The long anticipated Renters’ Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and is now available to view online.

A commencement date has not been yet been determined. The Secretary of State will be at liberty to pass a statutory instrument at any point determining a date on which the provisions of the Act will take effect (the Commencement Date).

Below is a summary of the changes imposed by the Act. Please note that all of the provisions mentioned below are not yet in force, unless stated otherwise.

Periodic Tenancies

All assured shorthold tenancies will become assured tenancies; fixed terms will be no more. All tenancies will become periodic tenancies with a period not exceeding one month. This means assured tenancies which do not provide a rent period of one month or less are of no effect and tenancies will instead be in effect as if it provided for a monthly periodic tenancy.

Increasing Rent

Landlords wishing to increase the monthly rent will need to give tenants at least 2 months’ notice before the new rent is payable, by serving a section 13 notice.

Pre-tenancy Payments

Landlords and agents will not be able to require a tenant to make a pre-tenancy payment – payment of rent before the tenancy has been entered into.

Pets

It will be an implied term of every assured tenancy that a tenant may keep a pet at the property if they ask to do so, and the landlord consents. The landlord cannot unreasonably withhold consent, and must give or refuse consent in writing within 28 days of the request.

If a tenant requests to keep pets, the landlord can request further information about the pet and delay giving or refusing consent by 7 days from the date that information is provided. If the landlord is a superior tenant (because they are a leaseholder of the property) and will require consent from the superior landlord, they can delay giving or refusing consent by 7 days from the date they receive consent or refusal from the superior landlord.

The Houses were at one point going back and forth as to whether landlords could require tenants to pay an additional deposit if they have a pet, this was refused by the Commons and has not made it into the Act.

Tenants Notices to Quit

Section 5 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 is amended to include a new Section (Section 5A) whereby any provision that would bind a tenant as to the means of giving a notice to quit in writing will have no effect. A notice to quit can be withdrawn before the date it takes effect by agreement between the landlord and tenant in writing.

Deposits

You will all be aware that in order to serve a valid section 21 notice, any security deposit must be correctly protected. Upon commencement, these provisions will apply to the validity of a section 8 notice. If the deposit has not been correctly protected and the relevant provisions have not been complied with, the deposit will need to be returned before valid notice can be served. This is unless the notice relies on grounds 7A or 14 (relating to anti-social behaviour).

Private Rented Sector Database and Landlord Ombudsman

All landlords of assured and regulated tenancies will be required to register themselves and their properties on the Private Rented Sector Database. Agents will not be required to join the database since redress schemes are already in place for agents. Landlords may be subjected to penalties if they fail to register for the service while marketing or letting a property.

The Database is intended to help landlords understand their obligations and demonstrate compliance, changes to requirements will be communicated via the Database. The government say that it will provide tenants with access to information about a property before they decide to rent it, and whilst they are renting. Landlords will be required to pay a fee to register on the database, the amount of that fee is yet to be confirmed.

As it stands, the government are yet to confirm exactly what information will be available, but it seems that the intention is for the Database to deal with property standards. We expect to see Statutory Instruments be implemented to bring clarification on this front.

A new Ombudsman will also be introduced, intended to provide tenants with the ability to escalate complaints about their landlords and obtain impartial and binding resolutions on those complaints.

Section 8 Grounds

Below is a table of the grounds and their relevant notice periods.

The grounds which may be of particular interest landlords and agents are:

  • Ground 1 – the landlord wants possession so that the property can be occupied by a family member. The individuals falling within the definition have been expanded from ground 1 in its current form and now include parents, grandparents, siblings, children, step-children and grandchildren. 4 months’ notice will need to be given.
  • Ground 1A – possession is required because the landlord intends to sell the property. 4 months notices will need to be given and the tenancy will need to have began at least 1 year before notice is served. If the landlord is unable to sell the property, or simply changes their mind, they will not be able to re-let the property for 12 months.
  • Ground 6A – a landlord can regain possession in order to comply with an enforcement action, where any of the following have occurred:-
  • Letting the property causes the landlord to breach or would breach if the property continues to be let, a banning order under section 16 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016.
  • An improvement notice under section 11 or 12 of the Housing Act 2004 has been served, which specifies that the property requires remedial action and specifies overcrowding as the deficiency which gives rise to the hazard for which remedial action must be taken.
  • A prohibition order under section 20 or 21 of the Housing Act 2004, which prohibits the use of any part of the property or the common parts for purposes that are incompatible with continued use by the tenant.
  • The property is a HMO which is required to be licenced under section 61 of the Housing Act 2004 and the local authority refused to grant a licence or the licence has been revoked.
  • The property is required to be licenced under section 85 of the Housing Act 2004 and the local authority refused to grant a licence or the licence has been revoked.

4 months notice will need to be given.

  • Ground 7 – a landlord may be able to regain possession when a tenant has died. You may recall there being some back and forth over whether the time for a landlord to issue proceedings on the basis of this ground would be within 12 months of the date the court considered the landlord to have become aware of the tenant’s death, or 24 months. It seems the government have decided on 12 months. If a ‘new tenant’ was occupying the property as their only or main home immediately before the death of the ‘former tenant’, then a landlord will not be able to use this ground unless the ‘former tenant’ inherited the tenancy under a will or the rules of intestacy, or the tenancy is a special tenancy (a social housing tenancy). 2 months notice will need to be given.
  • Ground 8 – under this ground landlords will only be able to recover rent where the rent is either 13 weeks or 3 months in arrears (rather than 8 weeks and 2 months). When calculating the arrears landlords will not be able to include any rent that has not been paid by the tenant because they are entitled to a housing benefit which has not been paid to them. 4 weeks notice will need to be given.

Written Statement of Terms

Landlords or their agents will be required to provide tenants with a written statement of terms. The obligation to do this will be triggered upon implementation of the relevant provisions of the Act by the Secretary of State. There is currently no prescribed form for this written statement of terms, but it would appear that the intention of this provision is to ensure that tenants are properly informed of their rights and the changes that this Act makes to their tenancy.

Transitional Periods

Once a commencement date has been set, any claims for possession already submitted to the Court on the basis of a valid and expired section 8/21 notice will remain effective and the change to the tenant from an assured shorthold tenancy to an assured tenancy, will not come into effect until proceedings are concluded.

If a section 8/21 notice has been served but a claim for possession has not yet been submitted to the Court, the landlord will have 6 months from the date the section 8/21 notice was served or a period of 3 months from when the Bill comes into force, whichever is sooner, to issue proceedings.

Investigatory Powers

Effective 27 December 2025, following the amendment of ss 235 and 239 of the Housing Act 2004, local housing authorities will have the power to investigate whether a landlord or agent of a private rented property has broken certain laws. They will be able to enter a business property to seize documents, ask people or organisations for information or enter a residential property with special authorisation (except where the person concerned is Parliament or the Crown).

Many will now wait in anticipation to hear from the government as to when the remaining provisions of the Act will come into force.

If you require any assistance in recovering possession of a property under the current legislation, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our Residential Possession team.