From late 2026, England gets a single national database of every private landlord and every rented home, the Private Rented Sector Database. If you let a property here you have to register, and here’s the part that catches people out: until you do, you can’t legally advertise a room or evict a tenant. Below is what it is, what you’ll need to hand over, what it costs to get it wrong, and how to be ready before your area goes live.
Your portfolio
4 / 4
properties ready to register
Alert set for LS postcodes— we’ll email you the day it opens.
Up to £40,000
Penalty for serious or repeat breaches
No eviction
Section 8 is gated until you register
Every let
Landlord and each property must register
Late 2026
Phased regional rollout begins
The register rolls out region by region from late 2026. Drop your email and area, and we'll tell you the day yours goes live, with a step-by-step on what to record and how to dodge the penalty.
Quick answer
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 requires every private landlord in England to register themselves and each rented property on a new Private Rented Sector Database, rolling out regionally from late 2026. Letting or advertising a property before you register carries a civil penalty of up to £7,000, rising to £40,000 and criminal prosecution for serious or repeat breaches. Critically, an unregistered landlord cannot obtain a possession order (except on anti-social behaviour Grounds 7A and 14), so registration gates every Section 8 eviction. A per-property annual fee will apply; the exact amount is set by regulations.
Source: GOV.UK Renters’ Rights Act 2025 implementation roadmap. LetCompliance keeps every property register-ready from £14.99/mo.
Think of it as a national logbook for renting, the UK’s first mandatory national landlord register. Unlike the old voluntary schemes, this one is the law. Here’s how it works:
One landlord record with your name and contact details, whether you own one property or fifty.
Each rented home gets its own entry: address, type, bedrooms and safety certificates.
Councils and prospective tenants can look a property up, so the details must stay accurate.
It doesn’t replace anything you already do. The PRS Database is separate from your selective or HMO licence and from the new Landlord Ombudsman, so from late 2026 most landlords in England will be juggling all three at once.
GOV.UK will confirm the exact fields in secondary legislation, but the roadmap already tells us the shape of it. None of this is exotic, it is the same paperwork a decent landlord keeps anyway. Have these ready and registration is a five-minute job rather than a scramble:
You already keep all of this in LetCompliance. Every field above lives in your property records, so you copy a finished list across the day the register opens.
Get register-readyAn unregistered landlord cannot obtain a possession order, except on anti-social behaviour Grounds 7A and 14. Registration gates every Section 8 eviction, so treat it as a hard prerequisite, exactly like protecting a deposit. Miss it and you cannot lawfully remove a non-paying tenant.
Phased rollout from late 2026, with registration becoming mandatory through 2027 to 2028. Commencement dates are set by GOV.UK regulations, so confirm the live date before you rely on it.
Up to £7,000 for letting or advertising before you register, rising to £40,000 and criminal prosecution for serious or repeat breaches or false information, plus the possession block above. Treat registration as a hard prerequisite, like deposit protection.
Get ahead of it
When the register finally opens, most landlords will be digging through emails and drawers for EPC dates and gas certificates. You will not, because LetCompliance already holds your addresses, bedrooms, furnished status and every safety record in one place. The day your council goes live, you copy a ready-made checklist across instead of starting from scratch, and you can see at a glance which properties are still missing something.
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Yes. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 creates a mandatory Private Rented Sector Database for England. Every private landlord must register themselves and each rented property. The database rolls out from late 2026 and registration becomes a legal requirement, not optional.
The Government’s implementation roadmap phases the database in from late 2026, with registration becoming mandatory through 2027–28. Exact commencement dates are set by secondary legislation on GOV.UK, so confirm the live date for your area before relying on it.
You can’t yet, the service isn’t open. When it goes live (phased from late 2026) you’ll register online through the GOV.UK Private Rented Sector Database: create a landlord record with your contact details, then add an entry for each property you let, including its address, type and safety certificates, and pay the annual fee. You then keep the records up to date. The smart move now is to have all those details in one place so registration takes minutes the day your area goes live.
The published roadmap indicates you will record: landlord contact details, the full property address, property type (flat/house), number of bedrooms, number of households/occupants, furnished status, and safety compliance (Gas Safety, EICR and EPC). The precise field list is finalised by GOV.UK regulations.
There will be a mandatory annual fee, but the exact amount has not been confirmed yet. The Government will set it closer to launch and has said it will be proportionate and good value, based on the cost of running the service. Expect a recurring annual charge covering the landlord and their registered properties, and check GOV.UK for the confirmed figure before your area’s rollout.
Two things bite. First, a civil penalty for letting or advertising an unregistered property: up to £7,000 for a first or minor breach, rising to up to £40,000 (or criminal prosecution) for serious or repeat breaches such as providing fraudulent information. Second, and the one that really hurts, you cannot get a possession order for a property that should be registered but is not, except on the anti-social behaviour grounds (7A and 14). So an unregistered landlord effectively cannot evict.
Both. The PRS Database records the landlord as an entity and each individual dwelling (each let) separately. Portfolio landlords register once as a landlord, then add a record for every property they rent out.
Yes. The legal duty to be on the PRS Database sits with you, the landlord, and using a letting or managing agent does not remove it. An agent can register and maintain the records on your behalf, and they must follow the rules too when they market or manage the property, but if it is not registered it is still your penalty and your blocked possession claim. Agree in writing who is doing the registering.
Partly. It is designed to bring information together for three audiences: prospective tenants (to inform their choice before renting), local councils (for enforcement), and landlords (to demonstrate compliance). Tenants and councils will be able to see key landlord and property details; the exact fields made public are still being finalised, but they are expected to include property and safety information such as Gas Safety, EICR and EPC status. It is not an anonymous list, your details as a landlord are on it.
No, and yes — you can need both. Selective and HMO licensing are local council schemes covering specific areas or property types. The PRS Database is a single national register under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 that applies to all privately rented homes in England, in addition to any local licensing you already need. The housing minister confirmed to Parliament that the database is not designed to replace selective licensing: the two do different jobs. Registering on the database does not discharge a licensing requirement, and holding a licence does not exempt you from registering. They also cost differently — the database is a national registration, while a selective licence is a per-property fee set by each council, and the spread between councils is wide.
It builds a readiness checklist for each property from the details you already keep in the app (address, dwelling type, bedrooms, furnished status, licensing, plus your EPC, Gas Safety and EICR records) and scores each one 0 to 100. It knows about HMOs, flags a likely-missing HMO licence, and tracks each property’s registration status, reference and date. So the day the register opens in your area, you copy a finished list across instead of scrambling.
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This page is marketing content, not legal advice. The PRS Database field list, fees and dates are set by GOV.UK regulations, so always verify current requirements on GOV.UK.