum that can be requested.
An illustrative example. A landlord with six lets at £950 a month used to place two of them each year with six months' rent in advance:
The rent is not lost; it arrives monthly instead. What is lost is the cushion, and with it the informal credit check the advance payment represented. A landlord who relied on that cushion to fund voids, refurbishments or the deposit on the next purchase now has to fund those from somewhere else.
One increase a year, with at least two months' notice, converts rent setting from something that happened at renewal into a diarised annual event. An increase taking effect on 1 April has to be notified by 1 February at the latest.
The discipline that imposes is real. If your costs rise in June — the mortgage reverts, the buildings insurance jumps, a licensing fee lands — you cannot respond until your next permitted review and then only after two months' notice. Illustratively, a landlord whose interest cost rises by £120 a month in June and whose review date is the following April carries that £120 for ten months, which is £1,200, before a single pound of it can be passed on.
That argues for aligning review dates across a portfolio with the dates your own costs change, and for knowing what each property actually earns before the review rather than after it.
Phase 2 — a mandatory PRS Database requiring landlord registration with property and safety details, and a Landlord Ombudsman — is described in the government's implementation roadmap as coming from late 2026. That is directional, not a commencement date, and the Ombudsman has been described as expected around 2028. Phase 3 covers the Decent Homes Standard for the private rented sector and the extension of Awaab's Law. The government's Decent Homes Standard policy statement, published on 28 January 2026, says the new standard will apply to privately rented homes from 2035; the regulations that set it out are still to be made. For Awaab's Law in the private rented sector, the government has said it will consult on the detail and the timescale, and no date has been set. Neither phase binds you today.
Two of the changes have a direct bookkeeping consequence, and they arrive in the same year as Making Tax Digital.
Rent now arrives in a predictable monthly pattern rather than in occasional large advances, which makes the property income line in a quarterly update steadier and easier to check — but it also removes the buffer that used to absorb a late payment without anyone noticing.
Arrears become more visible and more important. With no section 21 route and possession available only on a ground, the accuracy of the rent account is not just an accounting question. Records that show, month by month, what was due, what was received and what remains outstanding are the ordinary product of proper bookkeeping, and they are exactly what any possession process will require.
If a PRS Database does arrive in Phase 2, the information it is described as collecting — property details and safety documents — is the same information a landlord ought to be able to produce for each property today.
What the law requires of a tenancy is a legal question and this is not legal advice — the Act itself and its implementation roadmap are the authorities, and a housing solicitor is the person for a specific possession question. What we can help with is the money side: property bookkeeping that produces a per-property rent account, and the quarterly discipline set out in the Making Tax Digital guide. For portfolios where the cash-flow change actually bites, accountants for portfolio landlords explains how we work.
What has changed in landlord tax, the dates coming up, and one number worth checking on your own portfolio.
Yes. That is the single most important point about the commencement, and it is where most of the confusion sits. The Phase 1 measures apply to both new and existing tenancies from 1 May 2026, so there is no period during which pre-existing agreements continue under the old rules. In practice that means the abolition of section 21, the conversion of the private rented sector to assured periodic tenancies, the once-a-year limit on rent increases with two months' notice, the one-month cap on rent in advance, the 28-day pet request window and the discrimination ban all reach agreements signed years ago. The Act does not initially apply to the social rented sector.
No. From 1 May 2026 landlords and agents cannot request more than one month's rent in advance. That removes what was, for a lot of lettings, the practical workaround where a tenant could not satisfy referencing or provide a UK guarantor. The rent itself is not lost, it simply arrives monthly, but the working capital effect is real. Illustratively, a landlord who used to place two tenancies a year at £950 a month with six months up front received £5,700 at the start of each and now receives £950, so £9,500 of cash that used to arrive at the front of the year does not. Anything that cushion was funding needs another source.
Once a year, with at least two months' notice. An increase taking effect on 1 April therefore has to be notified by 1 February at the latest. The practical consequence is that rent setting becomes an annual, diarised decision rather than something handled at renewal, and a cost increase that lands just after your review date is carried until the next one. Illustratively, a landlord whose interest cost rises by £120 a month in June with a review date the following April absorbs £1,200 before any of it can be passed on. Aligning review dates across a portfolio with the dates your own costs change is the sensible response.
Not yet, and no. The mandatory PRS Database and the Landlord Ombudsman are Phase 2 measures. The government's implementation roadmap describes them as coming from late 2026, and the Ombudsman has been described as expected around 2028, but those are directional statements rather than commencement dates and nothing obliges you to register today. In Phase 3, the government's policy statement of 28 January 2026 says the new Decent Homes Standard will apply to privately rented homes from 2035, with the regulations still to be made. No date has been set for extending Awaab's Law to private rentals; the government has said it will consult on that first.
New investigatory powers: the ability to inspect properties, to require the production of documents, and to access data held by third parties. Those powers commenced before the main Phase 1 measures, which means enforcement capability was in place first. For a landlord the practical implication is documentary rather than dramatic. The question a council can now ask more easily is whether the paperwork for a given property exists and is current, which makes the ordinary discipline of keeping safety certificates, tenancy agreements and a per-property rent account in one findable place worth more than it used to be. It is also the same material a PRS Database would collect if Phase 2 arrives.
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