From 15 December 2026, private landlords in England will have to register themselves and each of their rental properties on a new national database, the ‘Register your rental property’ service. It is opening region by region, and landlords will have three months from the opening date in their region to register. The first deadline falls on 14 March 2027. By 14 November 2027, every landlord who is actively letting will need to be on it.
B P Collins’ property disputes team advises that for most landlords the cost and the paperwork are modest, but the consequence of not doing it is the opposite. Once the requirement applies, a court cannot make a possession order while the landlord is not properly registered, save in very limited cases. For a landlord who needs a property back, a missing or lapsed registration is a bar to the claim until it is put right.
When you must register
The detail, and the regional timetable, are in the draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026. To be clear, the regulations are still in draft and must be approved by Parliament. The dates below are those the Government has published to date, but they could change.
Assuming no changes are made, the service opens in each region on the date shown below, and landlords in that region then have three months to register.
| Region | Service opens | Register by |
| West Midlands | 15 December 2026 | 14 March 2027 |
| East of England (including Hertfordshire) | 15 January 2027 | 14 April 2027 |
| East Midlands | 15 February 2027 | 14 May 2027 |
| South East (including Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Milton Keynes and Berkshire) | 15 March 2027 | 14 June 2027 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 15 April 2027 | 14 July 2027 |
| North West | 15 May 2027 | 14 August 2027 |
| North East | 15 June 2027 | 14 September 2027 |
| London | 15 July 2027 | 14 October 2027 |
| South West | 15 August 2027 | 14 November 2027 |
Where a portfolio spans more than one region, each property follows the timetable for the region it is in.
To begin with, the service applies to properties that are let. The Government has said that further legislation will require empty properties to be registered before they are marketed, and that registration numbers will have to appear in adverts.
What’s involved in the registration?
Registration has two stages:
- The landlord creates a landlord entry with their identity and contact details, or the details of the company or other organisation;
- They then create a dwelling entry for each property, giving its address, type, number of bedrooms, occupancy and rent, and uploading the current gas safety record, Electrical Installation Condition Report and Energy Performance Certificate.
The fee is £65 per property each year, and entries must be renewed every 12 months. Once registered, entries must be kept up to date. Where information becomes out of date, the entry must be updated within 28 days. Where a property was registered while empty, its entry must be completed within 28 days of a tenancy beginning.
A letting agent or property manager can provide information on the landlord’s behalf, but the landlord remains responsible for starting and ending the registration. Personal representatives, attorneys, deputies, receivers and insolvency office holders can also make entries where they are acting for a landlord.
What happens if you do not register?
- Possession – Section 90 of the Renters Reform Act 2025 provides that the court may not make an order for possession while the landlord, or any one of joint landlords, is in breach of the duty to have active entries. The only exceptions are Ground 7A and Ground 14, the grounds concerned with serious criminal and anti-social behaviour. Every other ground is caught, including rent arrears, sale and the landlord or their family moving in.
- Financial penalties – A local housing authority can impose a penalty of up to £7,000 for a breach of the registration and marketing requirements. Further penalties can follow if the breach continues.
- Offences – It is a criminal offence to knowingly or recklessly provide false or misleading information to the database, to continue a breach for more than 28 days after a penalty, or to commit a further breach within five years. The local authority can impose a penalty of up to £40,000 instead of prosecuting.
A failure to register does not make the tenancy itself invalid or unenforceable. The rent remains payable. But, the landlord loses the ability to bring the tenancy to an end through the courts until the position is regularised.
What landlords should do now
- Map your portfolio against the timetable: Identify which region each property is in and diarise the opening date and the deadline for each.
- Establish who the landlord is: Check the title and where property is held jointly, by a company, on trust or by an estate, make sure the right person registers. The possession bar applies if any one of joint landlords is not registered.
- Get your compliance documents in order: You will need a current gas safety record, EICR and EPC for each property. If one is missing or out of date, it is far better to find out now than at a possession hearing.
- Agree with your agent who does what: An agent can supply information, but the duty, and the penalty, rest with the landlord.
- Check registration before serving notice: If you are considering possession proceedings, confirm that the landlord and dwelling entries are active and up to date before you serve, not after. A claim cannot succeed until any breach is put right, and the delay will cost you.
- Budget and diarise renewals: At £65 per property each year the cost is manageable, but a lapsed renewal has the same effect on possession as never registering.
- Be accurate: Knowingly or recklessly giving false or misleading information is an offence. If in doubt about how to describe a property or a tenancy, take advice before submitting.
Get in touch
Our property disputes team advises landlords on all aspects of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, including registration and compliance, possession proceedings under the new grounds, and defending claims brought by tenants. If you are unsure whether your portfolio is ready, or you need to recover possession of a property, call us on 01753 889995 or email enquiries@bpcollins.co.uk.
The team’s ethos is simple: solve the problem.
