Renters’ Rights Act commencement date announced

Late on Thursday evening, the government published its policy paper “Implementing the Renters’ Rights Act 2025” –  Implementing the Renters’ Rights Act 2025: Our roadmap for reforming the Private Rented Sector – GOV.UK setting out how the various reforms set to transform the private rented sector and detailed in our article Royal assent for Renters’ Rights will come into force.

From 1 May 2026, Phase 1 of reforms will come into force, and this will include:

• The abolition of section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions.
• The end of fixed term tenancies (ASTs) and the introduction of assured periodic tenancies, with a maximum rent period of one month.
• Reform of the grounds of possession.
• A strict statutory process to be followed where landlords want to increase rent. Tenants will have the right to challenge all rent increases, including the starting rent within the first six months of a tenancy.
• A ban on the practice of “rental bidding” and taking more than one months’ rent in advance.
• An end to discriminating practices by landlords against renters who have children or receive benefits.
• Requiring a landlord to consider a request by a tenant to keep a pet.
• Tenants will be able to terminate a tenancy at any time with two months’ notice.

Phase 2 of implementation of the Act will follow in late 2026 and it is during this phase that we will see the introduction of a Database of PRS properties and the establishment of a PRS Landlord Ombudsman. Landlords in the private rental sector will be required to enrol (paying an annual fee) on the Database.

Finally, Phase 3 of the implementation of the Act is set to introduce a Decent Homes Standard (DHS) to the private rental sector. The detail on this phase is limited at this stage.

The reforms are supported by the significant strengthening of local authority enforcement powers. The Act will enable local authorities to impose civil penalties for breaches of landlords’ obligations and duties and provides greater powers to tenants to apply for rent repayment orders where statutory offences are committed by their landlord.

Phase 1 reforms will apply equally to new and existing tenancies from 1 May 2026. The government promised to provide the sector with “sufficient time to adjust and prepare for what is a significant change in regulation”. Landlords, agents and tenants alike have however little over five months to understand and prepare for the first tranche of significant change and the government’s policy paper gives little away as to how England’s Courts and Tribunals will cope with the surge of workload the reforms will likely generate.

Now that an ambitious roadmap has been set, the detail will follow very shortly in the form of secondary legislation (Regulations). There will be a lot for landlords, agents and tenants to get up to speed with and we will be collating useful guidance and commentary over the coming weeks on a new Renters’ Rights Hub on our website. In the meantime you can sign up for legal insights from our real estate team