The first phase of the Renters' Rights Act came into force on 1 May 2026 and applies to England. If your deposits are protected, your safety certificates are up to date, and you have a written agreement with every tenant, the Act requires you to update your paperwork rather than your business.

Assured shorthold tenancies became assured periodic tenancies overnight, section 21 has gone, and rent increases now run down one statutory route. The new rules affect landlords who were relying on section 21 to avoid keeping records, because the record is now the thing a court looks at.

For everyone else, the Renters' Rights Act may leave landlords in a stronger position than it found them.

What actually changed on 1 May 2026

What the Renters' Rights Act means for landlords in practice starts with the tenancy itself. Every assured shorthold tenancy in England became an assured periodic tenancy on 1 May 2026, automatically, for existing lets as well as new ones. No action was needed from you, and no new agreement had to be signed. If you already had a written agreement, it stands.

Periodic means rolling, usually month to month. You cannot put an end date on a tenancy agreement, and fixed terms no longer exist in the private rented sector.

Section 21 has gone. To end a tenancy, you now serve a section 8 notice and rely on one or more grounds for possession, each carrying its own notice period. Rent increases run through the section 13 procedure and nothing else, so a rent review clause in an older agreement no longer does anything at all.

Your tenant can end an assured periodic tenancy at any time by giving two months' written notice. Two months is also the most you can require of them, you cannot dictate what form that notice takes, and where the agreement is silent two months applies by default.

One deadline has already passed. Landlords with an existing written agreement had to give tenants the Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet on or before 31 May 2026. If you’ve not done that, then serve it now and record the date you did it.

Why a well-run tenancy is now worth more

The government's own view is that responsible landlords gain from the Act. Its implementation roadmap says good landlords will get simpler regulation and expanded grounds for possession so they can regain their properties quickly when needed.

A rolling tenancy has no renewal date, so a tenant who pays on time and looks after the place simply stays. That removes the renewal paperwork, the renewal negotiation every twelve months and the gap between one tenant leaving and the next moving in. In central London, a void is the highest single cost of a bad let, and anything that lengthens the average tenancy works in your favour.

So, the changes do work in favour of landlords that do things properly. That means the deposit is protected in an approved scheme with the prescribed information given, gas and electrical safety certificates in date, the written statement of terms issued to tenants whose tenancy started after 1 May 2026, and repairs logged with a record of what was reported, when, and what you did.

None of that is new work. What is new is that the file decides whether you can act when you need to.

Getting your property back still works, but it runs on evidence

Section 21 has been abolished, and landlords who read that as the end of possession have misread it. The Renters' Rights Act possession grounds are broader than the ones they replaced, and a mandatory ground obliges the court to make an order once you prove it.

Notice periods vary widely by ground:

• four months where you or a close family member intend to move in (ground 1), or where you intend to sell (ground 1A)

• four weeks for serious rent arrears (ground 8)

• no notice period for antisocial behaviour (ground 14), where you can apply to court immediately, though the court cannot make an order for 14 days

Two timing rules sit on the moving in and selling grounds. Neither can be used in the first twelve months of a tenancy, and once you have used either one, you cannot market or re-let for twelve months afterwards, with limited exceptions. Serving ground 1A before a sale is certain is now an expensive mistake.

Ground 8 requires three months' rent to be outstanding, or thirteen weeks' rent when rent is paid weekly or fortnightly, both when you serve notice and at the hearing. A tenant who pays below that threshold before the hearing cannot be evicted on it.

The deposit rule deserves its own line, because it catches out careful landlords. For most grounds, the court cannot make a possession order at all unless the deposit was protected in an approved scheme, its requirements met, and the prescribed information given, or the deposit has been returned. The antisocial behaviour grounds are the exception.

What the court wants to see is ordinary record keeping. GOV.UK lists rent statements, correspondence, photographs of damage and, for the selling ground, proof that you instructed an estate agent. An inaccurate notice alone can get a claim delayed or dismissed.

Rent increases now follow one route

One route now exists for raising rent: the section 13 procedure using Form 4A, once in any twelve months, with at least two months' notice, and never in the first year of the tenancy.

The part that surprises most landlords is that this applies even where the tenant has already agreed. A conversation and an email confirming the new figure do not raise the rent. You still serve the form.

Rent review clauses no longer work as intended. If you agreed to an increase under one before 1 May 2026 and it was due to take effect after that date, the increase does not apply. A Form 4 notice served before 1 May still stands, even if the new rent starts later. There is no cap and no rent control. You can propose the open market rent.

What has changed is the risk of a challenge. Tenants can refer a proposed increase to the First-tier Tribunal, and the Tribunal can now only confirm your figure or reduce it. It cannot set a rent higher than you proposed, nor can it backdate the increase to the date in your notice. Both of those were real deterrents to challenging, and both have gone, so expect more referrals.

That makes the evidence behind the number matter more than the number. A proposal you can support with recent lettings of comparable local properties is the one that survives a hearing.

Pets, children and benefits

A tenant who wants a pet must request it in writing and describe the animal. You then have 28 days to reply in writing, and you can use that window to ask for more information, which gives you the rest of the 28 days or an extra seven, whichever is later.

You can refuse, but the reason has to be reasonable. Another tenant's allergy qualifies. So does a property too small for a large pet, or an animal that is illegal to own. Not liking pets does not, and nor does a general worry about damage or a bad experience with a previous tenant.

If you hold your flat on a lease, read it before you answer. Where the freeholder does not allow pets, refusing is reasonable, and much of the local stock is leasehold flats and warehouse conversions, where the lease governs this. Once you say yes, you cannot change your mind.

Pet damage can come out of the deposit or off an insurance policy. Not both. Claiming twice for the same damage may be fraud.

On children and benefits, blanket exclusions have gone, and any term in a tenancy agreement, mortgage, or superior lease that imposes one cannot be enforced. The penalty runs to £7,000 per offence and reaches agents and referencing companies acting for you.

Affordability checks and referencing are untouched. You can still decline a tenant who genuinely cannot afford the rent. You cannot, however, leave benefit income out because it is treated the same as any other income.

What is still coming, and what to do before it arrives

Phase two begins from late 2026 with the private rented sector database, rolled out region by region. Registration will be mandatory for every landlord and will cover your contact details, each property's details, and its gas, electrical and energy performance certificates. There will be an annual fee, and the government has not set it. Anyone quoting you a figure is guessing.

The landlord ombudsman follows. Membership becomes mandatory for private landlords, which the roadmap expects in 2028, with notice before it takes effect.

Phase three brings an updated Decent Homes Standard and an extension of Awaab's Law to the private rented sector. Timescales for both are subject to consultation, so there is no date to plan against yet.

None of that needs to be done this month. But, to help yourself, think about keeping one file per property that contains the tenancy paperwork, the deposit protection certificate and prescribed information, current gas and electrical certificates, the energy performance certificate, and a dated log of every repair reported and every reply you sent.

That file is the same one a possession claim would need, and most of it is what the database will ask for. Building it now costs nothing you wouldn't already be spending.

Where we can help

The new requirements create a set of regular jobs that can be difficult to manage alongside a full-time job. Serving the form at the right time. Tracking the twelve-month window on each property so an increase is not served a fortnight too early. Logging repairs and replies as they happen. Keeping deposit compliance provable. Answering a pet request within 28 days, in writing.

Our property management service covers that work, from tenant sourcing and rent collection through to inspections, maintenance coordination and compliance. If you want a view on what your property should be let at before deciding how to manage it, our lettings team can arrange a rental valuation.

The landlord who can produce a dated record on the day it is asked for is the one who gets a possession order without an adjournment.