Major Renters' Rights Act Changes Now in Effect

Today marks a historic shift in England’s rental market as the first phase of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 comes into force, affecting 11 million private renters across the country. This represents the most significant transformation of rental regulations in over three decades.

Section 21 ‘No-Fault’ Evictions Abolished

The most significant change is the complete abolition of Section 21 evictions. Landlords can no longer evict tenants without providing a valid legal reason and must instead use Section 8 notices, which require proving that the tenant has breached at least one of the mandatory or discretionary grounds for eviction. This ends the practice of ‘no-fault’ evictions that previously allowed landlords to remove tenants without justification.

All Tenancies Become Periodic

From today, all Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) have converted to Assured Periodic Tenancies (APTs) with no fixed end date. Fixed-term contracts of 12 or 24 months no longer exist, meaning tenancies now roll on month-to-month or week-to-week depending on the arrangement. This change gives tenants greater flexibility to remain in a property as long as they wish, while they can end their tenancy with two months’ notice.

New Rent Increase Restrictions

Landlords can now only increase rent once per year and must do so through the formal Section 13 statutory notice procedure using form 4A. They must provide tenants with at least two months’ notice of any rent increase, up from the previous one-month requirement. Tenants also gain enhanced rights to challenge proposed rent increases at the First-tier Tribunal if they believe the increase is above market rate.

Rent Payment and Advertising Rules

New regulations limit landlords to requesting a maximum of one month’s rent in advance. Additionally, landlords must state a specific proposed rent when advertising properties and are prohibited from encouraging rental bidding or accepting higher rent than the advertised price.

Protection from Discrimination

It is now illegal for landlords to discriminate against renters who receive benefits or have children. Landlords must also not unreasonably withhold consent when tenants request to keep a pet.

Landlord Information Requirements

Landlords and agents have a new legal duty to provide tenants with a government-published ‘Information Sheet’ explaining their new rights. For existing tenancies, this must be provided by 31^st May 2026, while new tenancies created from today onwards require a new tenancy agreement.

Increase in the Actionable Rent Arrears

Landlords can now only seek possession of the property based upon rent arrears if the arrears are no less than 3 months/13 weeks (up from 2 months/8 weeks) and now have to give a notice period of 4 weeks, up from 2 weeks as it was previously.

These changes aim to rebalance power between renters and landlords, providing greater security for tenants while ensuring landlords can still recover their property when reasonable grounds exist.

For any further information, please contact your local Pepperells Office.