The Renters' Rights Act 2025 brings major changes to the private rented sector in England from 1 May 2026 -- including the move to periodic tenancies, new rent increase rules, and updated possession routes.
This hub is designed to make the changes practical. It explains what's changing, sets out what you should do now, and points you to the right Guild guidance (with detailed technical notes linked for more detail).
England only. If you're dealing with Wales (e.g. "occupation contracts"), please use our Wales site instead.
Some links below are intentionally technical and detailed. We're also adding simplified "how-to" modules and checklists, and this hub will be updated as those are published.
Quick navigation
What landlords should do now
Most landlords don't need to rush or "re-paper" everything right now. For most standard lettings, the Renters' Rights Act 2025 will do the heavy lifting from 1 May 2026.
If you want to do anything in advance, focus on a few simple, low-effort checks that prevent common problems later:
- Rent periods: make sure any new agreements you sign (including student lets agreed early) use monthly rent periods and state a monthly rent. Avoid "termly rent periods" -- you can still accept lump-sum payments if needed, but don't build them into the rent period structure.
- Fixed terms (for now): you can still grant a fixed term at the moment, but from 1 May 2026 the new regime applies, and the tenancy will be treated as periodic (so don't rely on the "fixed term" as a control point).
- No need to re-issue existing tenancies: if a tenancy already has a written tenancy agreement, the government has indicated you won't need to change it or issue a new one. Instead, you'll give tenants the government Information Sheet/changes leaflet explaining the new rules in May 2026 (once published).
- Updated agreements for post-1 May 2026 lets: the new regime includes a written statement requirement with prescribed content set by secondary legislation. Once the government publishes the final requirements, we'll update the Guild's agreements and templates.
- Existing notices remain valid: any existing section 21 or section 8 notices validly served before 1 May remain enforceable -- but shorter periods to commence court proceedings may apply, so check.
- No more section 21s for NEW tenancies: for any new assured shorthold tenancies that start from 1 January 2026 onwards, a section 21 can't be served (because of the rule that it can't be given for the first four months -- beyond 1 May).
- Stay informed: keep an eye on our updates as the remaining details are published (our weekly digest is the easiest way to stay up to date without lots of emails).
If you already use monthly rents, advertise a genuine asking rent, treat applicants fairly, and run compliant paperwork, you're probably closer to ready than you think.
Read our guidance:
RRA Checklist 10 Steps Landlords Must Take Before 1 May
The big picture (what changes from 1 May 2026)
From 1 May 2026, the Renters' Rights Act main tenancy reforms switch on in one stage for the private rented sector in England:
- The system moves to a single periodic tenancy structure (so don't rely on fixed terms as a control point).
- A written statement containing certain prescribed information (yet to be published) will be required for all periodic assured tenancies.
- Rent increases are standardised (one main route, limits on frequency, modified tenant challenge process).
- Rental bidding is banned (no taking/encouraging offers above the advertised rent).
- Limits on rent in advance (you can't use large upfront rent demands as the default).
- New rules on discrimination (children/benefits).
- Pet requests must be considered and cannot be refused unreasonably.
- Section 21 ends (no more "no-reason" possession route).
- Possession grounds are reformed (updated routes to recover possession, including for selling or moving in).
What changes on 1 May 2026
Lettings/marketing fairness & discrimination
- No "no children"/"no DSS" policies from 1 May 2026: you (and anyone acting for you, including agents and referencing providers) must not block, discourage, or make it harder for applicants because they have children or because they receive benefits.
- Advertising + enquiries + viewings must be fair: discrimination can be direct (refusing/withholding info) or indirect (your "how we do things" policies, scripts, filtering rules, or referencing criteria).
- Affordability checks are still allowed - but treat benefits as income: you can refuse where someone genuinely can't afford the rent, but processes that ignore/discount benefit income risk being treated as discrimination.
- No rent bidding: you must advertise a single, specific rent, and must not invite, encourage, or accept offers above the advertised rent.
Read our guidance:
Tenancy structure, required documents & initial rent/deposit
- From 1 May 2026, assured shorthold tenancies and fixed terms fall away in the PRS: all assured tenancies operate as periodic, and rent periods should be monthly (or 28 days or less) - don't build quarterly/termly rent periods into the agreement.
- Paperwork changes: landlords must provide a written statement with prescribed terms/info. For most new tenancies, this should be given before the tenancy is signed. Existing written tenancies won't need re-issuing, but landlords will need to give tenants a government "changes" information sheet (usually within a month of commencement).
- See here for the draft regulations on the content and required information in the written statement.
- Upfront money/rent in advance: you can't take rent before the tenancy is entered into (signed), and "multiple months upfront" is heavily restricted -- after signing, only limited initial rent is permitted at the outset.
- Deposits still matter for possession: from 1 May 2026, getting the deposit protected and the prescribed information served becomes a key gateway to most possession orders (though late compliance can usually be fixed before the court makes the order).
Read our guidance:
Pets
- From 1 May 2026, most PRS assured tenancies in England will include a "right to request" a pet - you must consider the request and cannot unreasonably refuse consent.
- Requests must be in writing (with a description of the pet), and you must give a written decision within 28 days (with limited scope to delay in specific situations, e.g. needing more info or superior landlord consent).
Read our guidance:
Rent increases
- Rent review/uplift clauses won't work for putting the rent up (e.g. RPI clauses, fixed annual uplifts, stepped rents) -- increases must use the permitted statutory routes.
- Section 13 becomes the standard route: use the prescribed form, and the new rent must start on the first day of a tenancy period.
- At least 2 months' notice, and usually no more than one increase per year.
- First-year protection: for most tenancies, a section 13 increase can't take effect within the first 52 weeks of the tenancy; tenants can also challenge proposed increases at the First-tier Tribunal.
Read our guidance:
Possession & notices
- From 1 May 2026, section 21 ends and most PRS tenancies are assured periodic -- possession is only possible by serving a section 8 notice (with the relevant grounds) and, if needed, proving those grounds in court.
- New or amended landlord grounds, including selling (Ground 1A) and moving in (Ground 1) -- but they can't be used in the first 12 months, require 4 months' notice, and usually trigger a "no re-letting/marketing" restriction for around 12 months afterwards.
- Deposit compliance becomes critical for possession: in most cases, the court can't make a possession order unless the deposit is properly protected and the prescribed information requirements are met (with limited exceptions for the main ASB grounds).
- Transitional "existing notice" deadlines matter: a new section 21 can't be served after 30 April 2026, and older section 21/section 8 notices may only be usable for a limited post-1 May window (often up to 31 July 2026) unless proceedings have already been started.
Read our technical guidance:
Read our overview guidance:
Student lettings (sector-specific)
- From 1 May 2026, student lets are hit hard by the shift to periodic tenancies: any "fixed term" wording falls away, and rent periods must be monthly (or 28 days or less) - you can still accept lump-sum payments, but you shouldn't draft the tenancy around termly rent periods.
- For most current student tenancies already in occupation on 1 May 2026, day-to-day impact may be limited (students often leave as usual), but expect an admin step: provide the government "changes" leaflet in the first month after commencement, and if you want to keep the option of using Ground 4A (student HMO possession), you'll also need a separate Ground 4A statement in the same one-month window.
- If you're signing now for September 2026 starts, the key practical point is to set monthly rent periods and a monthly rent from the outset (don't rely on fixed terms or termly rent periods), and plan for the May 2026 leaflet/Ground 4A statement requirements even though the tenancy starts later.
Read our guidance:
Other practical issues
- Council enforcement powers are already live: new investigatory powers for councils started 27 December 2025, including requests for documents/info and (in limited cases) entry powers -- so know what you may be asked for and how to respond.
- "Permission to let" wording shouldn't trip you up: from 1 May 2026, older leases/mortgages/insurance that refer to ASTs are generally treated as applying to the new periodic assured model too -- so in most cases no action is needed.
- Council tax liability is clearer when tenants have moved out, but the tenancy hasn't ended: from 1 May 2026, a continuing assured tenancy should still count as the tenant's "material interest", so liability shouldn't default back to the landlord until the tenancy actually ends.
- Guarantors remain important, but there's a new limit after tenant death: for new guarantees from 1 May 2026, a guarantor can't be made to pay rent from the tenant's death onwards (including the post-death part of that rent period).
Read our guidance:
Guild roadmap
Here's an overview of what the Guild of Residential Landlords is doing to ensure subscribers are fully prepared for a smooth transition on 1 May 2026.
- Technical guidance linked above in this hub page has been completed.
- We will soon be producing simplified guidance for each of the relevant topics -- coming soon.
- Tenancy agreements and notices will be updated as soon as possible. We are awaiting the government's publication of secondary legislation.
- This hub page will be regularly updated.
- We will be adding an FAQ section to this page soon.
- The Landlord Handbook will be updated and entirely overhauled to reflect all the changes being introduced.
- The website content will be checked, and articles referencing possession or fixed terms will need to be amended or removed.
- Plus much more!
Future Phases of the Renters' Rights Act
Decent Homes Standard Changes For Private Landlords
Landlord Ombudsman What We Know So Far
FAQs
Can I give the information sheet now, before 1 May 2026?
We do not recommend it. The legislation says the information must be provided within one month of the commencement date, so there is a real risk that providing it early would not count. The safest course is to provide it between 1 May and 31 May 2026.
Please see this article for the reasoning behind this advice.
Can I start using the new Renters’ Rights Act assured periodic tenancies?
Our new assured periodic tenancy agreements (APTs) are nearly finished. If we had to, we could publish them quickly.
But we are holding off until two things are nailed down:
- The new “written statement” requirement under the Renters’ Rights Act relies on prescribed information and terms set by regulations. Those regulations are only in draft right now, and the current “informal consultation” approach means they could change before 1 May 2026. We need the final version published so we can make sure the agreements include the correct wording.
- We also need the official commencement order. The government has strongly suggested the Act will start on 1 May 2026, but dates can slip. Wales saw a similar reform delayed at the last minute (from July to December). If you started using the new tenancy early and commencement was delayed, you could be worse off, because these tenancies give tenants much higher security, and you would lose section 21 entirely. We want ministerial sign-off in black and white before advising anyone to switch.
Once the regulations are final and the commencement order is published, we may publish the new APT before 1 May 2026 so it can be used in the real world.
Important: even if you start using an APT early, you must still serve the government “changes” leaflet during 1 to 31 May (not before or after May).
For now, it is fine to continue issuing a six-month assured shorthold tenancy (AST) as you have always done. There is no real benefit to using the new agreements before the Act starts, because the Renters’ Rights Act will convert existing tenancies to the new APT framework anyway.
For current ASTs, keep the rent set-up simple:
- Use calendar-monthly rent.
- Keep the rent due on the same day each month.
- Avoid unusual or complicated rent periods, so the conversion is straightforward.
It also rarely makes sense to grant terms longer than six months going forward. A 12-month term can be harder to explain to tenants once the law removes fixed terms, whereas a 6-month term tends to feel more familiar.
There is still work to do on our end, including new possession and rent increase notices once the government publishes them, plus updates to our wizards and ongoing updates to the website guidance. The Guild of Residential Landlords remains on schedule for the change.
Can I agree on a rent increase before 1 May 2026 if the new rent starts afterwards?
Probably not safely.
Our view is that, if the higher rent is due to start on or after 1 May 2026, landlords and agents should not rely on a pre-1 May agreement or a rent review clause alone. Schedule 6 appears to preserve rent increases that took effect before commencement, but it does not clearly preserve a clause-based or agreed increase that only first takes effect afterwards.
Current government guidance also says that a rent increase agreed before 1 May 2026 under a rent review clause, but taking effect after that date, will not be permitted.
The safer course is to use the section 13 notice procedure.
Please see here for more information.
I use an agent - must we both provide the Information Sheet and written statements?
Yes — where an agent is contracted to ensure compliance, the cautious view is that both the landlord and the agent should provide their own document. That appears to apply both to the written statement for new tenancies and to the Information Sheet for existing written tenancies.
More information.
Updates
23 March 2026 - Published article about providing two written statements and the Information Sheet where there is an agent.
20 March 2026 - The government has published a raft of documents, including the information sheet for exiting tenancies and a new section and 13 notices to be used from 1 May.
12 March 2026 - Added an article about agreeing rent increases before May 2026 that would take effect after commencement.
March 2026 - Working on a new possession notice wizard, which we aim to be more detailed in relation to available grounds and using AI.
4 March 2026 - Published: Avoid Rent Increase Appeals With A Section 13 Workflow
27 February 2026 - Published a preview of the upcoming written statement of assured periodic tenancy (APT).
February 2026 - New Renters' Rights Act compatible assured periodic tenancy (APT) is almost completed, but we are awaiting publication of final legislation before making it available.
February 2026 - Landlord handbook content completed, where changes are made. New pages are ready to publish on 1 May.
30 January 2026 - Updated Changing the Rent and Landlord Wants Tenant to Leave Handbook pages with summary of changes (non-technical) in preparation for RRA 2025. Most Handbook pages will be updated during February 2026.
30 January 2026 - Added Government Decent Homes Standard policy article.
21 January 2026 - Updated Written Statement technical guidance with details of the written statement draft regulations.
19 January 2026 - Government publishes draft regulations for the contents of the new "written statement".
17 January 2026 -- This hub page for the Renters' Rights Act 2025 was published.
November 2025 to January 2026 -- Guild publishes technical guidance (linked above) for each main topic affected by the 1 May 2026 changes.
13 November 2025 -- Government announces 1 May 2026 as the start date for the main sections of the Renters' Rights Act 2025.
