The rules changed on 01/05/2026. A compliance pack that gets your lets in line.

What changed

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27/10/2025 and the main tenancy changes took effect on 01/05/2026. Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 can no longer be used to end a tenancy. Most new and existing private tenancies became assured periodic tenancies, so fixed terms have gone. Possession now runs through the section 8 grounds, several of which were rewritten.

Rent increases are limited to once a year using the statutory notice, with two months’ notice. Advertised rents have to be a specific figure and you can’t take a higher bid. You can’t ask for more than one month’s rent in advance between signing and the tenancy starting. Blanket bans on children or benefits are out. Tenants can ask for a pet and you have to consider the request and reply within the set period.

Landlords with existing tenancies had to give tenants the government’s Renters’ Rights Act information sheet by 31/05/2026. New tenancies need written terms in the prescribed form. A property registration service, the private rented sector database, starts rolling out regionally from 15/12/2026, with North West landlords due to be registered by 14/08/2027 at £65 per property per year, and the ombudsman scheme is expected in 2028, the Decent Homes Standard is planned for 2035 and Awaab’s Law has no private sector date yet.

Enforcement is by civil penalty, with notice of intent, representations and a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal, alongside rent repayment orders. The penalty figures are set in the Act and in regulations and we check the current ones for your case rather than quote them here.

What the pack does

The compliance pack is a per-landlord audit with a per-property schedule. For each tenancy we check what kind of tenancy it now is, whether the information sheet or written statement of terms has been served and evidenced, whether the rent, deposit and advance payments comply, what the last rent increase notice looked like, and whether the gas, electrical, EPC and deposit protection paperwork is in date. Missing items get a template or a dated action.

You get a written report per landlord, a one-page schedule per property, the documents you need to serve now, and a dated list of what’s coming, including the database registration when it reaches the North West. If you want us to keep that list live, the compliance calendar is £5 per property per month.

Complaints procedure and Ombudsman readiness

Landlords will be required to join the private rented sector ombudsman when it goes live, and the ombudsman will expect you to have run your own complaints process first. For £95 we write a two-stage complaints procedure for your lets, with the letters and the timescales, so the first time you need it isn’t the first time you’ve thought about it.

If you’ve already had a notice

If the council has served a notice of intent under the Act, the representations period is the point to act. We prepare representations for a fixed £350. See council enforcement.

Starting a new tenancy

A new tenant has to be given a written statement of terms before anything is signed. It has to cover the points set by regulation, from the rent and the bills to how the tenancy can end and the tenant’s right to ask for a pet. A landlord who doesn’t give it can be fined up to £7,000.

The new tenancy pack is a fixed £120 per tenancy. You fill in one form about the let. We prepare the written statement and a tenancy agreement in your name, check that your gas safety record, electrical report and Energy Performance Certificate are in date, and give you a handover sheet listing every document the tenant has to be given, with a place for them to sign for it. You give the documents to your tenant and the signed sheet is your proof. We prepare the documents from the information you give us and don’t check it against any other source, so it needs to be complete and correct.

If a certificate is missing or out of date we tell you. Act Now Energy Ltd, which has the same director, can arrange it. A gas safety record starts at £89, an electrical report at £179 and an Energy Performance Certificate at £85, based on a three-bedroom property. You’re free to use anyone you like. On the same form you can ask us to prepare a council licence application for £150, add the compliance calendar for £5 a month, or ask Act Now Energy for a property survey at £250. The pack is for a whole house or flat let on a monthly rent.

Start a new tenancy pack

Prices

Service	Fixed price
Renters’ Rights Act compliance pack, per landlord	£120
Compliance pack, each property	£25
New tenancy pack, per tenancy	£120
Complaints procedure and Ombudsman readiness	£95
Compliance calendar, per property per month	£5
Notice of intent representations under the Renters’ Rights Act	£350

All prices fixed and paid by bank transfer at engagement. Full list on the fees page.

Landlord Services NW is not a firm of solicitors and doesn’t give legal advice. The Act is being brought in by stages and the position above is checked against gov.uk guidance as it changes. We don’t handle possession proceedings and we’ll refer you to a solicitor for those.