Renters’ Rights Act update: landlord registration scheme and rent challenge reforms
The government has published further details of the landlord registration regime introduced by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (the Act), together with proposals to change how challenges to rent increases are determined.
Most notably, it has confirmed when the new registration scheme will be introduced and announced a significant change to the body responsible for determining rent increase challenges.
The landlords’ database
The Act provided for the creation of a “private rented sector database” intended to help landlords understand and demonstrate compliance with their legal obligations, while giving tenants better information when deciding whether to enter into a tenancy. Registration will also be a prerequisite for relying on certain possession grounds.
The recent announcement confirms that:
- The database, referred to as the “register your rental property service”, will launch on 15 December 2026.
- Registration will be introduced on a regional basis, beginning in the West Midlands and rolling out across England over the following 12 months.
- Once registration opens in an area, landlords will have three months to register.
- Initially, the requirement will apply only to landlords whose properties are already let, or become occupied during the rollout period.
- All landlords actively letting property must be registered by 14 November 2027.
- In due course, landlords will also be required to register vacant properties before letting them. Registration numbers will then need to be included in property advertisements.
Registration will be a legal requirement, with financial penalties for non-compliance.
Rental challenges
One of the most significant changes introduced by the Act was the creation of a single statutory process, under section 13 of the Housing Act 1988, for increasing rent under an assured periodic tenancy. Tenants may challenge a proposed increase if they consider that it does not reflect the market rent. Such applications are currently determined by the First-tier Tribunal.
The proposal attracted concern across the sector, with many questioning whether it could lead to a substantial increase in the tribunal’s workload, resulting in delays to both rent determinations and other tribunal proceedings.
The government has now announced that responsibility for determining rent challenges will transfer to HM Revenue and Customs’ Valuation Office Agency (VOA). Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said that the change will “ensure that challenges to proposed rent increases are determined faster and pressure on the tribunal system is reduced, giving tenants and landlords confidence that rent disputes will continue to be resolved efficiently and effectively.”
No date has yet been announced for the transfer of responsibility. For the time being, tenants seeking to challenge a rent increase should continue to apply to the First-tier Tribunal.
What this means for landlords
Landlords should begin preparing for the introduction of the registration regime, particularly those with large residential portfolios, as registration will ultimately become a condition of compliance and a gateway to the use of key possession grounds. Further details on registration requirements and the VOA’s future role in rent determinations are expected in due course.
For further details on the Act, please see our Renters’ Rights Act hub.
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