New changes announced to Renters’ Rights Act

Most landlords know by now that the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 comes into force on 1^st May 2026.  The key changes for most domestic rented property are:

• The ending of possession proceeding which use s21 or no-fault. You must now have a valid legal ground to seek possession, such as a need to sell the property,
• Fixed term tenancies are abolished and all new tenancies and any existing ones become new periodic tenancies, which have no end date. They can only be ended by the tenant either giving 2 months’ notice to quit or by them agreeing to do so, otherwise, a possession order from the court will be needed following service of a s8 notice.
• Rent can only be increased by the market rate on one occasion per year, having given 2 months’ notice,
• A landlord can only accept one month’s rent in advance,
• Tenants can ask to have pets, and this cannot be unreasonably refused.

So, the changes start on the 1^st May, but there are a number of transitional arrangements which landlords need to be aware:

• You can serve a s21 notice right up to the 30^th April, but you need to ensure that the notice has been received by then. If in doubt, arrange service personally.

• If you have served a notice before the 30^th April, then the 2-month period can end after that date and still be effective. The key thing to not get caught out by, is that any proceedings to enforce the s21 notice, must be issued by no later than 31^st July 2026. Miss that date and you have to start over with a s8 notice.  Issuing proceedings is a formal step taken by the court, it is not the same as delivering the papers to the court and at the moment the courts are all running a back log – so do not leave this to the last minute.

The most important transitional step that will impact all landlords with properties covered by the Renters Rights Act is the need to serve The Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026, which has only just been published and can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-renters-rights-act-information-sheet-2026

There are some important things to know about this:

• It must be served on all individual tenants named on the tenancy agreement by 31^st May, or you may  face a potential fine of around £4000 to £7000.
• Where you have an agent managing the property they must also serve a copy.
• The sheet can be sent by post, be hand delivered or sent as a PDF attachment to an email or text. You cannot however send a link to the notice for the tenant to open.
• The sheet cannot be altered in any way.

If that is not enough, the government has also just published a suite of new forms which are to be used from 1^st May 2026 in relation to possession proceedings and any proposed rent increases.  Then, we await details of the new landlord registration scheme (and of course the registration fee) which are still in the pipeline.

If you have any questions about these changes, please contact John.Grace@mogersdrewett.com

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