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What’s changing / Registering as a landlord: what it involves and what it costs

What’s changing · 15 December 2026

Registering as a landlord: what it involves and what it costs

Register yourself, then each let home. The government says it's £65 a home each year. You'll renew yearly and update within 28 days. Still in draft.

Checked against the law 12 October 2026.

Draft law

Draft rules are before Parliament. They’re not law until both Houses approve them.

For: Private landlords in England with a home that is let

Listen to this article· about 6 minutes

What's changing

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 creates a register of private landlords in England. Its official name is the Private Rented Sector Database. Once it's in force, you'll need two kinds of entry: one for you, and one for each home you let (Renters' Rights Act 2025, s.82).

Is it law yet?

Not yet. The detailed rules are draft regulations, put before Parliament on 9 September 2026. As of 12 October 2026, neither House of Parliament had approved them, and the part of the Act that creates the register hadn't been switched on. Until both happen, there's no duty to register and no fine. The details below could still change.

When

The government plans to open the register on 15 December 2026, one region a month. The last deadline is 14 November 2027, and yours depends on where the home is.

The government says the legal duty to register starts on the day your region opens. The deadline, three months later, is when councils can start taking action.

Registering yourself

You start by registering yourself. To do it online, you'll need a GOV.UK One Login. The government says there will be other ways to register if you can't do it online. You'll give your name, date of birth, home address, phone number and email. The draft rules charge no fee for your own entry, only for each home (draft regulations, regs 6 and 10).

Register a home within three months of registering yourself. If you don't, your own entry stops being active (draft regulations, reg 11).

If you let a home jointly with someone else, you each register yourselves. The home itself is registered once.

Registering each home

Next, you register each home. You'll give details such as its address, type and number of bedrooms, how many people and households live there, the rent, whether it's furnished, and any council licence. If someone else owns the freehold, or an agent manages the home for you, you'll need their name and email address too. You'll also upload your electrical safety report, your gas safety record if the home has gas, and your energy certificate if you had to give your tenant one.

If the home is already let, you can make the entry first and add the tenancy and safety details within 28 days. If you don't add them in time, the entry stops being active (draft regulations, regs 6 and 11).

If you use a letting agent, you still need to start the registration yourself, and it stays your responsibility. Your agent can add the tenancy and safety details for you (draft regulations, reg 4).

The government says the fee is £65 a home each year. During the rollout, it says the fee will be pro-rated, "so that those signing up first don't have to pay more". It hasn't said what the adjusted amounts will be. The £65 isn't in the draft rules themselves; they leave the amount to whoever runs the register (draft regulations, reg 14).

Each home gets its own registration number, and so do you. In future these will need to go on any written advert for the home (Renters' Rights Act 2025, s.82).

Renewing every year

Your own entry and each home's entry must be renewed every year, or they stop being active (draft regulations, reg 10). The draft rules set no fee for renewing your own entry. Renewing a home means paying the fee again.

All your homes renew on the same date, set by the first home you register. Your own entry has its own date, counted from the day you registered yourself, so it may fall on a different day.

Each renewal is due by the day before the anniversary. For example, if you first register a home on 20 January 2027, renew it by 19 January 2028. An entry that has stopped being active doesn't count as being on the register (Renters' Rights Act 2025, s.82). If all your homes' entries lapse, your own entry lapses with them (draft regulations, reg 11).

Keeping it up to date

If anything on your entries changes, you must update it within 28 days of the old details going out of date (draft regulations, regs 8 and 9). That includes everyday things: a new rent, a change in how many people live there, and each new gas safety record, electrical safety report or energy certificate.

If you don't register

Once the register is in force, the council can fine you up to £7,000 for not registering, for letting your registration lapse, or for not keeping it up to date (Renters' Rights Act 2025, s.91).

Some things are a crime. One is giving the register false or misleading information about something that matters, knowing it's wrong or not caring whether it is. Another is still not putting things right more than 28 days after a fine. A third is breaking a different register rule within five years of a fine. For these, the council can fine you up to £40,000 or prosecute you instead (Renters' Rights Act 2025, ss.91 and 92). For the first two, your tenant or the council could also ask a tribunal to make you pay back up to two years' rent (Renters' Rights Act 2025, s.98).

Not being registered can also stop you getting a home back. If you, anyone you let the home with, or the home itself isn't on the register, a court can't make an order giving you the home back. The only exceptions are two grounds about antisocial behaviour or crime by the tenant, someone living with them or a visitor (Renters' Rights Act 2025, s.90). Once all of these are on the register, the block lifts.

The government says the duty starts on the day your region opens, so this block could apply during the three months before your deadline. The rules that will switch the register on haven't been published, so this isn't certain yet. If you might need to go to court, register early.

What to do

Find your home's deadline, and gather your safety and energy papers. Once you've registered, note two dates: the day you registered yourself, and the day you registered your first home. Your renewals follow them.

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Sources

Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we’ll check it. This is general information, not legal advice.