The Renters' Rights Act Is Live: What Portfolio Landlords Need to Do Now
The Renters' Rights Act has been in force since 1 May 2026, and the next compliance deadline is already on the calendar. If you hold rental property in England — whether that is a single HMO or a portfolio spanning the North West and North East — this is a practical stocktake of what has changed, what is coming next, and what it means for how you manage your stock.
What actually changed on 1 May 2026
Section 21 no-fault eviction was abolished. Every assured shorthold tenancy in existence on that date converted automatically into an assured periodic tenancy, and every new tenancy signed since has started life as periodic — there is no longer a fixed term to negotiate around.
Ending a tenancy now means using a Section 8 notice with one of the revised statutory grounds for possession. Rent increases follow the same tightening: landlords can only raise rent through a formal Section 13 notice, and the notice periods are longer than under the old regime. Landlords also lost the ability to demand more than one month's rent in advance from new tenants, and blanket bans on tenants with children or on benefits are no longer lawful.
None of this is optional or phased by region — it applied to the whole of England on the same date, to existing tenancies and new ones alike.
The paperwork deadline most landlords have already met — or missed
Alongside the tenancy changes, the Act imposed an information duty: landlords had until 31 May 2026 to give existing tenants either the government's official Information Sheet or, for wholly oral tenancies, a written statement of terms. Non-compliance carries civil penalties of up to £7,000 for a first breach and up to £40,000 for continued failure, and local authorities have held expanded investigatory and enforcement powers since 27 December 2025.
For anyone who has not confirmed this paperwork is in order across their portfolio, it is worth checking now rather than waiting for a local authority to ask.
What's coming next: the PRS Database
The next major milestone is the "Register your Rental Property" service — the new Private Rented Sector Database required under the Act. It is due to launch on 15 December 2026, with a phased regional rollout rather than a single national deadline. Each region gets a three-month registration window from its go-live date, and portfolio landlords can register every property they hold as soon as the service opens, provided each property meets its own regional deadline.
For Landmarka's two core regions, the published rollout has the North West going live on 15 May 2027 (deadline 14 August 2027) and the North East going live on 15 June 2027 (deadline 14 September 2027) though these dates may be subject to change. A registration fee of £65 per property, per year, has also been reported.
The practical point is that this is not a distant, abstract reform. For portfolio landlords, it is a second wave of compliance dates to plan around, on top of the tenancy changes already in place.
Why this changes the calculus for different kinds of stock
For hands-off investors holding ready-made, tenant-ready stock in the North East, professional letting management already absorbs this kind of regulatory shift — notices, rent reviews and now registration deadlines are handled as a matter of course, rather than falling to the investor to track.
For landlords with higher-end stock — HMOs, blocks of flats, well-specified 2-bed houses — leasing to a housing association on a fixed 5- or 7-year term is a structurally different arrangement from a standard assured tenancy, and shifts a meaningful amount of day-to-day compliance responsibility to the party managing the lease. That distinction matters more now than it did before 1 May, and it is worth taking specific advice on how it applies to your own arrangement rather than assuming.
For anyone bringing a commercial building into residential use — the model behind conversions such as the 10-bed HMO and retail unit on George Street in Ashton-under-Lyne, or the Article 4 HMO conversion at Park Bank in Salford — the compliance clock starts from the first tenancy signed, not from when the paperwork gets tidied up. Building the Act's requirements into the letting process from day one, rather than retrofitting them, is considerably less work.
What to do before the year ends
Confirm the 31 May 2026 Information Sheet or written statement was issued for every existing tenancy, and is issued as standard for every new one.
Check that any rent increases since 1 May have gone through a valid Section 13 notice with the correct notice period.
Diarise the PRS Database's 15 December 2026 launch and your region's specific window, and confirm who — you or your managing partner — will handle registration.
For social housing leased stock, get clarity in writing on which party is responsible for which compliance obligation under the lease.
For any property moving from commercial to residential use, build the Act's requirements into the letting process before the first tenancy is signed, not after.
None of this requires guessing at how the rules might be interpreted — it requires a clear-eyed run through what has already happened and what is scheduled next, and a team that keeps that timetable current across every property in a portfolio.
If you would like a second opinion on how your portfolio sits against these dates, book a consultation with our team at hello@landmarka.co.uk.
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