Renters' Rights Act 2025: 10 Key Changes Every Tenant Must Know

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and is the most significant reform to private renting in England since the Housing Act 1988. It replaces the scrapped Renters' Reform Bill and goes further, delivering protections the government called "the biggest upgrade to renters' rights in a generation."

The Act is being rolled out in phases. Phase 1 took effect on 27 December 2025, expanding rent repayment orders and granting councils new investigatory powers. Phase 2, the headline package, lands on 1 May 2026 and brings Section 21 abolition, reformed Section 8 grounds, the bidding ban, pet rights, discrimination protections, advance rent caps, and more.

Later milestones include the PRS Database (regional rollout expected late 2026), the PRS Ombudsman (expected 2028), and the Decent Homes Standard extension to private rentals (full compliance by 2035).

This article covers the 10 key changes you need to understand. Use our Renters' Rights Act hub for the full legal breakdown, or run a property check to see how your current rental measures up.

From 1 May 2026, landlords in England can no longer serve Section 21 notices. The last date to serve a valid Section 21 notice is 28 April 2026, and the absolute cutoff for filing a Section 21 court application is 31 July 2026. After that, no court in England will accept a Section 21 claim.

All tenancies become periodic (rolling month to month) by default. Fixed-term tenancies are abolished for new agreements. Existing fixed terms already in place before 1 May 2026 will convert to periodic tenancies once they expire.

Landlords who need to recover possession must use Section 8, which requires a specific legal ground. This means they must prove a genuine reason, whether that is rent arrears, the landlord wanting to sell, or moving back in. A new 12-month protected period at the start of every tenancy prevents landlords from using the selling or moving-in grounds during the first year.

All rent increases must now follow the Section 13 process. Landlords must serve a formal Section 13 notice giving at least two months' notice, and increases are limited to once per year.

Rent review clauses in tenancy agreements that allow increases by a fixed percentage, formula, or at the landlord's discretion are no longer valid. Every increase must go through the statutory route.

Critically, the Act changes how tribunals handle challenges. Previously, a tribunal could set the rent higher than the landlord proposed, which deterred tenants from appealing. Now the tribunal can only set the rent at or below the landlord's proposed amount, removing the risk entirely. If you think your rent increase is above market rate, use our fair rent checker to compare local rents before deciding whether to challenge.

Tenants now have a statutory right to request permission to keep a pet. Landlords must respond within 28 days and cannot unreasonably refuse. If they do not respond, consent is deemed to have been granted.

The government specifically removed the earlier proposal to require tenants to take out pet insurance. There is no insurance requirement in the final Act. Landlords can, however, require the tenant to pay for any damage caused by the pet, and this can be addressed through the deposit.

Reasonable grounds for refusal include properties where the lease (in a block of flats, for example) prohibits pets, or where the property is genuinely unsuitable, such as a tiny studio for a large dog. A blanket "no pets" policy applied to all properties is likely to be considered unreasonable.

If your landlord refuses and you believe the refusal is unreasonable, you can challenge it through the PRS Ombudsman once it is operational (expected 2028). In the meantime, the local council's enforcement team can investigate blanket bans.

It is now illegal for landlords and letting agents to invite or accept offers above the advertised rent. This applies to both the advertising stage and the negotiation stage. If a property is listed at £1,200 per month, the landlord cannot accept £1,400 from a tenant who offers more.

The penalty for breaching the bidding ban is a civil penalty of up to £7,000. Repeated offences can attract higher penalties.

This does not prevent tenants from voluntarily offering more (though the landlord commits an offence by accepting it), and it does not apply to sitting tenants negotiating a rent change. The ban specifically targets the practice of "best and final offers" that has priced out many renters in competitive markets like London and Manchester.

If you witness or experience rental bidding, report it to your local council's private rented sector enforcement team. You can also use our report issue tool to generate a formal complaint letter.

The Act makes it unlawful for landlords and agents to discriminate against prospective tenants who receive housing benefits or have children. "No DSS" and "no children" policies are now explicitly illegal, not just discouraged.

Landlords who breach this face civil penalties enforced by local councils. The ban covers advertising, application screening, and tenancy terms. A landlord cannot reject an application solely because the tenant receives Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, or any other form of state support.

This builds on case law from 2020 (the Shelter and Equality and Human Rights Commission cases that found blanket bans discriminatory), but puts it on a firm statutory footing for the first time.

A new Private Rented Sector Database will require every landlord in England to register their properties and provide key information including EPC ratings, gas safety certificates, and compliance records. Tenants will be able to search the database to verify their landlord's registration status and compliance history.

The database is expected to begin regional rollout in late 2026, with national coverage following. Landlords who fail to register will face civil penalties and will not be able to use Section 8 to recover possession.

This is a game-changer for transparency. For the first time, tenants will have a single place to check whether their landlord is legitimate and compliant. Once live, you will be able to access it through our PRS Database checker and landlord check tool.

All private landlords in England will be required to join a new PRS Ombudsman service. The ombudsman will handle tenant complaints, investigate disputes, and have the power to order landlords to apologise, carry out repairs, or pay compensation of up to £25,000.

The ombudsman is expected to be operational by 2028. Until then, tenants can still use existing routes: local council enforcement, the First-tier Tribunal, and the courts. Once established, the ombudsman will provide a faster, free alternative to court proceedings for most disputes.

Landlords who fail to join the ombudsman scheme will face civil penalties and will not be able to serve Section 8 notices.

For the first time, the Decent Homes Standard will apply to private rented homes, not just social housing. The standard requires properties to meet five criteria: free from serious hazards (Category 1 under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System), in a reasonable state of repair, with reasonably modern facilities, providing adequate thermal comfort, and meeting minimum energy efficiency standards.

The government estimates that over 20% of private rentals currently fail this standard. Full compliance is expected by 2035, giving landlords time to bring properties up to standard.

This will be enforced by local councils using their existing Housing Act 2004 powers, supplemented by new civil penalty powers under the Renters' Rights Act. Use our property check and damp check tools to assess whether your rental is likely to meet the standard.

Awaab's Law, named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak who died from exposure to mould in a social housing property in Rochdale, sets strict timescales for landlords to investigate and fix hazards like damp and mould. It came into force for social housing in October 2025.

The Renters' Rights Act extends Awaab's Law to private landlords. The specific timescales for the private sector are subject to a separate consultation that has not yet concluded. Once set, private landlords will face the same legally binding deadlines for responding to reports of damp, mould, and other serious hazards.

If you are dealing with damp or mould right now, use our damp and mould checker to assess the severity and generate an evidence report, then use report issue to create a formal letter to your landlord.

Rent repayment orders (RROs) allow tenants to recover rent paid while their landlord was committing certain housing offences. From 27 December 2025 (Phase 1 of the Act), the maximum amount recoverable has been doubled from 12 months to 24 months of rent.

New offences have been added to the list that qualifies for RROs, including:

• Failing to register on the PRS Database (once operational)
• Failing to join the PRS Ombudsman (once operational)
• Breaching a banning order
• Failing to comply with improvement notices

To apply for an RRO, you submit a claim to the First-tier Tribunal. You do not need a solicitor. The tribunal decides the amount based on the severity of the offence, the landlord's conduct, and the tenant's circumstances. Check our landlord check tool to see if your landlord has any known compliance issues that might support an RRO claim.