The Renters Rights Act, coming into force on 1 May 2026, will introduce fundamental changes to the private rental model in England. Notably, the Assured Shorthold Tenancy regime is headed for the graveyard in the biggest shakeup of reform in this market since the Housing Act 1988.
On the one hand, landlords will have greater opportunities to recover possession of their properties, with pre-requisites for technical compliance falling away from the possession scene almost entirely. On the other hand, there will be longer wait times before possession proceedings can be commenced, more risks related to enforcement of technical compliance in other respects, and a loss of contractual certainty. The changes bring both good news and bad news, presenting both opportunities for landlords as well as risks and greater uncertainty in certain areas.
The loss of Section 21
Much is made of the abolition of the section 21 possession route and the accompanying loss of the accelerated procedure. However, section 21 has always been a double-edged sword, and its removal may simplify matters for many landlords who end up in court.
Section 21 is notoriously difficult to get right and it is often possible to identify an arguable defence based on a technical compliance issue – or even just a potential defect – hidden away in the paperwork. The simple fact is that section 21 only appears straightforward because hardly anyone chooses or has the means to defend it.
The loss of the “accelerated” route may also be less significant than it first appears, though it can currently save a short period of time in getting a possession order in the first place in undefended claims. When a landlord may have to wait many months – up to 40 weeks at some London courts – for a bailiff appointment, the difference between two and three months to obtain a possession order is unlikely to be decisive.
Expanded grounds for possession
The new regime will widen and liberalise the opportunities for landlords and lenders to recover possession. Want to sell with vacant possession? There’s a new ground for that. Want to move into the property yourself? You can do that too, and without the current requirement for prior notice to the tenant. It is notable that this particular ground is being considerably widened in terms of which members of a landlord’s family can move in under this ground.
For lenders, the removal of requirement for a mortgage to pre-date a tenancy and for notice to have been given amounts to a significant liberalisation. There will still be some technical requirements for possession across the board, but generally the process will be far less onerous than compared to section 21.
Abolition of the “AST trap”
Some of the other changes introduced by the Renters Rights Act 2025 are also extremely impactful. The “AST trap” for long leaseholders – where ground rents exceeding applicable thresholds could result in possession being recovered under mandatory ground 8 without any protective shield of relief from forfeiture – has been abolished. This is a positive development for long leaseholders. The same good news applies to shared ownership properties where ownership has not yet been staircased to 100% – their own AST trap has similarly been abolished.
Rent Payment Orders and rent increases
Perhaps the most challenging changes for landlords will be an increase in the maximum amount of rent reclaimable under a Rent Repayment Order (RRO), and changes to the process for rent increases.
For RROs, the maximum rent reclaimable will rise from 12 months to 24 months of rent, amounting to a significant increase in risk. For rent increases, if a tenant challenges a section 13 notice, the start date of the new rent will be automatically deferred until the date of the tribunal decision and will no longer be backdated to the date nominated in the section 13 notice.
Both of these changes are very significant. In Scotland, similar legislation has led to an explosion in applications to the tribunal. There will be little to lose for tenants challenging section 13 rent increases as a matter of course, as doing so will at the very least defer the start date of an increased rent.
For Rent Repayment Orders – where the most common claim is the low-hanging fruit of a purely technical breach of licensing requirements – the increase in potential claim value will make the process more profitable for tenants (and their no-win-no-fee advisers), and far more deleterious for landlords. As a result, more landlords will undoubtedly engage solicitors to defend or mitigate such claims as the financial risks increase.
If you have concerns about the upcoming changes, or need to engage legal services to recover possession, defend a Rent Repayment Order application, or even assist with a rent increase, please contact Daniel Bacon at [email protected] (0207 725 8077).