Residential Private Landlords, are you ready to register? The Renters’ Rights Act’s new mandatory registration service

As part of the ongoing Renters’ Rights Act reforms, on 15 December 2026, the government will introduce a new national landlord registration service, starting in the West Midlands before being rolled out across the rest of England.

The mandatory ‘Register your rental property’ service will require you to register your rental properties on a private rented sector database. Initially, the service is intended to operate as a tool for local councils to carry out enforcement action and allow landlords to demonstrate compliance. Eventually, tenants will be able to check whether their landlords are compliant, but details of what information will be visible has yet to be confirmed.

Registration

Once registration has opened in the region of your rental property, not where you live, you will have three months to register:

• Your details as a landlord (including your name, date of birth, residential address, telephone number and email address).
• Your rental properties (including the address, ownership type, dwelling type, number of bedrooms, letting status, freeholder’s name, freeholder’s email, details of any superior landlord and details of the property manager)
• The tenancies facts (including the number of occupants, number of householders, whether there are houses in multiple occupation, licence details and furnishing status).
• The rent (including amount, payment frequency and whether this includes utilities). 
• Health and safety evidence (including gas safety record, electrical installation condition report, energy performance certificate). 

Details will need to be updated as appropriate.

You will also have to pay an annual registration fee within the 3-month deadline. At the time of publication, registration costs £65 per property per year (not per landlord).

Non-compliance consequences

In the event that you fail to register by the prescribed deadline or provide false or misleading information, your local council can impose the following penalties:

• A maximum £7,000 civil penalty for an initial or minor breach 
• A maximum £40,000 civil penalty for a persistent or serious breach 
• Restrictions on obtaining possession orders

What does this mean in practice? Other than the initial penalty leaving you out of pocket, this could prohibit you from recovering rent arrears, selling the property or moving back in. Whilst you remain unregistered, agents will be prevented from marketing or managing your rentals, and your tenants could apply for a rent repayment order requiring you to pay back up to 24 months’ worth of rent. Non-compliance can quickly add up and may offset any profit from your rental properties.

What should you be doing now?

Three months may seem like plenty of time, but in reality, the deadline is likely to come round quickly once you discover that your certificates may need renewing, you may need to coordinate inspections and every assessor in the area is suddenly booked up. You should be:

• Diarising the relevant registration opening and deadline dates for each property
• Setting up a GOV.UK One account to access the database, if you don’t already have one 
• Reviewing your health and safety certificates for each property and booking in new assessments if they are due to expire.
• Gathering details for each property in your portfolio. Your agents and property managers may be able to help with this. 

Registration Deadlines:

How we can help

If you have any concerns about the registration requirements or their impact on possession claims, our Property Litigation Department on PropertyLitigation@porterdodson.co.uk would be happy to assist.