The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 has applied to private tenancies in England since 1 May 2026. For a London landlord that means section 21 ‘no-fault’ notices no longer exist, almost every private tenancy is now an assured periodic tenancy with no end date, the rent can rise only once a year by the Form 4A process, and you can take a property back only on a legal ground under section 8 (GOV.UK, Assured periodic tenancies: a guide for landlords). Three parts are still to come: the landlord database, which London landlords must join between 15 July and 14 October 2027; a landlord ombudsman, expected in 2028; and new property standards, from 2035.
This guide sets out what the law requires of you now, what it will require later, and the dates that matter. It is general information about the law in England, not legal advice on a particular tenancy.
What changed on 1 May 2026
The first phase of the Act came into force on 1 May 2026 under SI 2026/421, for new and existing private tenancies alike. The Act itself received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 (GOV.UK, Guide to the Renters’ Rights Act).
| Rule | Before 1 May 2026 | Since 1 May 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Tenancy type | Assured shorthold, with or without a fixed term | Assured periodic, monthly or weekly, no end date |
| Ending a tenancy without a reason | Section 21, two months’ notice | Abolished |
| Selling or moving in | Section 21 at the end of the term | Ground 1A or Ground 1, four months’ notice, not in the first 12 months |
| Mandatory rent arrears ground (Ground 8) | Two months’ arrears, two weeks’ notice | Three months’ arrears, four weeks’ notice |
| Rent increases | Rent review clause, renewal or section 13 | Form 4A only, once a year, two months’ notice |
| Rent in advance | No legal limit | None before signing; at most one month between signing and the start |
| Offers above the asking rent | Allowed | Banned: one stated rent, no bidding |
| Pets | No legal right to ask for a pet | Tenant may ask in writing; you can’t refuse unreasonably |
| Refusing tenants with children or on benefits | No specific ban on ‘No DSS’ or ‘no children’ lets | Unlawful, fines up to £7,000 |
Nothing needed to be signed for existing tenancies to convert: every private assured shorthold tenancy became an assured periodic tenancy automatically on 1 May 2026, and any end date written into the agreement stopped having effect (GOV.UK, Assured periodic tenancies: a guide for tenants). A few lets fall outside the assured periodic regime, the ones most relevant in London being a lodger in your own home, a holiday let, and rent over £100,000 a year.
How you get a property back now
You need a ground, a valid section 8 notice (Form 3A) and, if the tenant doesn’t leave, a court order. The notice must be used to start court proceedings within 12 months of service or it lapses, and forcing a tenant out without an order is illegal eviction (GOV.UK, Notices of possession served from 1 May 2026). The main grounds for private landlords:
| Ground | When it applies | Minimum notice | Mandatory? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1: you or close family moving in | Not to expire in the first 12 months of the tenancy | 4 months | Yes |
| 1A: selling | Not to expire in the first 12 months; not available against older assured (non-shorthold) tenancies from before 1 May 2026 | 4 months | Yes |
| 8: serious rent arrears | At least 3 months’ (or 13 weeks’) rent owed, both at notice and at the hearing | 4 weeks | Yes |
| 10 and 11: any arrears, persistent late payment | The court decides whether eviction is reasonable | 4 weeks | No |
| 7A and 14: serious crime, anti-social behaviour | Serious offences, nuisance or anti-social behaviour by the tenant, household or visitors | Can go to court at once; no order until 14 days after notice | 7A yes, 14 no |
Two conditions catch landlords out. Arrears caused only by a Universal Credit housing payment the tenant hasn’t yet received don’t count towards Ground 8, and if the arrears fall below three months by the hearing, Ground 8 fails (GOV.UK, Grounds for possession). And after using Ground 1 or 1A you may not re-let or even market the home to let until 12 months after the earliest date your notice allowed you to go to court; breaking that is an offence with penalties up to £40,000 (Housing Act 1988 s.16E, with the offence and penalty in ss.16J–16K, inserted by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025).
Our guide to section 8 grounds in London covers the main grounds and the court timeline in more detail.
A worked example: selling a let flat in Lewisham
Take a landlord who let a one-bed flat in Lewisham on a new tenancy starting 1 June 2026 and later decides to sell. Ground 1A notice can’t expire before the tenancy’s first 12 months are up, so the earliest end of notice is 1 June 2027, and four months’ notice means serving it no later than 1 February 2027 to hit that date. If the tenant doesn’t leave, court proceedings can start from 1 June 2027. If the sale then falls through, the flat can’t be let or advertised to let again until 1 June 2028. That is 16 months from serving notice before the flat can take a new tenant, so it pays to be sure of a sale before serving the notice, not after.
Rent, deposits and money up front
Every rent increase now goes through section 13: serve Form 4A at least two months before the new rent starts, no more than once a year, and not in the first year of the tenancy. That applies even when the tenant has agreed the rise, and rent review clauses (a fixed percentage or CPI each year) no longer work (GOV.UK landlord guide). A tenant who thinks the new rent is above the market can apply to the First-tier Tribunal before it starts. The tribunal can no longer set a rent higher than you proposed, and if it decides after your proposed start date, the new rent runs only from the first rent period on or after its decision (Housing Act 1988 s.14ZB). Proposing the market rent, with evidence, is the safest increase.
On a Lewisham one-bed at the borough’s one-bedroom average of £1,457 a month (ONS Price Index of Private Rents, August 2026, from the London Rent Index on FTR London), the money you can take at the start is:
- a holding deposit of up to one week’s rent, about £336;
- a tenancy deposit of up to five weeks’ rent, about £1,681, protected in a government scheme within 30 days;
- no rent before the agreement is signed, and at most one month’s rent, £1,457, between signing and the start date.
There is no exception to the rent-in-advance limit for a tenant who fails referencing or has no UK guarantor. You can still ask for a guarantor and check income, but you can’t make the tenant pay for a guarantor service or insurance (GOV.UK, Tenant Fees Act guidance). Adverts must state one rent, not a range, and you must not invite or accept offers above it: fines are up to £7,000 per breach.
Deposits now matter for every possession claim, not only section 21. If a deposit isn’t protected, or the prescribed information wasn’t given, a court can’t make a possession order on any ground except 7A and 14 until you put it right or return the deposit (Renters’ Rights Act 2025 s.26). The tenant can also claim between one and three times the deposit.
Paperwork you must give tenants
- New tenancies from 1 May 2026: a written statement of the key terms before the tenancy is agreed, as set out in SI 2026/324. It can be the tenancy agreement itself. Fines are up to £7,000.
- Written tenancies from before 1 May 2026: the government’s Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 had to reach every named tenant by 31 May 2026, as the PDF itself, not a link (GOV.UK, Information Sheet 2026). If you missed it, send it now: the fine is up to £7,000.
- How to Rent: withdrawn on 1 May 2026. You no longer give it to new tenants.
- Safety certificates, unchanged: the gas safety record every 12 months, the electrical report (EICR) at least every five years, a valid EPC of band E or above, and working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
Tenants’ new rights you have to respect
A tenant may ask in writing to keep a pet, and you must answer in writing within 28 days. You can refuse only for a reasonable reason, such as a head lease that bans pets, a household allergy or a home too small for the animal; a general worry about damage is usually not enough. You can’t require pet insurance or take an extra pet deposit: damage comes out of the normal capped deposit (GOV.UK tenant guide). Our guide to renting with pets in London covers the details.
You must not refuse a tenant, block a viewing or word an advert to exclude people because they have children or receive benefits (Renters’ Rights Act 2025 ss.33–34). You can still check that the rent is affordable on their income (s.41), and a clause in your mortgage that forbids letting to benefit recipients no longer has effect.
Enforcement and fines
London’s boroughs have had new powers to inspect homes and demand documents since 27 December 2025. For breaches from 1 May 2026, the main penalties are:
- up to £7,000 for a first or minor breach of the new rules, such as missing written terms, bidding or discrimination;
- up to £40,000 for serious or repeated breaches, illegal eviction, and Housing Act offences such as letting an unlicensed HMO (GOV.UK, civil penalties guidance);
- up to £7,000 for a Category 1 hazard you could reasonably have removed, since 22 June 2026;
- rent repayment orders of up to 24 months’ rent, up from 12.
Licensing is separate from the Act and set by each borough. Many London boroughs run selective licensing in some or all wards, and Croydon’s new scheme covers 14 of its 28 wards from 25 September 2026 (Croydon Council). Check your borough’s website before you let; our HMO licensing guide explains the national rules.
What is still to come, with dates
| Measure | What it will do | Date for London |
|---|---|---|
| Landlord database (‘Register your rental property’) | Register yourself and each let property; about £65 per property a year | Opens 15 July 2027; deadline 14 October 2027 (regulations still in draft) |
| Private rented sector landlord ombudsman | Free for tenants; can order apologies, repairs and compensation | Membership expected to become compulsory in 2028 |
| EPC band C | Minimum rating for all tenancies, cost cap £10,000 | 1 October 2030, subject to new legislation |
| Decent Homes Standard | Applies to private rented homes for the first time | 2035 |
| Awaab’s Law | Deadlines to deal with damp, mould and emergency hazards | No date set for private rentals |
Sources: GOV.UK Housing Hub; implementation roadmap; EPC government response, January 2026. Awaab’s Law timescales have applied to social landlords since 27 October 2025; they do not bind private landlords yet, whatever you may read elsewhere. Until they do, damp and mould are dealt with under the existing hazard rules (see damp and mould in London rentals).
A checklist for London landlords now
- Confirm every tenant with a pre-May written tenancy received the Information Sheet 2026; send it now if not.
- Give new tenants the written statement of terms before they agree the tenancy.
- Check every deposit is protected and the prescribed information was served.
- Diarise rent reviews: one Form 4A a year, two months ahead, at a rent you can evidence.
- Rewrite adverts: one rent, no ‘No DSS’, no ‘no children’, no ‘no pets’ as a blanket rule.
- Check your borough’s licensing, and put the database window, 15 July to 14 October 2027, in your diary.
For the tax side, including the new property income rates from April 2027, see the London landlord tax guide.
Letting in London under the new rules
If you are letting a London home, you can list it directly on FTR London without paying a letting agent, state one rent as the law now requires, and let renters contact you directly. For a first check against the local market, compare your rent with the borough averages in the Rent Index; they are ONS averages across all tenancies, not a valuation of one home, so a tribunal would look at comparable lets too. Renters can read what the same changes mean for them in our guide to your rights as a London tenant, and browse London rentals by borough, zone and bedrooms to contact landlords directly.
How we researched this: legal points checked against GOV.UK guidance and legislation.gov.uk on 24 September 2026; rents from the ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026).
Correction, 24 September 2026: an earlier version of this article, written in November 2025, described the Act’s main changes as still to come, with the start date ‘to be announced’. They took effect on 1 May 2026. It also stated that Awaab’s Law would require private landlords to investigate damp and mould within 14 days from around April 2027, and guessed at ombudsman and database fees (the government has since announced £65 per property a year for the database; no ombudsman fee has been set). It also called the moving-in ground ‘Ground 1A’ and the selling ground ‘Ground 1B’, which does not exist (selling is Ground 1A, moving in Ground 1); said a home taken back on these grounds could be re-let after at least three months, when the ban runs until 12 months after the earliest date the notice allowed court proceedings; gave Ground 14 a four-week notice period, when proceedings can start at once; said EPC C would be required for new tenancies by 2028, when the confirmed date is 1 October 2030 for all tenancies, subject to legislation; and put the Decent Homes Standard at 2036 rather than 2035. The article has been rewritten to the law in force.
