Section 21 Abolished 1 May 2026

Renters Rights Act Compliance Software for UK Letting Agents and Landlords

Section 21 is gone. Periodic tenancies are mandatory. The PRS Database is live. The Information Sheet must reach every tenant by 31 May 2026. Rentalize handles every requirement of the Renters Rights Act 2025 in one platform, so you stay compliant without rebuilding your processes.

PRS Database Ready
Section 8 Workflows
Awaab's Law Tracking
Pet Request Logging
Key Dates What Changed Compliance Checklist How Rentalize Helps Section 8 Grounds FAQ
KEY DATES

The Renters Rights Act Implementation Timeline

The Renters Rights Act received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. Implementation is staged. These are the dates every UK letting agent, landlord, and Build to Rent operator needs in their calendar.

Royal Assent

The Renters Rights Bill became the Renters Rights Act 2025 on 27 October 2025. Secondary legislation and the PRS Database followed.

Oct2025
1 May2026

Section 21 abolished. Assured tenancy regime begins.

All new and existing assured shorthold tenancies convert to periodic assured tenancies. No more fixed terms. No more no-fault evictions. Section 8 grounds become the only route to possession.

Information Sheet deadline

Every existing tenant must receive the statutory Information Sheet explaining their rights under the new regime. New tenancies must include it from day one. Failure to serve is grounds for civil penalty.

31 May2026
2026Q3

PRS Database registration mandatory

Every landlord and every privately rented property must be registered on the Private Rented Sector Database. Letting agents cannot market a property that is not registered. Local authorities use the Database to enforce.

Decent Homes Standard extended to PRS

The Decent Homes Standard applies to private rented sector for the first time. Local authorities can use civil penalties of up to GBP 7,000 for non-compliance.

2026Q4
2027Q1

Awaab's Law extends to PRS

Strict timescales for investigating and remedying serious hazards (damp, mould, structural issues). Originally social housing only, now applies to private landlords. Tenants gain enforceable rights to repair.

WHAT CHANGED

Eight Changes Every UK Letting Agent and Landlord Needs To Action

The Renters Rights Act is the most significant overhaul of the private rented sector in 35 years. These are the eight operational changes you cannot ignore.

01

Section 21 abolished

No-fault evictions are gone. The only routes to possession are the discretionary and mandatory grounds in Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988, expanded by the new Act. Existing Section 21 notices already served retain validity for a transitional period.

Mandatory
02

Periodic tenancies only

Fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies cannot be created. All tenancies are periodic from day one. Tenants can give two months notice at any time. Landlords can only end the tenancy under a Section 8 ground.

Mandatory
03

PRS Database registration

Every landlord and every property must be on the Private Rented Sector Database. Letting agents cannot list, market, or let an unregistered property. Civil penalties of up to GBP 7,000 for first breach, GBP 40,000 for repeat or serious breach.

Mandatory
04

Pet ownership rights

Tenants can request to keep a pet. The landlord cannot unreasonably refuse. The decision must be given in writing within 28 days. Landlords can require pet insurance to cover potential damage.

New right
05

Bidding wars and rent in advance restricted

Landlords must advertise an asking rent and cannot accept offers above it. Asking for rent in advance beyond one month is restricted. Rent reviews are limited to once per year via the statutory Section 13 mechanism.

Mandatory
06

Discrimination ban

Blanket bans on tenants with children or in receipt of benefits are unlawful. Letting agents and landlords cannot refuse to rent to a prospective tenant on those grounds. Local authorities can investigate and fine.

Mandatory
07

Decent Homes Standard for PRS

The standard applied to social housing since 2001. It now applies to the private rented sector. Properties must meet a minimum standard of repair, modern facilities, and thermal comfort. Local authorities can issue improvement notices.

New duty
08

Awaab's Law for private landlords

Strict statutory timescales to investigate and remedy serious hazards: damp, mould, fire risk, structural issues. Tenants can take direct action through the courts. Failure exposes landlords to compensation orders.

Phased
COMPLIANCE CHECKLIST

A Practical Compliance Checklist for Letting Agents

Tick through the operational steps your agency or portfolio needs to complete before, during, and after 1 May 2026. This is the same checklist Rentalize uses internally.

14-point Renters Rights Act readiness audit
0 of 14 complete
Audit your tenancy book. Identify every fixed-term AST. After 1 May 2026, all become periodic. Update the system of record.
Pull every tenant contact record. Email and postal addresses must be current. The Information Sheet has to be served and proof of service kept.
Serve the statutory Information Sheet by 31 May 2026. Existing tenants must receive it within 30 days of 1 May. Track delivery, not just dispatch.
Withdraw all unserved Section 21 notices. Audit any historic notices and decide whether to proceed under transitional rules or restart under Section 8.
Update all tenancy templates. Replace AST templates with periodic assured tenancy templates. Remove fixed-term clauses, rent-in-advance clauses, and pet bans.
Register every property on the PRS Database. Capture EPC, gas safety, electrical, deposit, and licensing data per record.
Build a pet request workflow. Capture every request, log the decision, issue a written response within 28 days, store reasons for refusal.
Update marketing copy. Remove "no children", "no DSS", "no benefits", and similar phrases from listings, brochures, and websites. Train staff on the discrimination ban.
Set advertised asking rents and lock them. Stop accepting offers above the asking rent. Document the policy in the agency operating procedures.
Switch to Section 13 rent reviews. Plan annual rent reviews using the statutory form. Tenants can challenge increases at the First-tier Tribunal.
Map your Section 8 grounds library. Every possession scenario needs a documented ground. Train staff on the new and amended grounds.
Stand up a Decent Homes audit programme. Inspect every managed property against the standard. Create remediation plans for non-compliant homes.
Build an Awaab's Law response process. Define investigation and repair timescales for hazards. Log every report. Notify tenants in writing at each stage.
Run a redress scheme audit. Confirm every property is associated with a registered landlord on a redress scheme. The Database checks this on registration.

Tap each item to mark it done. Progress saves to your browser only.

HOW RENTALIZE HELPS

Every Renters Rights Act Requirement, Built In

You do not need a separate compliance tool, a manual audit spreadsheet, and a third-party Database submission portal. Rentalize handles all three in one workflow.

PRS Database registration
Submit and update property and landlord records to the PRS Database directly from each property record. Automatic flagging of missing certificates, expired EPCs, and stale gas safety dates before they block a registration.
Maps to: Section 19 PRS Database duty
Section 8 possession workflow
Guided ground selection, pre-action evidence pack, statutory notice generation, and court-bundle export. Every step time-stamped for the audit trail. Replaces the abolished Section 21 process.
Maps to: Housing Act 1988 Schedule 2 grounds
Information Sheet service
Bulk send the statutory Information Sheet to every existing tenant by 31 May 2026. Track delivery, generate receipts, and store them as evidence. Auto-include for every new tenancy from day one.
Maps to: Section 7 Information Sheet duty
Pet request register
Tenant portal pet request form, automatic 28-day countdown, decision log, written response template, and pet insurance evidence capture. Every refusal needs a documented reason.
Maps to: Section 11 pet request duty
Asking rent lock and Section 13 reviews
Advertised asking rent enforced at offer stage. Bidding above asking is blocked. Annual Section 13 rent reviews scheduled, with statutory forms generated and served on the right notice period.
Maps to: Sections 8 and 9 rent rules
Discrimination-safe marketing
Listing copy is screened for prohibited language ("no DSS", "no children", "professionals only"). Every listing logged. Decline reasons must be selected from a permitted list. Local authority audit ready.
Maps to: Sections 14 and 15 anti-discrimination duties
Decent Homes Standard audit
Per-property survey workflow, photo evidence, defect register, remediation plan, and re-inspection scheduling. Built around the Decent Homes Standard criteria. Reports export for local authority requests.
Maps to: Decent Homes Standard for PRS
Awaab's Law hazard tracker
Tenant report intake (web, mobile, SMS), automatic hazard categorisation, statutory clock starts on receipt, contractor dispatch, and resolution evidence pack. Every step time-stamped.
Maps to: Awaab's Law duties for PRS
Audit trail and evidence vault
Every notice, every decision, every contractor dispatch, every tenant communication is logged with time stamp, user, and document. Export a full evidence pack per tenancy or per property in one click for tribunal or court.
Maps to: All evidential duties
FREE TOOLKIT

The Renters Rights Act Compliance Toolkit for UK Letting Agents

A 32-page operational guide your agency can use today. No sales call required, no email gate beyond a single business address.

  • The 14-point readiness audit in printable form
  • Section 21 to Section 8 grounds mapping table
  • Information Sheet service template and proof-of-service log
  • PRS Database submission checklist per property
  • Pet request response templates and refusal-reason library
  • Decent Homes Standard inspection sheet
  • Awaab's Law triage and timescale flowchart
  • Sample staff training agenda for the new regime

rentalize-rra-2025-checklist.pdf

32 pages, printable, A4

POSSESSION GROUNDS

Section 21 to Section 8: The Grounds You Need Now

With Section 21 abolished, every possession case must rely on a Section 8 ground. The Renters Rights Act expanded and amended the grounds. This is the practical mapping.

Reason for possession Section 8 ground Type Notice period
Landlord wants to sell the property Ground 1A Mandatory 4 months
Landlord or close family wants to move in Ground 1 Mandatory 4 months
Persistent or serious rent arrears (3+ months) Ground 8 Mandatory 4 weeks
Persistent late payment of rent Ground 11 Discretionary 4 weeks
Anti-social behaviour Ground 14 Discretionary Immediate
Breach of tenancy terms Ground 12 Discretionary 4 weeks
Property required for a worker (employment-linked tenancy) Ground 5C Mandatory 2 months
Redevelopment or substantial works Ground 6 Mandatory 4 months
Death of tenant (no qualifying successor) Ground 7 Mandatory 2 months
Student accommodation let to non-students Ground 4A Mandatory 2 months

Procedural risk warning. Every Section 8 notice must use the prescribed form and the correct ground. A defective notice is fatal at court. Rentalize generates statutory notices using the current prescribed forms and stores them with proof of service.

WHO IT IS FOR

Built for Every UK Operator Affected by the Act

Letting agents
Manage compliance across hundreds of landlords from one console. PRS Database submissions, Section 8 workflows, and Information Sheet evidence in a single audit pack per branch.
Letting agent solutions
Build to Rent operators
Standardise compliance across the whole platform: every block, every tenancy, every region. Automate Decent Homes inspections and Awaab's Law response timescales at portfolio scale.
BTR solutions
Private landlords
From one to fifty properties. Stay compliant without an in-house legal team. Generate Section 8 notices, log pet requests, and submit to the PRS Database from your phone.
Landlord platform
FAQ

Renters Rights Act Compliance Software Questions

The Renters Rights Act received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. The headline provisions, including the abolition of Section 21 and the move to periodic assured tenancies, came into force on 1 May 2026. The statutory Information Sheet must reach every existing tenant by 31 May 2026. PRS Database registration becomes mandatory in the second half of 2026, and Awaab's Law extends to the private rented sector in 2027.
Yes. From 1 May 2026, no new Section 21 notice can be served. Existing notices that were served before that date and are still within their validity window can be progressed to court under transitional rules, but the route is closed for any new possession case. The only path to possession is now a Section 8 ground.
The Information Sheet is a prescribed statutory document explaining the rights and duties of landlords and tenants under the new regime. Landlords (or their agents) must serve it on every existing tenant by 31 May 2026, and on every new tenant at the start of the tenancy. Failure to serve is grounds for a civil penalty and can affect the validity of subsequent notices.
The Private Rented Sector Database is a national register of private rental properties and the landlords behind them. Each entry holds the property address, landlord identity, redress scheme membership, EPC, gas safety record, electrical safety record, deposit protection details, and any selective or HMO licensing status. Letting agents cannot list a property that is not registered. Local authorities use the Database to enforce. Penalties for non-registration start at GBP 7,000 and rise to GBP 40,000 for serious breach.
No. Blanket bans on tenants in receipt of benefits or with children are unlawful under the Act. Letting agents cannot publish them, and landlords cannot apply them. Refusal must be on a lawful, permitted ground, such as failure to meet objective affordability or reference checks. Local authorities can investigate and fine.
The landlord must consider the request and respond in writing within 28 days. The landlord cannot unreasonably refuse. The landlord can require the tenant to hold pet insurance against potential damage. A refusal must be reasoned. Refusing without reason, or simply not responding, is a breach.
Rent in advance is restricted. A landlord can no longer demand multiple months of rent up front as a routine condition of letting. Rent must be paid on the agreed cycle. Beyond the first month at the start of the tenancy, advance payments are not permitted. This applies regardless of tenant circumstances.
Rentalize ships compliance updates as secondary regulations are laid. Statutory forms, prescribed notices, the Information Sheet wording, and PRS Database fields are updated in the platform within 14 days of regulation publication. Customers do not need to redo templates. The compliance team monitors UK Parliament, MHCLG, and First-tier Tribunal practice notes.
Yes. Rentalize 360 is the mobile-first tier built for private landlords with one to fifty properties. It includes the same compliance engine the agency tier uses: Section 8 notice generation, PRS Database submission, pet request log, Information Sheet service, Decent Homes audit, and Awaab's Law tracking. There is no enterprise minimum.
This page is operational guidance, not legal advice. Every agency and landlord should take advice from a qualified property lawyer for their specific circumstances. Rentalize provides the compliance workflows, audit trail, and evidence pack the law requires, but final responsibility for compliance rests with the landlord and the agent.

Ship Your Renters Rights Act Compliance in Days, Not Months

Book a 30-minute compliance demo. See PRS Database submission, Section 8 generation, and the Information Sheet workflow on your own portfolio data.