Renters’ Rights Act Compliance
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Learn more →Renters’ Rights Act 2025, England
PRS Database registration: the 2026 guide for landlords and letting agents in England
The PRS Database is the national register of private landlords and rented homes in England, created by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. GOV.UK calls it the Register your rental property service. It opens on 15 December 2026 in the West Midlands, and every let property in England must be registered by 14 November 2027. Registration costs £65 a property a year. The landlord must register, even when an agent manages the home, and a council can fine a landlord up to £7,000 for letting or marketing a property that is not on it.
- 15 Dec 2026Opens, West Midlands first
- 14 Nov 2027Every let property registered
- £65Per property, per year
- Up to £7,000Fine per breach, £40,000 for an offence
Checked against GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk on 27 October 2026. Sources
The basics
What is the PRS Database?
The Private Rented Sector Database is a register of private landlords and the homes they let in England, set up under Chapter 3 of Part 2 of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. Every landlord makes two kinds of record on it: a landlord entry about themselves, and a dwelling entry for each property. The database operator gives each landlord and each property a unique identifier. Councils will use it to find rented homes and the people responsible for them, and the government intends it to replace the private landlord side of the Database of Rogue Landlords. Tenants will later be able to check whether a landlord is registered, although which details are made public will be set by a separate set of regulations. The detailed rules for registering are in the draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026, laid before Parliament on 9 September 2026. The database covers England only; Scotland and Wales run their own landlord registers.
Who it applies to
Who must register on the PRS Database?
Every private landlord in England who lets a home on an assured or regulated tenancy must register, and the duty applies to landlords of every size, from one flat to a large portfolio. Companies and trusts register too, giving details of the organisation and of a nominated contact. Joint landlords each make their own landlord entry and share one entry for the property. Supported exempt accommodation is excluded by the draft regulations. During the rollout, the duty covers properties that are let, or that become let while the rollout is running. A landlord who is subject to a banning order cannot register. Where a landlord cannot act, the draft regulations let certain people register for them, such as someone holding a power of attorney, an executor, a receiver or, where the property is being repossessed, a mortgage lender.
Can a letting agent register for the landlord?
Not on its own. GOV.UK says the landlord must start and complete the registration, and the landlord stays fully responsible for everything in it. An agent or property manager can upload some of the information for the landlord, and the draft regulations let a landlord appoint an agent to keep the tenancy, safety and rent details up to date. In practice the agent does much of the work, because the agent usually holds the gas safety records, electrical reports and EPCs. GOV.UK has said more guidance for agents is coming. The sensible step now is to agree with each landlord, in writing, who will upload what and who will keep it current, so nothing falls between you when your region opens. Ask landlords to set up their GOV.UK One Login early too, because registration cannot be finished without them.
Dates
When does your region have to register?
The PRS Database opens region by region, one region a month, starting with the West Midlands on 15 December 2026 and ending with the South West on 15 August 2027. Each region then has three months to register, so the West Midlands deadline is 14 March 2027 and the last deadline, for the South West, is 14 November 2027. The date that matters is the region the property is in, not where the landlord lives, so a landlord with homes in Birmingham and Bristol has two deadlines. You can register before your region opens. GOV.UK says that once a region’s deadline has passed, councils in that region can start enforcement. The region dates come from the draft regulations, which still need approval by both Houses of Parliament, and the deadlines from GOV.UK.
| Region | Opens | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| West Midlands | 15 Dec 2026 | 14 Mar 2027 |
| East of England | 15 Jan 2027 | 14 Apr 2027 |
| East Midlands | 15 Feb 2027 | 14 May 2027 |
| South East | 15 Mar 2027 | 14 Jun 2027 |
| Yorkshire and Humber | 15 Apr 2027 | 14 Jul 2027 |
| North West | 15 May 2027 | 14 Aug 2027 |
| North East | 15 Jun 2027 | 14 Sep 2027 |
| London | 15 Jul 2027 | 14 Oct 2027 |
| South West | 15 Aug 2027 | 14 Nov 2027 |
Not sure which region a property is in? The regions follow council areas as they stood on 15 December 2026. Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire and Worcestershire, for example, are all West Midlands, the first region to open.
What to have ready
What information do you need to register?
Registration asks for three groups of information, set out in Schedules 2 and 3 of the draft regulations and repeated on GOV.UK. First, details about you as the landlord. Second, details about the property. Third, details about the tenancy, its rent and its safety certificates, including copies of the documents themselves. For a property that is already let, you can create the property entry first, but the tenancy and safety details must follow within 28 days or the entry stops being active. After that, any change, such as a new gas safety record, a new tenant or a rent increase, must be updated within 28 days. You sign in with a GOV.UK One Login. Deposit protection details and Ombudsman membership are not on the published list, although a protected deposit still matters if you ever need possession.
About you, the landlord
- Name and date of birth
- Residential address
- Phone number and email
- For a company or trust: type of entity, Companies House or charity number, and a nominated contact
Anyone registering for you, such as an attorney or executor, also gives a certified copy of their authority.
About the property
- Address, ownership type and dwelling type
- Number of bedrooms
- Whether it is let now
- Your correspondence address in England or Wales, not a PO Box
- Name and email of any freeholder, superior landlord or property manager
Tenancy, rent and safety
- Gas safety record and its issue date, if there is a gas supply
- EICR and its expiry date, or the EIC
- A copy of the most recent EPC, and any MEES exemption if it is below the minimum rating
- HMO, additional or selective licence numbers, if needed
- Occupants and households, rent and how often it is paid, utilities included, furnished or not
Cost
How much does PRS Database registration cost?
GOV.UK says registration costs £65 a property a year. Each property needs its own entry and its own fee, so a landlord with ten homes pays £650 a year. Under the draft regulations the fee is charged when you create or renew a property entry, and the regulations do not set a separate charge for the landlord entry. Entries last 12 months and must then be renewed, or they stop being active. If you have more than one property, every later property entry takes the same renewal date as your first one, so you renew the whole portfolio at once. GOV.UK says the fee is pro-rated during the rollout, so a landlord who registers early does not pay more. The fee is set by the database operator to cover its running and enforcement costs, so it can change in later years. Agents should check now which landlords expect the agency to pay it and recharge it.
Enforcement
What happens if you do not register?
Section 91 of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 lets a council fine a landlord up to £7,000 for breaching the database rules in section 82: letting a property without active entries, marketing it without them, or, once that rule applies, leaving registration numbers off a written advert. Under section 92 it becomes an offence if the breach carries on more than 28 days after a fine, or if there is a different breach within five years of one. Knowingly or recklessly giving false or misleading information to the database is also an offence. An offence means a fine of up to £40,000 or prosecution, and tenants can seek a rent repayment order for some of these breaches. The most practical risk is at court: under section 90 a judge cannot make a possession order while the landlord is in breach of the duty to register, unless the claim is on Ground 7A or Ground 14, the anti-social behaviour grounds.
£7,000Maximum fine per breach: letting or marketing without active entries.
£40,000Maximum fine for an offence: a breach that continues after a fine, a repeat within five years, or false information. Prosecution is the alternative.
No possessionNo possession order while in breach, except on Ground 7A or 14.
Can you advertise or let a property that is not registered?
Not once the rules apply to your property. Section 82 of the Act says no one may market a home to create a tenancy unless the landlord and the property both have active entries, and that any written advert must show both unique identifiers. It also puts a duty on the landlord of a let property to keep both entries active. During the rollout, GOV.UK says the requirement covers homes that are let or become let, and that registering an empty property before marketing it, and showing registration numbers on adverts, will follow under future legislation as the public side of the database goes live. That makes letting agents part of the picture even though the registration duty is the landlord’s: the agent is usually the one placing the advert. Check the current GOV.UK guidance before you advertise a vacant home.
What comes next
How does the PRS Database link to the Landlord Ombudsman?
They are separate duties under the same Act. The Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman is a redress scheme that every private landlord in England with an assured or regulated tenancy will have to join, including landlords who use a managing agent. Tenants will be able to take complaints about their landlord to it, and landlords will have to follow its decisions. The government’s implementation roadmap puts mandatory sign-up for landlords in 2028, after the database is running, and says the government is looking at sharing information between the two to cut the work of signing up. Ombudsman membership is not one of the details the draft database regulations ask for today. Letting agents are already in a redress scheme for their own work, and the Act allows the new Ombudsman to work with those schemes where a landlord and an agent are both at fault.
Get ready now
A PRS Database readiness checklist
The registration itself is an online form. The slow part is finding an in-date gas safety record, EICR and EPC for every property, and booking inspections where one has lapsed, so start with the certificates.
- List every let property by region. Note each one’s opening date and deadline from the table above.
- Set up a GOV.UK One Login for every landlord, including each joint landlord.
- Collect landlord details: date of birth, residential address and contacts, or Companies House number and a nominated contact for a company.
- Check every gas safety record is less than 12 months old and that you have the issue date.
- Check every EICR is in date and note its expiry date. Book inspections now for any that are not.
- Find the most recent EPC for each property, and any MEES exemption if the rating is below the minimum.
- Record licence numbers for any HMO, additional or selective licence.
- Write down the tenancy facts: occupants, households, rent, how often it is paid, utilities included and furnishing.
- Agents: agree the split in writing with each landlord: who registers, who uploads what, who pays the fee.
- Plan for the 28-day rule. Changes to an entry must be made within 28 days, so make updating it part of every new tenancy and certificate renewal.
Want to check one property now? The free PRS Database Readiness Checker works through scope and whether the gas, electrical and EPC evidence is in date.
For letting agents and property managers
How Rentalize helps you get ready for the PRS Database
Rentalize is property management software for landlords, letting agents and property managers in Ireland and the UK. It does not register properties for you: registration is done by the landlord on GOV.UK, and PRS Database submission support is on the roadmap, not in the product today. What Rentalize does today, on every plan, is hold the records registration turns on, including gas, electrical and fire safety certificates with expiry reminders. It also keeps deposit protection records, which a possession claim depends on. Gas safety records run on a 12-month cycle, EICRs on a five-year cycle, and EPCs are held with expiry alerts, so the dates registration asks for are already recorded against each property. When your region opens, the evidence is in one place, and anything out of date has already been flagged. Book a demo to see those records for a portfolio like yours.
In Rentalize today
- Gas safety on a 12-month cycle, with the 28-day tenant copy
- EICRs on a 5-year cycle, with 28-day remedial work
- EPCs held with expiry alerts
- Deposit protection records, with the protection deadline for each tenancy
- A compliance check every morning, flagging expired certificates and approaching tenancy end dates
- Section 8 and Section 13 notices logged and tracked against the tenancy, with their dates and service evidence (Professional and above)
Not in Rentalize today
- Submitting landlord or property entries to the PRS Database
- Storing PRS Database registration numbers
PRS Database submission support is on the roadmap, not in the product today. We will update this page when that changes.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- GOV.UK, Stronger protections and greater confidence for renters, 9 September 2026.
- GOV.UK Housing Hub, Get ready: Register your rental property service, read 27 October 2026.
- Draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 and Explanatory Memorandum, laid 9 September 2026.
- Renters’ Rights Act 2025, Part 2, Chapter 3, sections 82, 90 and 91.
- GOV.UK, Guide to the Renters’ Rights Act, and the implementation roadmap.
This guide explains the law as published on 27 October 2026. It is not legal advice. The region dates are in draft regulations that still need Parliament’s approval, and GOV.UK will publish further guidance before the service opens. For a specific case, take advice from a qualified property lawyer.
PRS Database questions
When does the PRS Database open?
The PRS Database, which GOV.UK calls the Register your rental property service, opens on 15 December 2026 in the West Midlands. The other eight regions of England open one a month after that, ending with the South West on 15 August 2027. Each region then has three months to register, so every let property in England must be registered by 14 November 2027.
How much does PRS Database registration cost?
GOV.UK says the fee is £65 a property a year, and each property needs its own registration. The fee is pro-rated during the rollout so landlords who register early do not pay more, and registration has to be renewed every 12 months. The fee is set by the database operator to cover its costs, so it can change.
Do letting agents have to register on the PRS Database?
No. The duty sits with the landlord, even when an agent manages the property. GOV.UK says the landlord must start and complete the registration, and stays responsible for everything in it. An agent or property manager can upload some of the information for the landlord, which is where most of the work is, because the agent usually holds the certificates.
What happens if I do not register my rental property?
Once your region’s deadline has passed, your council can fine you up to £7,000 for letting or marketing a property that is not registered. A breach that continues after a fine, a repeat breach within five years, or knowingly giving false information is an offence, with a fine of up to £40,000 or prosecution. A court also cannot grant you possession while you are in breach, except on Ground 7A or Ground 14.
Do I need to register an empty property?
Not yet. During the rollout the duty applies to properties that are let, or that become let while the rollout is running. GOV.UK says future legislation will require landlords to register an empty property before marketing it, and to show registration numbers on adverts, as the public side of the database goes live.
Do landlords in Scotland or Wales need to register on it?
No. The PRS Database covers rented homes in England only. Scotland and Wales already run their own landlord registration schemes, which are separate from it.
Does Rentalize register properties on the PRS Database for me?
No. PRS Database submission support is on the roadmap, not in the product today, and registration is done by the landlord on GOV.UK. What Rentalize does today, on every plan, is hold the records registration turns on, including gas, electrical and fire safety certificates with expiry reminders, so the evidence is ready when your region opens. It also keeps deposit protection records, which a possession claim depends on.
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