Renters' Rights Act: Letting Agents' Operating Checklist

The Renters' Rights Act requires letting agents in England to change how they advertise homes, handle rent, document tenancies and manage possession. The main private-tenancy reforms took effect on 1 May 2026; landlord registration comes next through a regional rollout, rather than a single national opening day. Check the government's landlord overview and registration announcement against your agency's actual workflows.

Treat this as an operational audit, not another landlord circular. Ask a colleague to demonstrate the current process from an advert through to signed terms, payment and ongoing management. Keep separate lists for rules already in force, missed actions requiring attention and future changes awaiting implementation.

This guide concerns England's private rented sector. Do not apply its tenancy checklist to properties in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland without checking the relevant local regime. Nor should you assume every licence, company let or specialist housing arrangement falls within the assured-tenancy rules.

What does the Renters' Rights Act mean for letting agents?

For affected private tenancies, the move is to assured periodic tenancies rather than fixed terms. The landlord overview explains that these run on a rolling basis without a contractual end date, and that an existing written agreement does not have to be replaced simply because of the reform.

Start with your CRM fields and standard documents. Remove the assumption that a fixed-term expiry automatically creates a renewal event. Check what your software sends when a landlord selects “end tenancy”, and make sure staff cannot mistake a reminder for a legally effective notice.

Rent increases now use the revised section 13 process: Form 4A, at least 2 months' notice and no more than an increase once a year. Tenants can challenge a proposed increase above the open-market rent, according to the government overview.

For the accounts team, create a review task rather than an automatic increase instruction. Record the previous increase, proposed effective date, supporting market evidence and notice history. Ask a competent person to check the proposed notice before it is sent; a landlord's requested percentage is not a completed process.

How should advertising and payment processes change?

Landlords and agents must state a specific asking rent when advertising or offering a property in writing; a simple 'to let' sign outside the property is excluded. They must not encourage or accept offers above the advertised rent. See the rental-bidding guidance. They must not discriminate against prospective tenants because they receive benefits or have children, as the landlord overview explains.

Audit portal descriptions, enquiry forms, viewing scripts and landlord instructions together. A compliant advert does little good if a negotiator then invites a higher offer by phone. Keep the advertised rent with the application record so a manager can compare the agreed rent with what applicants actually saw.

For rent in advance, distinguish the signature stage from the tenancy start. For covered agreements, agents cannot ask for, encourage or accept rent before the parties have signed. Between signing and commencement, monthly-paying tenants can be asked for their first month's rent; more frequent payers can be asked for up to the first 28 days' rent. The detailed enforcement guidance excludes agreements signed, and advance payments made, before 1 May 2026 from these new rules.

Check payment-request emails as carefully as contract templates. Do not keep a workflow that asks the tenant to transfer rent before the landlord signs. Holding deposits and tenancy deposits are distinct permitted payments with their own limits and conditions; use the fees guidance, rather than relabelling rent as a deposit.

Once the tenancy has started, the landlord cannot require payment before the agreed due date, although a tenant can choose to pay early. That distinction is explicit in the rent-in-advance guidance. Train staff to distinguish a tenant's choice from an agency request.

Which tenancy files need checking now?

Most affected existing tenants should have received the government's Information Sheet by 31 May 2026. The official Information Sheet instructions require the exact PDF, supplied as an electronic attachment or hard copy: emailing a link is not valid delivery. A managing agent has its own delivery obligation even if the landlord also supplied it.

Do not mark a file complete because a bulk email campaign was scheduled. Use this suggested audit record:

• Record the tenancy type and whether its terms were wholly written, partly written or entirely verbal.

• Identify every named tenant and retain evidence of what each received.

• Preserve the actual attachment or a record of the hard-copy delivery, not just a template email.

• Flag missing evidence for investigation, without backdating the record.

• Give unresolved cases an owner and a documented next action.

Entirely verbal existing agreements required written information about their key terms by 31 May 2026, rather than simply relying on the Information Sheet. See the landlord overview.

There is an important transitional exception. Where a valid section 21 or section 8 notice was given before 1 May 2026, the Information Sheet guidance explains when the tenancy becomes periodic after the notice expires or proceedings conclude without possession. The landlord then has one month to supply the sheet. Refer those files for individual checking instead of assuming the general deadline settled every case.

How should possession and pet requests be handled?

New section 21 notices are no longer the route for affected private tenancies. A landlord seeking possession must use an applicable section 8 ground and the correct notice period; if the tenant remains, the landlord must apply to court. The government overview sets out that process. Transitional proceedings need separate assessment.

Put a review point between a landlord's instruction and any notice. Record the proposed ground, evidence, tenancy history and person approving the action. Do not infer that a landlord wanting to sell makes every sale-related possession request immediately valid.

For pets, landlords must consider requests and can refuse only with a valid reason, according to the landlord overview. Build a request record containing the tenant's proposal, information sought, decision and reasons. Avoid a blanket refusal script that prevents consideration of the actual request.

Keep complaint handling separate from legal decision-making. The Property Ombudsman explains that it can consider an agent's service, advice and handling under its Code, but does not determine whether the Act has been breached. Give staff a referral route rather than asking them to improvise legal answers.

What comes next for registration and housing standards?

The government's registration announcement says the service launches in the West Midlands on 15 December 2026, followed by regional rollout. Landlords have a three-month registration window when their area is called forward; all landlords actively letting property must be registered by 14 November 2027.

The NRLA reports an annual fee of £65 per property. Use that to discuss budgeting with landlords, but check the current official service requirements when registration opens. Organise your preparation by property location, with landlord contact details and an owner for checking completion, rather than a single reminder for the agency's office address.

The implementation roadmap expects mandatory landlord membership of the new Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman in 2028, once the service is ready. That is an expected implementation date, not a complaint route already available to tenants.

The roadmap also places extending Awaab's Law and the Decent Homes Standard to private rentals in a later phase, with timings subject to consultation. A later government update describes a planned Decent Homes Standard by 2035. Do not present either reform as an already-operative private-sector deadline, or copy social-housing hazard timeframes into private-tenancy messages.

Enforcement also deserves a place in the agency's risk review. The roadmap describes expanded civil penalties; the landlord overview says the maximum rent repayment order increased to 2 years' rent for relevant offences. Neither means every administrative mistake attracts the same sanction.

Give each department a demonstrable action

Use these suggested handover checks in your next management meeting:

• Lettings should demonstrate an advert, application decision and signed-agreement payment request using the current templates.

• Property management should produce the Information Sheet audit, an example pet-request record and the route for reviewing possession instructions.

• Accounts should show how rent-increase dates and payment requests are checked before messages leave the agency.

• The branch manager should assign registration preparation by property area and keep planned reforms separate from current obligations.

For communication design, use the practical guide to tenant messaging alongside your approved legal wording. For repair reporting, the guide to collecting a better maintenance brief is a separate operational resource, not a substitute for tenancy advice.

Aloft offers Maintenance AI, Lettings AI and Payments AI to support resident communications and property operations alongside existing systems. Workflow scope depends on configuration and human oversight; tenancy advice and legal decisions should remain with the agency and its advisers.

Ask to see the completed tenancy file, not the slide saying the team has been trained.

Frequently asked questions

Can landlords still use section 21 in England?

Not for new notices under the reformed private-tenancy system. Landlords need an applicable section 8 ground and must follow the relevant notice and court process, as the government overview explains. Valid notices served before commencement can involve transitional rules, so historic files require individual assessment rather than a blanket instruction to discard them.

What are the rent-in-advance rules?

For covered agreements, no rent can be requested or accepted before signing by the parties. Monthly-paying tenants can then be asked for their first month's rent before commencement. The detailed guidance distinguishes this from voluntary early payments after the tenancy starts and sets out exclusions for earlier agreements and payments. Check the stage before sending a payment request.

What was the Information Sheet deadline?

The general deadline was 31 May 2026, but transitional cases can have a later deadline. The official instructions explain those exceptions and require delivery of the actual PDF or a hard copy to every named tenant. A link alone does not meet the requirement. Check evidence of delivery, not just whether the template exists.

When does the next phase start?

The government announcement schedules registration to open in the West Midlands on 15 December 2026 before regional rollout. This is not the same as the later landlord ombudsman or housing-standard reforms. Prepare property records now, then check the applicable regional window and current official requirements before telling landlords their registration is due.