Section 21 was abolished on 1 May 2026, and rent can now rise only once a year, by Section 13 notice, up to market rate. This guide covers every change, the 31 May deadline many landlords already missed, and what each failure costs.
As a landlord, you can no longer end a tenancy with a Section 21 notice, and you can only raise the rent once a year, by a Section 13 notice, up to market rate. Both changed on 1 May 2026, for every existing tenancy, not just new ones.
This guide covers what the Act requires of you. It does not cover what it requires of tenants, agents or councils except where that changes what you have to do.
This guide is part of our landlord compliance series — sourced guides to the biggest deadlines and duties facing English landlords right now.
Section 21 was abolished. You can no longer end a tenancy without giving a reason. Every possession claim now has to rely on a specific statutory ground, and you have to be able to evidence it. There is no transitional class of tenancy that kept Section 21 — the government implemented the new tenancy system in a single stage, applying to all private tenancies at once.
All assured tenancies became periodic. Fixed terms in the private rented sector are gone. Tenancies now roll on a periodic basis, with tenants able to leave on two months’ notice. In practice this is the change that most affects how you plan: you can no longer assume a twelve-month fixed term means twelve months of occupancy.
Rent increases are limited to once a year, by a revised Section 13 procedure. You serve a Section 13 notice setting out the new rent, giving at least two months’ notice, and the increase can be to market rate but no higher. A tenant who thinks the proposed rent is above market rate can refer it to the First-tier Tribunal. Rent review clauses in tenancy agreements no longer provide a route around this.
Separately, the amount you can require as rent in advance is capped: once a tenancy agreement has been signed and before it starts, you can require at most one month’s rent — or 28 days’ rent where the rental period is shorter than a month.
This is the requirement small landlords most often missed, because it applied to tenancies that were already running and required no prompting from anyone.
If you had a tenant in place when the new system began, you had to give them prescribed information about the changes the Act made — in practice, the government’s own published information sheet — on or before 31 May 2026. Where the tenancy was verbal rather than written, you had to provide a written summary of the main terms instead.
If you missed it, the position is not that you are now safe. The duty does not expire. A council can impose a financial penalty for the contravention, and where a contravention continues, a further penalty can follow. The practical response is to serve the information sheet now and keep dated evidence that you did — late compliance is a mitigating factor councils are directed to weigh; continued non-compliance is an aggravating one.
The information sheet is published by government and is free. You do not need to draft anything, and you should not pay anyone to draft one for you.
For any assured tenancy coming into existence under the new system, you must give the tenant a written statement of terms within 28 days, containing the information set out in regulations — the names of landlord and tenant, an address in England and Wales for service of notices, the address of the property, the date occupation begins, the rent and when it is due, among other required content.
Two things worth being clear about, because they are commonly confused. First, this is a separate duty from the information-sheet duty above: the information sheet was a one-off for tenants already in place; the written statement applies to every new tenancy from here on. Second, you did not need to re-issue or rewrite existing written tenancy agreements — the information sheet was the mechanism for those.
Almost every summary of this Act you will read quotes “£7,000” and stops. That is the statutory ceiling, not the expected penalty. The government’s civil penalties guidance sets a starting point of £4,000 for these two breaches, which councils then adjust through a four-step process — aggravating and mitigating factors, your financial circumstances, the totality of multiple penalties, and any early-payment discount — landing on a final figure within the £7,000 cap.
The higher tier is real and much larger. Penalties of up to £40,000 apply to abuse of the possession grounds: relying on a ground while knowing you are not entitled to possession or being reckless as to that, and re-letting or re-marketing a property within the 12-month no-let period that follows using the moving-in or selling grounds. A continuing or repeat breach within five years sits in the same tier, and serious repeat offending can be prosecuted instead.
A middle tier of £7,000 covers rental discrimination — against tenants on benefits or with children — and rental bidding: failing to state a proposed rent in an advertisement, or inviting or accepting rent above the advertised figure.
Separately, the general maximum civil penalty for certain housing offences under earlier housing legislation rose from £30,000 to £40,000 on 1 May 2026.
Because a Section 13 increase can be challenged at the First-tier Tribunal on the basis that it exceeds market rate, the phrase “market rate” has stopped being rhetorical. If your increase is referred, the question becomes what comparable properties in your area actually let for — and that is an evidential question with a sourced answer.
UK Property Portal publishes the official position free: our city rent guides give average private rent by area and bedroom count with a 24-month trend, drawn from the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, and our rental yield index ranks gross yield across 294 English local authorities. Both are dated and attributed, which is the form evidence needs to take.
Setting an increase you can defend is a different exercise from setting one you would like. The tribunal is not assessing whether your costs went up.
The PRS Database rolls out from late 2026, phased by region, and registration will be mandatory for private landlords in England. Government has not published dates for individual local authorities — anyone telling you when your specific area goes live is guessing. We keep a per-area page for all 294 English local authorities that says exactly that, and will carry the real date when it exists: check your local authority, or read the full PRS Database explainer.
The PRS Landlord Ombudsman is established during the same phase, with mandatory landlord membership expected in 2028, once government is satisfied the service is ready. Membership is expected to carry a small annual fee per property.
Minimum energy efficiency. Privately rented homes must reach EPC C or equivalent by 1 October 2030 unless exempt. This is the deadline with the longest lead time and the largest bill, and it is the one worth planning against now rather than in 2029.
Further out: the tenancy reforms extend to the social rented sector in 2027, Awaab’s Law reaches the private sector in a later phase subject to consultation, and a new Decent Homes Standard applies from 2035.
Database and ombudsman penalty levels. The Act provides for penalties of up to £7,000 for an initial breach and up to £40,000 for serious, persistent or repeat breaches — including failing to register on the database or to join the ombudsman. But GOV.UK’s civil penalties guidance does not yet publish starting points for those offences; it lists them as forthcoming. So the tier is known; the expected figure is not.
The database fee. An annual fee is confirmed as mandatory. The amount has not been set. Figures circulating elsewhere are analogies drawn from other registration schemes, not official numbers, and we do not repeat them.
1. Serve the information sheet if you have not. The deadline has passed; the duty has not. Do it, date it, keep proof of service.
2. Fix your written-statement process for new lets. 28 days, prescribed content. This recurs with every new tenancy, so it should be a template you use, not a task you remember.
3. Check your advertising. Every listing must state a proposed rent, and you cannot accept more than the advertised figure. This one is easy to breach without noticing, and it sits in the £7,000 tier.
4. Re-read your possession assumptions. The £40,000 tier is aimed squarely at using a ground you are not entitled to, and at re-letting inside the 12-month window after using the moving-in or selling grounds.
5. Gather your compliance records now. Gas Safety Certificate, EICR, EPC, deposit protection, licensing. Database registration will ask for these, and holding them together is worth doing regardless of when your region goes live.
6. Get an EPC assessment if you are below C. 2030 is far enough away to plan and close enough that the work is real.
Can I still use Section 21? No. It was abolished on 1 May 2026 and there is no category of private tenancy that retained it.
What replaces Section 21 evictions? A specific statutory ground for possession, evidenced in every case. There is no longer a no-fault route — every possession claim has to rely on one of the grounds set out in the Act, and you have to be able to evidence it.
Do I have to rewrite my existing tenancy agreements? No. Existing written agreements did not need to be reissued. What you had to do was give existing tenants the government information sheet by 31 May 2026.
What happens if I missed the 31 May 2026 deadline? The duty continues. A council can impose a financial penalty — guidance starts at £4,000, with a £7,000 statutory maximum — and a continuing contravention can attract a further penalty. Serving it late and keeping evidence is better than not serving it.
How often can I raise the rent? Once a year, by Section 13 notice, with at least two months’ notice, to no more than market rate. The tenant can refer it to the First-tier Tribunal.
When do I have to register on the PRS Database? Rollout begins in late 2026 and is phased by region. No per-area dates have been published, so nobody can currently tell you your date.
Does any of this apply outside England? No. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 applies to England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have separate regimes.
UK Property Portal is written and published by Dan Woodcock, working independently from UK. It is a one-person operation — there is no newsroom and no research team behind it — and every figure, date and threshold on this page is sourced, attributed and dated to the document it comes from. Read the full editorial standard →
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