Renters Rights Act 2025

After years of discussions around introducing major reforms in the private rented sector, the Renters’ Rights Bill finally received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. This means that it has now passed through Parliament and has become law in England, and is titled the Renters’ Rights Act 2025.

The Act includes many changes to provide greater protection and stronger rights for private tenants, and the provisions will be introduced in stages. While we await an official timeline, it is expected that some of the most significant changes, such as the abolishment of Section 21 evictions will be introduced in Spring 2026.

What happens next?

The UK Government will announce dates for provisions to commence, which will be through secondary legislation.

From 27 December 2025, local housing authorities will have stronger powers to investigate suspected law breaches in private rented properties, such as poor housing conditions and illegal evictions.

As of now, no other dates have been officially confirmed for the new regulations.

Key changes for landlords and how to prepare

To prepare for the upcoming new legislation, these are some of the changes that will impact landlords:

·      Abolition of Section 21 “no fault” evictions – Section 21 evictions will be abolished under the Act and for eviction proceedings, landlords will only have the Section 8 grounds to use if they want to evict tenants. The grounds have been updated and there will be new forms to complete.

Landlords can start preparing by ensuring they keep records such as inspection notes, rent ledgers and written warnings.

·      Periodic tenancies replace fixed term tenancies – All new tenancies will be periodic, rolling tenancies and existing fixed term tenancies will need to move over to periodic.

Landlords will need to ensure they include the correct legal wording in the new tenancy agreements for periodic tenancies.

·      Rent changes – Landlords will not be able to encourage bidding wars from prospective tenants and can only charge the advertised asking rent.Any rent increase will be limited to once per year and tenants will be able to challenge what they deem to be unfair rent increases through a First-tier Tribunal.

To prepare, landlords can conduct rental market comparisons and save the research as evidence for fair rents.

·      Awaab’s Law and Decent Homes Standard – New timeframes for addressing reports of mould, damp and emergency repairs. You can read more about Awaab’s Law and the timeframes in our blog. Rented properties will need to meet minimum standards such as being warm, energy efficient and having modern facilities, as well as meeting the safety standards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).

Landlords should check that the property meets the minimum standards detailed in the HHSRS and perform risk assessments to check for damp and mould.

·      Tenants’ rights to keep pets – Landlords will no longer be allowed to have blanket bans on tenants keeping pets. Reasonable requests must be considered unless there is genuine justification such as the property not being suitable for pets.

Tenancy agreements and advertisements with “No Pets” clauses/wording will need to be updated to remove the clause.

·      Protections for families and benefits claimants – It will be illegal to discriminate against families or benefits claimants when considering tenant applications. Landlords will still be able to decline applications if the tenant does not meet affordability criteria or if the property is not an adequate size to house the family size.

Advertisements with “No DSS” or “No Housing Benefit” wording will need to be updated to remove the discriminatory wording.

These are some of the key changes that will impact landlords but there are some additional changes that the government will be releasing guidance on in the near future.

If you are looking for support with preparing for the many changes incorporated in the new legislation, we can help. Our expert lettings team supports landlords in Bridgwater and surrounding areas – contact us to find out more about our services.