The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 commenced on 1 May 2026, and unlike most housing legislation it arrived all at once rather than in stages. Five months on, it is worth setting out precisely what changed, what has not yet arrived, and the exemption that a significant part of the prime London market falls into and which is rarely discussed.
What is in force now
Section 21 no-fault eviction is abolished. Every existing assured shorthold tenancy converted automatically to an assured periodic tenancy on 1 May. Fixed terms are banned for new lettings, and tenants may end a tenancy on two months’ notice. Rent may be increased only once a year and only through the statutory section 13 process. Rental bidding is prohibited. Rent in advance is capped at one month for new tenancies. Tenants have an implied right to keep a pet. The grounds for possession under section 8 were rewritten, and there are new anti-discrimination protections covering children and benefit recipients.
What has not arrived
The private rented sector database begins a regional rollout from December 2026. The landlord ombudsman is scheduled for 2028. The Decent Homes Standard for the sector is not due until 2035. Awaab’s Law, which currently applies only to social housing, has a framework in the Act for extension to private landlords but no confirmed date. The legal commentary is fairly openly sceptical that the later milestones will be met on time.
The £100,000 line
A tenancy where the annual rent exceeds £100,000 cannot be an assured tenancy under Schedule 1 of the Housing Act 1988, and the Renters’ Rights Act did not change that threshold. Such a tenancy falls outside the Act altogether. For those lettings a landlord may still grant a fixed term, may take more than one month’s rent in advance, is outside the deposit protection requirements, and repossesses by notice to quit rather than through the assured tenancy grounds. The tenant fee ban does not apply either.
That is not a marginal category here. LonRes reported in July that almost one in eight prime London lets agreed this year were above the £100,000 threshold. If you let a house in Belgravia or a large flat in Knightsbridge, there is a reasonable chance the reform you have been reading about for two years does not govern your tenancy at all.
It is worth checking rather than assuming. The threshold is annual rent, not weekly asking rent, and a property advertised at £1,900 a week sits just below it.
Energy performance, stated accurately
The current legal minimum to let a home in England and Wales is EPC band E, and has been for all existing tenancies since April 2020, with a £3,500 cost cap and a register for exemptions. I mention this because at least one well-regarded landlord publication stated earlier this year that there is no enforced minimum, which is wrong, and the error has circulated.
The future requirement is EPC C by 1 October 2030 for all tenancies, with no earlier date for new ones, a cost cap of £10,000 per property, and spending since 1 October 2025 counting toward that cap. This was confirmed in the Warm Homes Plan in January 2026 and through the subsequent consultation response. It is government policy rather than law: the implementing legislation is targeted for 2027 and has not yet been laid before Parliament. Around half of privately rented homes are currently below band C, so for many landlords this is a real capital question rather than a paperwork one. The EPC methodology itself is also being replaced with a four-metric framework from later this year, which means a property’s rating may change without any work being done to it.
What else is coming
Property income tax rates for individual landlords rise by two percentage points from 6 April 2027, to 22, 42 and 47 per cent. From April 2028 the High Value Council Tax Surcharge applies to English homes worth £2m or more, and it is the owner who is liable rather than the occupier: £2,500 a year from £2m, rising to £7,500 above £5m. For a prime London landlord that is a new annual cost on an asset that is already let, and it does not pass through to the tenant.
The next fiscal event is the Budget on 28 October. There is a great deal of speculation and we will not add to it.
If you would like your own portfolio looked at against any of the above, we are happy to do it. Request a lettings valuation and we will come back to you within 24 to 48 hours.
Chris Dawson, Co-Founder
Sources: Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/421. Housing Act 1988, Schedule 1. LonRes, 15 July 2026. Warm Homes Plan, 21 January 2026. Budget, 26 November 2025. High Value Council Tax Surcharge consultation, gov.uk, 19 May 2026.