The Renters' Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. The government confirmed in November that the bulk of it would commence on Friday 1 May 2026, with further provisions phased in over the following years. If you rent privately in England, almost everything below now applies to your tenancy — whether your contract was signed before or after 1 May 2026, and even if no one's told you about it.

I've tried to focus on the changes that actually matter day to day, not every legal subtlety. For the full picture, the Act itself is on legislation.gov.uk and the government's Information Sheet 2026 is the plain-English summary your landlord is required to give you by 31 May 2026.

Section 21 is gone

The single biggest change is the abolition of Section 21 — the notice landlords used to evict tenants without giving any reason. From 1 May 2026, no landlord in England can serve a new Section 21 notice. To end your tenancy, they have to use a Section 8 notice and prove a specific legal ground from the updated Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988.

There are 30 grounds in total, split into mandatory grounds (where the court mustgrant possession if the ground is proved) and discretionary grounds (where the court decides whether it's reasonable). Some grounds have got more demanding under the Act — notably Ground 8 (rent arrears), which now requires three months of arrears instead of two, with a four-week notice period instead of two weeks.

Every tenancy is now periodic

Fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies have been abolished. On 1 May 2026, every existing assured tenancy and assured shorthold tenancy automatically converted into an assured periodic tenancy — a rolling tenancy with no fixed end date.

You don't need a new contract for this to happen. The conversion was automatic in law. If you're still inside what was supposed to be a fixed term, your fixed term ended on 1 May 2026 and you're now on a periodic tenancy under the same other terms.

Practical effect: you can give two months' written notice to leave at any point. No early-termination fees, no break clauses, no being trapped until the "next renewal". The flexibility now sits with you, not the landlord.

Rent increases must go through Section 13

From 1 May 2026, the only legal way for a landlord to increase rent on an assured tenancy is by serving a Section 13 notice on the new prescribed Form 4A. Any rent review clause written into your tenancy agreement is no longer enforceable. A landlord cannot raise the rent by sending a letter, an email, a text, or pointing at a clause in the contract.

Three rules every increase must follow: at least 12 months between increases, at least two months' notice between the form being served and the new rent date, and the notice must be on the official Form 4A.

The tribunal can no longer set the rent higher than your landlord proposed. Under the old rules, it could. The deterrent is gone.

If you think the proposed rent exceeds market rate, you can challenge it at the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) before the new rent date. The application fee is £47 with no separate hearing fee — deliberately set low to make the route accessible — and the Help with Fees scheme is available if you can't afford it. The tribunal can also defer the increase by up to two more months if paying immediately would cause undue hardship.

We have a full guide on how rent increases work now and a free tool to check a notice you've received.

You can request a pet

Tenants now have a statutory right to request permission to keep a pet in the property. The landlord must consider the request reasonably and can only refuse on reasonable grounds. Blanket "no pets" clauses in tenancy agreements are no longer enforceable.

Landlords are allowed to require pet insurance as a condition of permission. If a landlord refuses unreasonably, the tenant can challenge the decision.

No more rental bidding wars

Landlords and letting agents must advertise a specific rent and cannot accept or invite offers above the advertised amount. The Act also caps rent in advance: no more than one month's rent can be required upfront when a new tenancy is granted.

This was a direct response to the bidding-war culture that took hold in high-demand cities like London and Bristol over the last few years.

Discrimination is now banned

It is now unlawful for landlords or letting agents in England to refuse a tenancy because:

• The prospective tenant receives benefits (the "No DSS" or "No housing benefit" refusal)
• The prospective tenant has children

The Act also requires private rented homes to meet the Decent Homes Standard for the first time. Awaab's Law — named after Awaab Ishak, the toddler who died in 2020 from prolonged exposure to mould — applies to private rentals too, setting statutory time limits for landlords to respond to and remedy serious health hazards.

The Information Sheet deadline

Landlords with existing tenants had to provide the official Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 to every named tenant by 31 May 2026. Tenants on verbal-only tenancies had to be given a written statement of the main tenancy terms by the same date.

Failure to provide either is a civil offence, with a fine of up to £7,000 for a first offence and up to £40,000 for a repeat. If you didn't receive one by 31 May 2026, that's a potential compliance issue worth raising — though it won't affect your underlying rights.

The 12-month Initial Protected Period

For the first 12 months from 1 May 2026, your landlord cannot use the new Ground 1 (intending to occupy the property themselves or moving in a close family member) or Ground 1A(intending to sell the property) to evict you. These two grounds are otherwise mandatory — meaning the court must grant possession if proved — and Ground 1A is brand new in the Act.

The protected period is a recognition that the system needs time to bed in. It also means landlords cannot use the new grounds as a de-facto Section 21 replacement during the transition.

What's still coming

Phase 1 — the tenancy reforms above — went live on 1 May 2026. Several other provisions are being phased in over the next few years. The headline ones:

• Late 2026 — Private Rented Sector Database goes live regionally, with full national rollout in 2027. Landlords will have to register themselves and their properties.
• 2028 — Landlord Ombudsman scheme begins, giving tenants a free route to escalate disputes without going to court.
• 1 October 2030 — Minimum Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C for all new tenancies, and from 2033 for existing ones.
• 2035— Final phase. The government's implementation roadmap currently lists at least 12 separate sets of secondary legislation still to be published.

We'll update this piece as each phase comes into force.

Where to next

If you're dealing with something specific, jump straight to it:

• Check whether a rent increase notice is valid
• How rent increases work now
• Section 13 notices, decoded

If you can't find what you're looking for and you need actual advice on your situation, contact Shelter or Citizens Advice.