Understanding the Renters’ Rights Act

SO, WHAT IS THE RENTERS’ RIGHTS ACT?

The Act introduces significant reforms to the private rented sector in England and Wales. The key provisions include abolishing section 21 notices, abolishing fixed term tenancies and the introduction of the ‘Decent Homes Standard’ and Awaab’s Law into the private rented sector. The Act will also ban discrimination against prospective tenants with children or against those who receive benefits. As well as this, the Act will introduce a new Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman.

OVERVIEW OF THE CHANGES

Periodic Tenancies

From 1 May 2026, all fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies will be abolished. Every tenancy will start as an assured periodic tenancy, continuing indefinitely until ended by tenant notice (minimum two months) or landlord notice based on statutory grounds. Fixed-term tenancies will no longer exist. Purpose-built student accommodation will also move away from ASTs, with exemptions only for landlords letting HMOs to students.

Tenancy terms

From 1 May 2026, landlords will need to give all new tenants, and some existing tenants, a written statement of tenancy terms. If you are private landlord or a Private Registered Provider of Social Housing and the tenancy is not a social housing tenancy and you the property is let under an assured tenancy you will be required to give a written statement of terms.

This information can either be included in your written tenancy agreements or you can give it separately if you wish.

This information will need to be given to new tenants before you and your tenant sign a tenancy agreement or agree a tenancy if you are doing so verbally. This information will also need to be provided to existing tenants if the tenancy agreement was made verbally without a written tenancy agreement. The deadline for providing this information to existing tenants is 31 May 2026.

Should you already have a written tenancy agreement for an existing tenancy, or any written record of the terms of the tenancy, then you do not need to provide this information. You will however need to give your tenants a government-produced Information Sheet that gives them information on the impact of the changes made by the Act. This is due to be published online in March 2026 and you will have until 31 May 2026 to provide this to all existing tenants.

A further article will be published on our website shortly providing further information on what should be included as a minimum in the written statement of terms.

Terminating Tenancies

Landlords will no longer be able to serve a Section 21 notice to gain possession of their property. Instead, landlords will need to serve a Section 8 notice specifying one or more appropriate grounds and provide the required notice. The notice must be provided using the prescribed form and will apply to new and existing tenancies, providing immediate protection to private tenants.

A tenant may terminate the tenancy at any point by service a two-month notice in writing on the landlord. The notice must expire the day before the rent is due. If there are joint tenants then notice by one will be effective for all tenants.

Section 8 Notices

As the use of section 21 notices will be abolished from 1 May 2026, we will be left with section 8 notices and so the grounds under section 8 will now have even greater significance.

The Act has introduced new grounds and made amendments to existing grounds, but these will still be split into mandatory grounds and discretionary grounds. The difference between these are that if you bring a section 8 possession claim on the basis of a mandatory ground and the court finds that you have satisfied the criteria for that ground then they must order possession. Whereas with discretionary grounds, the court has discretion when deciding whether or not to grant a possession order.

There will also likely be a new prescribed form of the section 8 notice released in due course so it is important to get the latest version of the form off the government website before serving any section 8 notice.

Ground 1

One of the grounds that have been amended under the Act is ground 1. This ground can be relied upon where possession is required so that a landlord or a family member can take occupation of the property. Amendments have been made so that the definition of family member now covers a wide category of family. Prior to the Act, this ground could only be used if a landlord of their spouse wished to move into the property, but it now includes parents, grandparents, siblings, children, grandchildren, spouses, and half blood relations.

The notice period for this ground is now four months. There is no need to give advanced notice to tenants that you may seek to rely on this ground in the future, but this ground cannot be used in the first 12 months of a new tenancy. Another important point to note is that you cannot re-let or market the property within 12 months from the date the section 8 notice is served unless it is to the family member or landlord.

Under the Act, it is an offence for landlords to misuse this ground by relying on it and then re-letting the property within 12 month period and local authorities will be able to issue fines.

Ground 1A

Ground 1A is a new ground introduced by the Act. This can be relied upon where landlords wish to sell their property. Again, this cannot be used within the first 12 months of the tenancy and the notice period is also four months.

At the moment we do not have information on what evidence will be needed to show you are going to sell the property, but we expect the court’s will want to see a clear intention to sell so this could be an advertisement on Rightmove, sales particulars, valuations or something of that nature at the time of the hearing.

This ground would also cover the granting of a long lease.

Again, you cannot re-let or market the property within 12 months of the date of service of the section 8 notice unless you are going to allow the potential purchase to go into the property on a tenancy prior to the sale or you are granting a long lease.

As with ground 1, local authorities will be able to issue fines for misuse of this ground.

Ground 8

The Act also makes changes to the most commonly used ground, ground 8. This is the mandatory ground that deals with rent arrears and is usually couple with discretionary grounds 10 and 11.

The Act has lengthened the notice period from two weeks to four weeks and has also amended the arrears threshold to three months. The tenant must now be in at least three months of arrears both at the time the section 8 notice is served and at the time of the possession hearing.

A further amendment is that if a tenant has not paid rent because they have not received their universal credit, then landlords cannot take this into account for the purpose of calculating rent arrears if the payment is to be made at the end of the month. Any amount owing to the tenant by way of universal credit is therefore to be discarded.

Rent

Under the Act, landlords may increase rent once per year for existing tenancies using a statutory Section 13 notice. landlords must give at least two months’ notice of the increased rent and can  only increase the rent in line with the market rate. Clauses allowing in-tenancy rent increases and agreements to raise rent outside this process will be banned.

Tenants can challenge increases at the First-Tier Tribunal, which will set the proper market rent based on comparable properties. If challenged, the rent will remain at the current rate until determination by the First-Tier Tribunal and it cannot be backdated so any new rent will only apply from the date of the Tribunals determination.

Rent will be determined by the Tribunal and payable from determination unless the tenant claims hardship. If the tenant claims hardship, the Tribunal can delay the rent increase for two months from the date of determination. This is effectively to give the tenant time to give their landlord notice to vacate.

The Tribunal will not order a higher rent than that stated in the section 13 notice or the existing rent if challenged within the first six months of a new tenancy. the Tribunal can determine a lower rent however, but this will be in line with the market rent and will not be based on any subjective affordability measure of the tenant.

Private Rented Sector (PRS) Database and Landlord Redress Scheme

Before marketing a property, landlords must register with the PRS Database and join the Landlord Redress Scheme. Advertisements must include the landlord and property identification numbers. The portal will hold compliance certificates and outline landlords’ legal responsibilities.

Pets

Properties may be advertised as “no pets,” but service animals must always be allowed. Tenants can request to keep a pet during the tenancy, and landlords cannot unreasonably refuse without a valid reason. Responses must be given within 28 days. Landlords may require pet damage insurance. If a lease or freeholder prohibits pets, this is considered a valid reason for refusal.

Decent Homes Standard

All rental properties must meet the new minimum safety standard, ensuring they are free from serious hazards under the Decent Homes Standard, which will be integrated into the Housing Health and Safety Rating System.

This will not be implemented in the first phase of enforcement (starting from 1^st May 2026) however and will come into force in the long term. We do not have a specified date for this, however it will be the third phase of implementation of the Act.

Awaab’s Law

In response to the tragic death of Awaab Ishak in 2020 who died as a result of mould in his social housing home, the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 introduced a new section which required social landlords to investigate and fix health hazards reported by their tenants.

This law will extend to the private sector, requiring landlords to follow strict timelines for inspecting and repairing serious hazards such as damp and mould. Failure to comply may result in tenants claiming damages in addition to standard disrepair claims.

As with the Decent Homes Standard, this will not be implemented in the near future and will come into force in stage 3 of the Act’s implementation.

For more information, please feel free to email me or contact the Litigation team on 020 8858 6971.