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Renters’ Rights Act 2025 – What it means for local authorities.

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The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 goes beyond the abolition of assured shortholds and section 21 no-fault evictions. It also introduces a raft of measures intended to re-balance the legal relationship between residential landlords and their tenants at a time of housing crisis. 

Standing behind these reforms are the districts and unitaries which will have the difficult job of policing the new legislation. 

Indeed, the reason why new investigatory powers were brought into effect on 27th December 2025 was to give those councils a four-month head start to get their enforcement policies in place before the grand launch of the new legislation on 1st May 2026. Other key structural changes introduced by the 2025 Act, include:

  • The abolition of fixed term residential tenancies, which means that tenants can vacate on giving as little as 2 months prior written notice to the landlord;
  • Increased regulation of tenancy documentation;
  • An obligation on landlords and letting agents to quote a fixed rent when marketing a proposed residential letting and not being allowed to accept anything more than the quoted rent;
  • Increased restrictions on the amount of money which landlord can ask by way of advance rent;
  • A 12 months moratorium on re-letting, in circumstances where a landlord relies on one of the new non-fault grounds to recover possession in circumstances where they intend to sell the property or occupy for their own purposes.
  • A prohibition on discriminating against prospective tenants who either have children or are on benefits. Whilst this does not prevent a landlord from carrying out a financial assessment on a prospective tenant, state benefits must not be treated less favourably than other private income.
  • It is also made illegal for a landlord to ‘bluff’ a tenant into vacating by pretending to rely on a ground for possession which they cannot substantiate

Just to complicate things further, the 1st May 2026 launch will not apply to all residential lettings. Only those in the private rented sector. Social lettings will for the time being continue to be governed by the existing regime until the reforms are extended to social landlords later in 2026. It means that for the time being there will be two separate tenancy regimes running side by side.

The cost of getting it wrong

For private landlords and letting agents who get it wrong, there will be no second chances. There will be no warning letters. Only financial penalties. Nor is the new enforcement regime intended to be complaints-led.

Government guidance asks local authorities to be proactive in the enforcement of the new tenancy legislation and make full use of the investigatory powers and financial penalties which are made available to them. Local authorities will be incentivised to do this by being able to keep and recycle financial penalties into more enforcement.

Within the legislation there are at least three separate financial penalty regimes and a maximum range of penalties from £4,000 up to £40,000 depending on the nature and seriousness of the breach. The government also encourages councils to use financial penalties in preference to prosecution where it is possible to do so. Some circumstances giving rise to financial penalties require proof on a balance of probabilities whilst the most serious require proof beyond reasonable doubt. In each case, the process is the same.

The council will investigate and issue notice to the landlord or letting agent proposing a penalty of a certain amount and giving an opportunity for representations to be made. On the expiration of the period for representations, the council will serve notice of its decision. The landlord will then have a right of appeal to a first-tier tribunal until the order becomes final.

New investigatory powers already in force enable councils to ask questions, enter business premises and seize documents.

Will the new legislation work?

The Renters Rights Act 2025 does not exist in isolation. Its success is dependent on a courts and tribunal system which actually works. The abolition of the accelerated possession procedure now means that all possession claims will have to go to a court hearing, where the landlord will need to prove its case. Taking account of the time needed to get to a possession hearing followed by a bailiff eviction, that eviction process could take up to a year. Add to that the longer lead-in times introduced by the 2025 Act for all grounds of possession, save those based on antisocial behaviour.

It also means more work for first tier tribunals, who will be tasked with adjudicating appeals against fixed penalties. And of course it means more work for local housing authorities tasked with enforcing the new regime. This workload could increase in 2027 when the government introduces its expected landlord registration scheme, which councils will also be required to police. By 2035, the government is also expected to have introduced its Decent Homes Standard for all residential lettings.

How will it affect the Lettings Market?

The speed at which the legislation is being introduced and the fact that it applies retrospectively, means that many private landlords may not even have a chance to get out of the market. Any landlord who has not served their section 21 notice before 1st May 2026 and issued possession proceedings by the cut off date of 31st July 2026, will be caught by the new regime. We could also see a growing professionalisation of the residential lettings market, as small residential landlords drop out and are replaced by larger professional landlords who are better able to navigate the new legislation. It could also provide opportunities for social landlords to replenish their housing stock as more ex-rental properties come onto the market.

We could also see the re-emergence of avoidance schemes, such as company lets. Or private landlords choosing to lease their properties through intermediaries, such as local authorities or housing associations, who can then shoulder those landlord responsibilities and guarantee a return of vacant possession at the end of the lease. End

First Published in Local Government Lawyer – March 2026

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V. Charles Ward Is a senior property lawyer with HB Public Law and the author of Housing Regeneration: a plan for implementation. He is also the author of The Renters’ Rights Act: a practical guide, which is being published through Taylor and Francis and will be released later this year

business, housing, Law, London, real estate, society

A Landlord who fails to do this could be fined up to Â£7,000

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Once the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 takes effect on the 1st May 2026, private residential landlords in England will have only 1 month to get tenancies correctly documented or face fines of up to £7,000. This means serving existing tenants with a tenant information sheet explaining their new rights under the 2025 Act. These new rights can include lifetime security of tenure, protection against unfair rent increases, the ability to vacate on as little as 2 months prior written notice, and the outlawing of discrimination against tenants who are on welfare or who have children living with them. For landlords who get it wrong, there may be no second chances. Just a financial penalty.

For new tenancies, or those which were previously undocumented, landlords must issue tenants (as well as prospective tenants) with a written statement of terms containing all the information required by the Assured Tenancies (Private Rented Sector) (Written Satement of Terms etc and Information Sheet) (England) Regulations 2026. The content of that written statement of terms must conform exactly to the requirements of the schedule to the 2026 Regulations. That statement can either be standalone or incorporated in a formal tenancy agreement. The Information Sheet to be served on existing tenants must be downloaded as a PDF and must be issued to tenants either as hard copy or by email but exactly in the prescribed format. To help landlords with this, the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government has issued guidance published 20th March 2026 titled, ‘The Renters’s Rights Act Information Sheet 2026: The information sheet about the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 that landlords and their agents must give to tenants’.

Whilst there is no prescribed template for the statement of terms, it is important that particular care is taken to include within these statements of terms any legitimate non-fault grounds of possession to which the tenancy may be subject. Landlords who fail to do this may later have difficulty in recovering possession even when they might otherwise have had legitimate grounds to do so.

The MHCLG Guidance includes the following advice:

  • the information sheet does not have to be given to lodgers but must be given to every tenant named on the tenancy agreement
  • the tenant information sheet is only valid when downloaded from the Government website;
  • the information sheet must be given to tenants either by printing a hard copy and posting or hand delivering to tenants or alternatively sending a PDF electronically as an attachment to an email or text message where it is appropriate to do so. However it is not sufficient just to email or text a link to a tenant;
  • the legislation does not require landlords to change or reissue an existing written tenancy agreement;
  • where a tenancy was informally entered into before 1st May 2026 without a written agreement, the landlord must provide a statements of tenancy terms (see above);
  • Social landlords do not need to provide this information sheet.
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Kings Speech 2024 – What it means for conveyancers and other property professionals.

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King’s Speech 2024 – what it means for conveyancers and other property professionals.

We are not talking about the big-ticket stuff – like House of Lords reform.  Instead, we are focusing on the small-print in the Starmer agenda.  The things which are likely to affect our day-to-day work.  We also mention things which we would have expected to see mentioned in the King’s Speech, on which there has so far been silence.  Here are the things which interest us.

A Planning and Infrastructure Bill

This is exciting.  For too long, the ‘no’ lobby has been in the ascendancy.  And all at a time of housing crisis. Planning has become two politicised.  Planning pre-conditions have become long shopping lists, within a process which has become like treacle.  Even so, the government’s announced proposals for reforming the planning system are modest: with the restoration of house-building targets and the reclassification of some parts of the green belt.  When what is really required is a speeding up of the whole planning process.  Which shouldn’t be problematic for a self-financing public service.  We’re sure many developers would be willing to pay a little bit extra by way of planning-fees, to pay for the additional staff needed to get their applications through the system.  And if it is blocked by local politicians, to get it quickly in front of a government-appointed planning inspector.  Why should that be difficult? 

Leasehold Reform

Some of it we have heard before. Like replacing a leasehold system which has existed for more than 1000 years by a new system of commonhold.  The legislation already exists in the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.  But it didn’t work when Tony Blair tried to introduce it more than 20 years ago.  Because nobody wanted it.  So why will it work now?  Despite its imperfections, residential leasehold is the most workable system for selling flats and maisonettes.  So wouldn’t it be better just to make the reforms needed to get the existing residential leasehold system right, instead of trying to force something which nobody wants.  At the moment, we are waiting for the new government to bring into force detailed provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, which received royal assent in the last days of the Conservative government.  But it is not just about bringing it into force, because the detail will be in the regulations which, as far as we’re aware, have yet to be published.  So there is some work for the new government to do before that legislation can take effect.  We are also expecting the new government to waste no time in pushing forward with the Renters Reform Bill, which had been tabled by the previous Conservative government but dropped as soon as the general election was called.  It always seemed to us that the last government’s commitment to removing section 21 no-fault evictions was always a little half-hearted, we assume because of the landlord-lobby.  Funny thing about the section 21 evictions process, was that it was not seen as problematic in 1989 when the private-rented sector was opened up, because the residential market was so different, with residential landlords competing with each other for the best tenants, not the other way round, as it is today.  It meant that if, in 1989, you were a reputable tenant who was unlucky enough to be given the section 21 notice of eviction, there would be dozens of other potential landlords bidding to accommodate you.  And remember, that in 1988, most councils still had their social rented stock.

Absences

As well as the reforms which the new government has announced, there are also some things missing, which we would have expected to find within the King’s Speech or other government announcements.  We are surprised that there has been no mention at all of any scaling back of right-to-buy, not even from the crazy discounts introduced by the Cameron government.  What is scandalous is that up to 40% of ex-right-to-buy properties are now in the hands of private landlords, meaning that local authorities are having to rent back ex-right-to-buy properties on their own estates, just to meet their statutory housing needs.  What nonsense is that?  Is our system of housing benefits really so generous that it can afford to throw money at private landlords, because there is no longer any significant affordable rented sector?  No wonder first-time buyers and private renters have been priced out of the housing market.  The other thing, for which there has been no mention, is any revamp of the measures brought in by the Gordon Brown government to bring long-term empty dwellings back into occupational use.  The problem with Brown’s empty dwellings management orders, was that the whole process was too cumbersome to be of any use.  At the last count there were approximately 260,000 empty dwellings in the UK.  What a waste!

Legislative Agenda

We have also taken a few moments to look at the government bills which are currently before Parliament.  Presently, there are only five government bills, most of which we think are uncontroversial.  These include a new Arbitration Bill, building on the existing 1996 legislation, to restore London as the world’s arbitration capital.  Who is going to argue with that?  And there is also the bill to re-nationalise Britain’s railways.  With only four clauses, this bill is astonishingly short for what has become one of the new government’s landmark policies.  It does no more than prohibit a re-letting of existing railway franchises except to a government-owned company.

Law, property, real estate, Uncategorized

Rentcharges – The New Law

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One of the first actions for the new government should be to bring into force the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, which received Royal Assent in the dying days of the last conservative government.  In this article, we look at Part 7 of the 2024 Act, which introduces new protections for freeholders, whose titles are expressed to be subject to historic rentcharges.  Here, we are not talking about estate rentcharges, which are a legitimate means of ensuring that everyone pays their fair share towards estate maintenance.  We are talking instead about the old fashioned rentcharge, probably created more than hundred years ago, where tiny sums of money are charged out of property and payable to the owner of the rentcharge.

Until the Upper Tribunal decision in Roberts v Lawton [2016] UKUT 395, lawyers never gave much thought to this type of rentcharge.  Who cares that the landowner is liable to pay another party a couple of quid a year, even if they knew to whom the money is to be paid?  But in the Roberts v Lawton case, the Upper Tribunal held that failure, even to pay those few pounds, could result in the rentcharge owner exercising their rights under Section 121 of the Law of Property Act 1925, to walk in and take possession of the property or – more likely – grant a lease out of the property to its own nominee, which was what happened in the 2016 case.  The effect of creating that lease was to freeze the title to the property, making it un-saleable and unmortgageable, which meant the property-owner could be held to ransom.  Because that’s what the 1925 Act said that the rentcharge owner could do.  And that is currently still the case until the new legislation is brought into force.

The creation of new rentcharges of this type was abolished more than half a century ago by the Rentcharges Act 1977.  But there are many thousands of rentcharges of this type still in existence, giving rentcharge owners the powers of enforcement set out in the Law of Property Act 1925.  Furthermore, there is nothing to prevent ownership of rentcharges of this type, commonly known as ‘chief rents,’ being traded, just like stocks and shares.

Once it is brought into force, Section 113 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, will introduce a new section 120B into the Law of Property Act 1925, which will prevent rentcharge owners from exercising any of their rights of recovery until they have first given the property owner a 30 day ‘wake up’ call, by serving formal notice demanding the outstanding rentcharge arrears and providing the following additional information:

  1. The name and address of the rent owner as well as a calculation of the arrears and details of how to make payment;
  2. Enclosing a copy of the instrument creating the rentcharge and proof of the rent owner’s title to that payment.

Even property-owners who receive such a notice but are dilatory in their response may still be protected by the new section 121(1A) of the 1925 Act, which will prevent rentcharge owners from going into possession of or granting themselves leases from the owner’s property in relation to any arrears covering a period after 27 November, 2023 (although the old remedies will still be available for pre-existing arrears recovery).  It means, effectively, that, as regards arrears accruing after 27 November, 2023, rentcharge owners will be limited to what they can recover through the small claims court as a simple monetary debt, which is how it should be.

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Conveyancing – How to Increase Your Productivity and Your Chargeable Output

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Conveyancing – Four Ways to Increase Your Productivity and Your Chargeable Output

Conveyancing is piecework.  Forget hourly rates.  In a competitive legal market, residential clients want to be able to compare quotes.  And professional rules now require transparency when it comes to pricing, so that prospective clients can see at a glance what they are going to have to pay.  But whenever you quote a prospective client, you need to be able to work within budget.  If you overrun that budget because you under-quoted or did not appreciate the extent of the work-tough!  You’ll be doing some free work. That’s not the client’s fault.  Unless you can genuinely say that additional complications cropped up which no one could have ever previously foreseen or because of something your client didn’t tell you.  So it’s all about packing in as much personal productivity as is possible for each working hour of your day.  Here are some tips:

  • Always dictate-dictate-dictate your work.  Never try to hand-type everything.  It’s just too much hard work.  Maybe like me, you lost your secretarial support more years ago than you can even remember.  Never mind.  There is Microsoft voice dictation.  If you’re working on a computer which is Windows 10 or above, you’ll find voice dictation somewhere.  Just go to ‘settings’ and ‘ease of access’.  Dictating your work can be annoying to those around you, particularly if you have to keep repeating the same phrase until your voice recognition gets it right.  Sometimes it never gets it right.  If I say the word ‘comma’, it will tell me to ‘call my mum’.  If I say ‘draft’ as in document, I will always get the draught which blows in from an open window.  So why do I use voice dictation?  Because even with its faults, it’s still three times quicker than trying to type everything out longhand.  Because even if you can touch type, you can’t type as fast as you can speak.  So by using voice dictation I can triple my chargeable output.
  • Standardise-standardise-standardise.  Take a tip from Henry Ford.  Install a conveyor belt.  Metaphorically speaking of course.  Try to create your own all-purpose templates, which you can easily and quickly populate before sending out.
  • Front-load your work, so that you can do as much as possible in one shot.  Don’t wait for the other party solicitor to send across to you their title documentation, download it yourself and save a week.  Never issue documentation in draft if the you can send out something which is a engrossment-ready.
  • Finally, never compromise on the quality of your work or the service which you provide to your client.  Make sure that everything is right first time, the moment it is sent out.  Don’t rely on your client to pick up your mistakes.  Take the trouble to organise your electronic file so that everything is correctly labelled and stored in its correct folder, so that you can find anything in an instant instead of having to trawl through the whole file.  It also makes it easier if a colleague has to look after your file in your absence.