If you rent privately in London, your rights changed on 1 May 2026, when the first phase of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 took effect in England. Your landlord can no longer evict you without a reason: section 21 ‘no-fault’ notices were abolished. Almost every private tenancy is now an assured periodic tenancy with no end date, which you can leave with two months’ notice. Your rent can go up only once a year, with two months’ notice on the official Form 4A, and you can challenge a rise at a tribunal that can’t set a higher rent than your landlord asked for (GOV.UK, Assured periodic tenancies: a guide for tenants).
This guide explains your rights before you move in, while you live there and when the tenancy ends, and what is still to come. It covers private renting in England; lodgers who live with their landlord, and council or housing association tenants, have different rules. It is general information, not legal advice on your situation.
What changed on 1 May 2026
- No more fixed terms. Existing assured shorthold tenancies became periodic tenancies automatically; you didn’t need to sign anything. Any end date in your agreement no longer has effect.
- No section 21. A landlord who wants you to leave must give a legal reason (a ‘ground’) on a section 8 notice and, if you stay, get a court order.
- Rent rises once a year by Form 4A only. Rent review clauses, such as ‘CPI plus 1% each year’, stopped working.
- No bidding wars, no rent up front. Adverts must show one rent, and nobody can ask for or accept offers above it. No rent can be taken before you sign, and at most one month’s rent between signing and moving in.
- Children and benefits. A landlord can’t refuse you because you have children or receive benefits.
- Pets. You can ask to keep one, and your landlord can’t refuse unreasonably.
A few older agreements keep one advantage: if your tenancy started before 1 May 2026 and allowed you to leave on one month’s notice, that shorter notice usually still applies. If you had a written tenancy from before 1 May 2026, your landlord should have given you the government’s Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 by 31 May 2026. New tenants get a written statement of the key terms before the tenancy is agreed.
Before you move in
The money a landlord or agent can take is capped by the Tenant Fees Act 2019 (GOV.UK, Tenant Fees Act guidance):
- a holding deposit of up to one week’s rent, returned within 7 days or put towards your rent or deposit, unless, for example, you pull out, give false or misleading information or fail a Right to Rent check;
- a tenancy deposit of up to five weeks’ rent (six if the rent is £50,000 a year or more), with no extra ‘pet deposit’ on top;
- no fees for viewings, referencing, inventories or contracts;
- no requirement to buy insurance, a guarantor service or a deposit replacement product.
A landlord can still check that you can afford the rent and ask for a guarantor, and must check that every adult who will live there has the right to rent in the UK. They can’t turn you away, or refuse to show you a home, because you have children or receive benefits: that has been unlawful since 1 May 2026, with fines of up to £7,000 (Renters’ Rights Act 2025 ss.33–34). An advert saying ‘No DSS’ is now a breach you can report to the council. Our guide to passing tenant referencing covers the checks in detail.
While you live there
Your deposit
Your landlord must protect your deposit in one of three government schemes (the Deposit Protection Service, MyDeposits or the Tenancy Deposit Scheme) within 30 days, and give you the scheme’s details within the same 30 days (GOV.UK, Tenancy deposit protection). If they don’t, a court must order them to pay you between one and three times the deposit, and since 1 May 2026 they can’t get a possession order on any ground except the anti-social behaviour grounds until they put it right or return the deposit. You can check with each scheme whether your deposit is protected. See our guide to deposit protection schemes.
Rent increases
Your landlord can raise the rent once a year, not in the first year, by serving Form 4A at least two months before the new rent starts. If you think the new rent is above the market, apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) before the new rent’s start date. The tribunal can set the rent lower than your landlord proposed, or the same, but not higher (Housing Act 1988 s.14ZB).
Take a renter in a Hackney two-bed paying £2,489 a month, the borough’s average two-bed rent (ONS Price Index of Private Rents, August 2026, from the London Rent Index on FTR London). The tenancy has run for more than a year, and the landlord serves Form 4A on 1 October proposing £2,750 from 1 December, a rise of about 10.5%.
The renter applies to the tribunal in November. If the tribunal decides in February, the renter pays £2,489 until the first rent period beginning on or after the decision, and then no more than £2,750, even if the tribunal thinks the market rent is higher. There is no rent control in London, so the tribunal compares your rent with the open market, not with what you paid before. Our rent negotiation guide shows how to gather local evidence.
You can also ask the tribunal to look at your starting rent within the first six months of a new tenancy; it can only confirm it or lower it (Housing Act 1988 s.14 and s.14ZA).
Repairs and a safe home
Your landlord is responsible for the structure and exterior of the home, and for keeping the water, gas, electricity, sanitation and heating and hot water in working order (Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 s.11). The home must also be fit for human habitation when you move in and throughout the tenancy (Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 s.9A). Report problems in writing and keep copies. If your landlord doesn’t act, contact your council’s private housing (environmental health) team: it can inspect the property, and since 22 June 2026 it can fine a landlord up to £7,000 for a serious (Category 1) hazard that could reasonably have been removed.
Awaab’s Law, which sets deadlines for dealing with damp, mould and emergency hazards, applies to social housing only. The government can extend it to private renting but has set no date, so any article telling you it already protects private renters is wrong (GOV.UK implementation roadmap). Our guide to damp and mould in London rentals explains what you can do now.
Privacy and visits
The home is yours to live in without interference. For inspecting its condition, the law gives your landlord access at reasonable times after 24 hours’ written notice (Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 s.11(6)). In an emergency, such as a leak damaging the home, they can ask for access at much shorter notice, but Shelter’s advice is that they must still tell you first and should not just turn up (Shelter, access for repairs). Turning up unannounced, letting themselves in or cutting off services to pressure you can be harassment.
Pets
You can ask in writing to keep a pet, describing it. Your landlord must reply in writing within 28 days and can’t refuse unreasonably; reasonable refusals include a building lease that bans pets or a home too small for the animal. They can’t make you buy pet insurance, and damage comes out of your normal deposit. See renting with pets in London.
When the tenancy ends
If you want to leave: give at least two months’ written notice (a letter, email or text is fine), ending on a rent day or the day before. You can give notice at any point, even early in the tenancy. You pay rent until the notice ends. In a joint tenancy, one tenant’s notice will usually end the tenancy for everyone, so talk to your flatmates first.
If your landlord wants you to leave, they need a ground and a section 8 notice (Form 3A), and the notice periods depend on the ground:
| Landlord’s reason | Minimum notice | Protection for you |
|---|---|---|
| Selling, or they or close family moving in | 4 months | Notice can’t end in the first 12 months; the home can’t be re-let or advertised for rent from the day of the notice until a year after it ends |
| Serious rent arrears (Ground 8) | 4 weeks | You must owe at least 3 months’ rent at notice and at the hearing |
| Other arrears or repeated late payment | 4 weeks | The court decides whether eviction is reasonable |
| Anti-social behaviour or serious crime | Can go to court at once | No order until 14 days after notice |
A notice is not an eviction. You don’t have to leave when it ends; your landlord must get a court order, and only court bailiffs or High Court enforcement officers can remove you (GOV.UK, Notices of possession from 1 May 2026).
Changing the locks or removing your belongings to force you out is illegal eviction, and threats or cutting off services can be harassment. Since 1 May 2026 councils can fine a landlord up to £40,000 for either, and for offences since that date the tribunal can order the landlord to repay up to 24 months’ rent (a rent repayment order). If you receive a notice, get advice straight away. See section 8 evictions explained.
At the end, you should get your deposit back within 10 days of agreeing the amount; if you disagree with deductions, each scheme offers free dispute resolution. Our guide to getting your full deposit back covers the evidence to keep.
What is still to come
| Measure | What it means for you | When |
|---|---|---|
| Landlord database | Every landlord and let home registered; you’ll be able to check yours | Planned: London landlords to register between 15 July and 14 October 2027 |
| Landlord ombudsman | A free way to complain about a landlord, with binding outcomes | Expected 2028 |
| Awaab’s Law for private renting | Deadlines for damp, mould and emergency repairs | No date set |
| Decent Homes Standard | A minimum standard for private rented homes | Enforced from 2035 |
Until the ombudsman opens, you can take a complaint about a letting agent that it hasn’t resolved to the government-approved redress scheme it belongs to, The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme (GOV.UK, redress schemes for property agents), but there is no ombudsman for landlords who manage their own homes.
Where to get help
- Shelter: free housing advice online and by phone (england.shelter.org.uk).
- Citizens Advice: help with notices, deposits, repairs and money (citizensadvice.org.uk).
- Your borough council: the private housing or environmental health team deals with disrepair, licensing, illegal eviction and discrimination.
- GOV.UK: the official guide for tenants sets out the rules in full.
Renting your next home
When you are looking for your next home, you can browse flats to rent across London by borough, zone, bedrooms and property type on FTR London and contact landlords directly, and check the average rent in each London borough in the Rent Index. Landlords can read what the Act requires of them in our guide to the Renters’ Rights Act for London landlords, and list a home 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 March 2025, predated the Renters’ Rights Act. It described section 21 ‘no-fault’ notices as a current route to eviction and fixed-term tenancies as normal; both ended on 1 May 2026. It also said London has rent control zones, which it does not; that landlords can require pet insurance, which the Act does not allow; and that the ‘Renters (Reform) Bill’ had already extended the Decent Homes Standard to private rentals and set up a landlord ‘Property Portal’.
That Bill never became law: the Decent Homes Standard will not be enforced in private renting until 2035, and the landlord database is still being set up. It also said tenants should receive the ‘How to Rent’ guide, which was withdrawn on 1 May 2026. The article has been rewritten to the law in force.
