The Renters' Rights Act 2025 — what's changed for tenants

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent in October 2025 and its main provisions came into force on 1 May 2026. For tenants in England, it's the biggest set of changes to renting law in a generation. Here's what's actually different now. The first and most fundamental change is that every assured tenancy — yours included, even if you signed before May 2026 — is now an assured periodic tenancy (APT), meaning it rolls month to month from day one. There's no fixed term you're locked into, and no minimum length to commit to. You can give two months' written notice to leave at any time after the first day. Alongside that, no-fault eviction has been abolished. The old notice your landlord used to be able to serve without giving any reason no longer exists. Your landlord can now only end your tenancy on specific legal grounds set out in Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988, and each of those grounds requires evidence and the right notice period. There's a statutory right to request a pet now. You ask in writing, the landlord has twenty-eight days to respond, and they can't unreasonably refuse. Rent can only be increased once a year, by a formal Section 13 notice, and if you think the proposed increase is above market rate you can challenge it at the First-tier Tribunal — which under the new rules can no longer set the rent above what the landlord proposed. Rental bidding has been banned outright: properties have to be advertised at a stated rent and can't be let above it. On housing standards, the Decent Homes Standard — which previously only applied in social housing — has been extended to the private rented sector, and Awaab's Law has come with it. That means landlords now have to remediate certain hazards, especially damp and mould, within prescribed timescales after you notify them. A new Property Portal (a landlord database) and a single PRS Ombudsman are being rolled out in stages from late 2026 onwards. The rest of this guide walks through what each of these changes means for you in practical terms.

A periodic tenancy is one that rolls month-to-month with no fixed end date. From 1 May 2026 every new and existing assured tenancy in England works this way — there are no more 6- or 12-month fixed terms. What that means for you: You can give two months' written notice to leave at any time after the first day of the tenancy. There's no penalty for leaving in month three, no break clause to negotiate, no early-exit fee. Your rent and the rest of your tenancy terms otherwise carry on exactly as they did before — being on a periodic tenancy doesn't reduce your security, doesn't change your repair rights, doesn't put your deposit at risk. If anything, periodic tenancies give you more flexibility, not less. If you're already partway through what used to be a fixed term, the term ended on 1 May 2026 and the tenancy converted to periodic automatically. The contract you signed continues to govern your rights and obligations, but the fixed-term clauses (early termination fees, renewal notice periods) no longer apply. This is genuinely good news for tenants in volatile life situations — new jobs, relationships, family changes. You're no longer locked into a year-long commitment that doesn't fit your circumstances.

No-fault eviction was abolished on 1 May 2026. The old notice your landlord used to be able to serve without giving any reason no longer exists, and whatever your tenancy agreement says about it, your landlord cannot rely on the old route. To end your tenancy from here on, the landlord has to serve a Section 8 notice on one of a defined list of statutory grounds. The most commonly used new and amended grounds are these. Ground 1A applies when the landlord wants to sell the property. It requires four months' notice and cannot be used in the first twelve months of your tenancy. Ground 1 covers the landlord or a close family member intending to move in as their main home — same four-month notice, same twelve-month minimum. Ground 1B is for genuine redevelopment work that requires you to vacate. Ground 8 is the main rent-arrears ground. It requires arrears of three months or more (or thirteen weeks if you pay weekly) at both the date of the notice and the date of the hearing. Notice period is four weeks. Importantly, if you're on Universal Credit and the housing element of your payment has been delayed, those delayed amounts are now disregarded for the arrears calculation under the Act. Ground 14 covers antisocial behaviour, with shortened notice periods for serious cases. If you receive a Section 8 notice and you don't believe the ground actually applies — the landlord isn't genuinely selling, isn't actually planning to move in, the arrears figure is wrong — get advice immediately. Shelter, Citizens Advice, and your local council's housing team can all help. There's an enforcement layer worth knowing about too: a landlord who serves a notice on a false ground and then re-lets the property to someone other than family within twelve months commits a criminal offence, with fines that can reach £40,000.

Since 1 May 2026 you have a statutory right to request a pet in writing. Your landlord has 28 days to respond in writing, and a refusal must be reasonable. What counts as a reasonable refusal: the freeholder of the building (or a superior landlord) forbids pets in the head lease — most common in flats; a documented serious allergy of someone who has to enter the property regularly; the property is genuinely unsuitable for the specific pet (a large dog in a studio with no outdoor access, for example); the pet is legally prohibited or recognised as dangerous under the Dangerous Dogs Act. What doesn't count: a blanket "no pets" clause in the tenancy agreement (these are no longer enforceable); general concern that pets cause damage; the landlord's personal preference; a previous bad experience with a different tenant's pet. What the landlord can and can't do: they cannot charge a separate pet fee or pet rent — that's banned by the Tenant Fees Act; they cannot increase your deposit above the statutory five-week cap to cover the pet. The original Bill required tenants to take out pet damage insurance; this provision was removed before the Act became law, so a landlord cannot require you to take out pet insurance and cannot pass on the cost of their own insurance. Any damage caused by the pet is dealt with through the standard deposit deduction process at the end of the tenancy. If your landlord doesn't respond within 28 days, doesn't give a reason, or gives a reason that doesn't meet the bar, you can escalate to the PRS Ombudsman once it's operational, or to Citizens Advice in the meantime. Make every request in writing (email is fine) so there's a record.

Your landlord can only increase the rent once a year, and only through a formal Section 13 notice (Form 4A). The notice must be in writing on the prescribed form, give at least two months' notice before the new rent takes effect, and not propose a rent above the market rent for the property. If you think the proposed rent is above market rate, you have 21 days from receiving the notice to refer it to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber). The tribunal then sets the rent at market rate — and under the new rules the tribunal can only keep the rent at the existing level or set it lower than the landlord proposed. It cannot, since 1 May 2026, set the rent above the landlord's proposed figure. This change removes the old risk of referring a notice and ending up paying more. Referring to the tribunal is free. You submit the notice and your evidence; the landlord submits theirs. Useful evidence is comparable rent data — listings for similar properties in your area, ideally from the same week the notice was served. Most tribunals decide on the papers within 8–12 weeks. If you can't afford the proposed increase and you don't have grounds to challenge it, talk to your landlord (or agent) directly before the 21-day deadline. Many landlords would rather negotiate a smaller increase than lose a good tenant.

The PRS Ombudsman is being set up as a single mandatory redress scheme for the entire private rented sector. Every landlord in England will have to be a member. Once it's operational, you'll be able to complain — at no cost — about poor service, unreasonable behaviour, breaches of the regulations, or failures to fix things. The Ombudsman will have the power to order remedial action and financial compensation. The Ombudsman scheme is being rolled out in stages. The current implementation timeline points to mandatory landlord membership in 2028, after the Property Portal (the landlord database) has been bedded in through 2026 and 2027. In the meantime, the existing redress routes still apply. For repairs your landlord won't address, the first port of call is your local council's Private Sector Housing team. Brighton & Hove and Worthing both have dedicated teams who can serve improvement notices, and for category 1 hazards — damp, mould, severe disrepair — Awaab's Law timescales apply. For disputes about your deposit at the end of the tenancy, the deposit scheme that holds it (DPS, MyDeposits, or TDS) runs a free adjudication service. You submit your case, the landlord submits theirs, an adjudicator decides. For misconduct by a letting agent, every agent has to belong to one of two redress schemes — The Property Ombudsman (TPO) or Property Redress — and you can complain through whichever scheme covers them. And for breaches of the Renters' Rights Act or the Tenant Fees Act themselves, your local council can investigate and issue civil penalties. The common thread across all of these routes is paperwork. Every complaint that goes anywhere is decided on the paper trail, so your dated emails, photographs, and notes of phone calls are worth more than anything you remember saying verbally. Keep records from the start.

Three national organisations cover most situations. Shelter (shelter.org.uk) has by some distance the deepest free legal advice on housing rights in England. Their online advice pages are first-rate, and their emergency helpline — 0808 800 4444 — is there for urgent cases. Citizens Advice (citizensadvice.org.uk) offers free, generalist advice including on housing matters, with local offices in Worthing and Brighton & Hove that can take face-to-face appointments and help with letter-drafting or form-filling. Generation Rent (generationrent.org) is a campaigning organisation with practical resources, including model letters and template responses to common landlord situations. For local council help, Worthing tenants go to Adur & Worthing Councils' Private Sector Housing team at adur-worthing.gov.uk; Brighton & Hove tenants go to the City Council's Private Sector Housing at brighton-hove.gov.uk. Both councils can issue improvement notices, prosecute serious breaches, and — in the most urgent cases — provide emergency accommodation. The point at which to seek a housing solicitor is usually one of three: you've received a Section 8 notice and you don't agree with the ground, you're being threatened with illegal eviction, or your deposit has been mishandled. Many housing solicitors offer a free thirty-minute initial consultation, and most county courts have a free Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme on hearing days — meaning there's a duty solicitor available on the day of your hearing at no cost. And finally, gov.uk's private-renting pages are the best free, official starting point if you're new to renting or unsure where to look first. (The standalone How to Rent guide was retired with the Renters' Rights Act; the information it carried now appears as a written statement within your tenancy agreement.)