Nottingham landlord compliance 2026

Licensed PRS properties: ~30k
Students: ~60k
Mandatory HMO: 5+ occupants

Local licensing

What is designated in Nottingham

Schemes run for a fixed period and are redesignated, widened or dropped. Confirm the current position with Nottingham City Council before you let a property.

Selective licensing

City-wide designated area; check the council postcode checker.

Mandatory HMO

5+ occupants need a mandatory licence.

Additional licensing

Smaller HMOs in designated areas.

Nottingham City Council

Once it is licensed, keep it that way. LetCompliance flags when a property’s postcode and tenants point to a mandatory, additional or selective licence, reminds you 90, 30 and 7 days before the licence expires, and runs an HMO room by room with each room’s rent and arrears. Get started, from £7.99 a month →

PRS Database

When landlords in Nottingham must register

Nottingham is in the East Midlands region. Registration becomes required there on 15 February 2027, and the deadline is 14 May 2027. Every let home in England goes on the new Private Rented Sector Database, and the date is set by where the property is, not where you live. Everything for the East Midlands.

Opens to everyone
15 December 2026
Any property can be registered early, wherever it is.
Required in East Midlands
15 February 2027
The three-month window to register starts.
Deadline
14 May 2027
After this date the council can take enforcement action.

The fee is £65 a year for each property, pro-rated during the rollout. Miss the deadline and the council can impose a penalty of up to £7,000. While a let that should be registered is not, a court cannot make a possession order for it, except on the antisocial behaviour Grounds 7A and 14 (Renters’ Rights Act 2025, section 90). Dates from the GOV.UK Housing Hub, checked 23 September 2026.

Get ready in LetCompliance

Seventeen answers a property. Have them on one page before 15 February 2027.

The register asks the same 17 things about every home you let, from the number of households to copies of the gas safety record, the EICR and the EPC. LetCompliance builds a register pack for each property from the records you keep in it: what is ready, what is missing, and the certificate files to upload. Registering becomes copying from one page.

A register pack for every property
All 17 items, filled in from the tenancy, rent, licence and certificate records you already keep.
The gaps, said plainly
Each gap links to the page where you fill it in, so they are closed weeks ahead, not on the deadline.
Reminders on the East Midlands dates
An email the day registration becomes required, then 30 and 7 days before 14 May 2027, for every property not yet marked registered.

Get your register pack Check your readiness first

Included on every plan.

Local figures

Renting in Nottingham: the official numbers

Counted from official sources on 6 October 2026.

Average rent: £1,014a month, +1.8% on a year earlier (ONS, August 2026)
Section 21 claims: 37accelerated possession claims, April to June 2026, up 6% on a year earlier (35)
Rent repayment orders: 6made in 8 published decisions since January 2025, £35,979 ordered in all
Rent challenges: 7rent increases decided by the tribunal since January 2025, 5 of them since 1 May 2026

Sources: ONS Price Index of Private Rents (released 16 September 2026); Ministry of Justice possession statistics, April to June 2026, by the council of the defendant’s address; residential property tribunal decisions published on GOV.UK, by the council in the case reference. How each was counted: Section 21 claims, rent repayment orders, rent challenges and rents by council.

National duties

The duties that apply in Nottingham whatever the council does

A licence sits on top of these, it does not replace them. Renewal cycles and maximum penalties are the same everywhere in England; the council is the body that enforces them locally.

Duty	Renewal	Maximum penalty
Gas SafetyGas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998	Every 12 months	Unlimited fine + up to 2 years in prison
EICRElectrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020	Every 5 years	£40,000 per property
EPCEnergy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015	Every 10 years / on new tenancy	£5,000 per property
DepositHousing Act 2004, as amended by the Localism Act 2011	30 days from receipt	1-3× deposit as damages
Right to RentImmigration Act 2014, amended by Immigration Act 2016	Before tenancy starts	Up to £20,000 per occupant
Section 8Housing Act 1988, s.8 (as amended by Renters’ Rights Act 2025)	When seeking possession	Possession refused if compliance missing
RRA 2025Renters' Rights Act 2025 (Royal Assent 27 Oct 2025; principal commencement 1 May 2026)	Phase-in from 1 May 2026	£7,000 → £40,000 (serious/repeat) + unlimited criminal

Each row links to the full duty: what it obliges you to do, what happens when it is missed and how to stay on top of it. Read the national guide.

If you get it wrong

What letting without a licence costs

These are statutory rather than local. Nottingham City Council can use all three, and a tenant can bring the second one without the council being involved at all.

Civil penalty: Up to £40,000Imposed by the council itself, without a prosecution. Serious or repeated breaches sit at the top of the range.
Rent Repayment Order: Up to 2 years’ rentThe tenant, or the council, applies to the First-tier Tribunal to have rent paid back. Separate from the penalty above, not instead of it.
Prosecution: Unlimited fineLetting an unlicensed HMO, or breaching a licence condition, is a criminal offence and can be prosecuted rather than penalised.

By council

Ward and council breakdown in Nottingham

Licensing, Article 4 status and enforcement change street by street. These pages carry the scheme, the typical fee and the council's own checker.

Nottingham City Council (Lenton & Radford)Student HMO heartland, city-wide selective scheme has been live.

Local enforcement

How Nottingham enforces it

The rules are national. How hard they are enforced, and on what, is not.

Enforcement intensity

Nottingham has one of the most active enforcement teams. Certificate and licence gaps are flagged quickly.

Arboretum, Radford, Lenton

Core student wards with historic HMO density. Standards and licensing are under constant review.

Key dates

What is coming between now and 2030

The part a council website will not tell you. Each of these lands on every landlord in England, including here.

1 May 2026Renters’ Rights Act in forceSection 21 abolished, all tenancies become periodic, rent rises go through Section 13 once a year.
6 Apr 2026MTD for Income Tax beginsMandatory digital quarterly reporting for landlords with £50k+ qualifying income.
15 Dec 2026PRS Database opensRegistration opens, West Midlands first. Each region then has three months, with the last deadline on 14 November 2027. £65 a property a year.
14 May 2027Nottingham PRS Database deadlineEvery let property in Nottingham registered by this date. Registration becomes required in the East Midlands on 15 February 2027.
6 Apr 2027MTD threshold drops to £30kMore landlords pulled into digital quarterly tax reporting.
6 Apr 2028MTD threshold drops to £20kMost portfolio landlords now inside MTD ITSA.
1 Oct 2030EPC C planned (MEES)The government plans for every privately rented home in England to reach EPC band C or register a valid exemption. The regulations are not made yet.

FAQs

Nottingham landlords: the questions landlords ask

Is Nottingham's selective licensing still active?

A selective scheme has been in place for an extended period. Verify renewal status on the council website before letting.

What does a Nottingham selective licence cost?

Around £700-£900 for a 5-year licence depending on scheme cycle. Check the council fees page.

When do landlords in Nottingham have to register on the PRS Database?

Nottingham is in the East Midlands region. Registration becomes required there on 15 February 2027, and the deadline is 14 May 2027. Any property can be registered earlier, from 15 December 2026. The fee is £65 a year for each property, and the date follows where the property is, not where the landlord lives. While a let that should be registered is not, a court cannot make a possession order for it, except on the antisocial behaviour grounds.

Run a let through it

Every Nottingham let from one login

LetCompliance is landlord software that advertises the property, orders the tenant reference, signs the tenancy, collects the rent by Direct Debit with no commission, chases the arrears, runs the repairs and prepares the tax. The licence and certificate dates sit inside that, each with a reminder before it lapses. Plans from £7.99 a month.

Get started, from £7.99 a month See everything it does