The Renters' Rights Act 2025 came into force on 1 May 2026, and it is the biggest change to private renting in England for more than thirty years. Section 21 "no-fault" evictions have gone. Fixed-term tenancies no longer exist, and rent can now be raised only once a year, through a formal notice. For a landlord with a flat in Ickenham or a let house in Ruislip, the rules you signed up to last year have already changed, whether or not anyone told you.
Most coverage of the Act is written for national portfolio landlords. This guide is written for the landlords we act for across the Hillingdon borough: the owner of one or two properties, the accidental landlord who let out a former home, the executor managing an inherited house. It sets out what has changed, what you should already have done, and one local deadline that no national guide mentions, the borough's new HMO licensing scheme. The Act applies in England only, and the dates and figures below are drawn from gov.uk and Hillingdon Council.
What has actually changed?
The Act rewrites the tenancy itself. Before 1 May 2026, most lets in the borough were fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies that a landlord could end with a Section 21 notice. That entire structure has been replaced with a single open-ended periodic tenancy, alongside new rules on rent, pets, discrimination and enforcement. The table below sets the old position against the new one.
| Before 1 May 2026 | From 1 May 2026 |
|---|---|
| Fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies | Open-ended assured periodic tenancies only |
| Section 21 "no-fault" eviction available | Possession only on a Section 8 legal ground |
| Rent reviews set by the tenancy agreement | One increase a year, by statutory notice, to market rent |
| Offers accepted above the advertised rent | Bidding above the advertised rent banned |
| Pets refused at the landlord's discretion | Written pet requests cannot be unreasonably refused |
| No central register of landlords | Landlord database and Ombudsman, phased from late 2026 |
None of this was something you opted into. Existing tenancies converted automatically on 1 May 2026, including a fixed term that had been renewed only weeks earlier. If you have not reviewed your paperwork since the spring, the safest assumption is that your tenancy agreement is now partly out of date.
When did the new rules start, and what is still to come?
The Act is being introduced in phases. Some dates have already passed, others are only weeks away, and a Hillingdon landlord has to track two separate timetables at once: the national rollout of the Act and the council's own licensing scheme. The timeline below brings both into a single view.
| Date | What happens | Who it affects | If you do nothing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Apr 2026 | Last day a Section 21 notice could be served | Pre-existing tenancies | The option has now closed |
| 1 May 2026 | Section 21 abolished, all tenancies become periodic, annual rent rule and bidding ban begin | All landlords in England | You are already non-compliant if acting on the old rules |
| 31 May 2026 | Deadline to give existing tenants the Government Information Sheet | Any tenancy pre-dating 1 May | Civil penalty up to £7,000 |
| 23 Aug 2026 | Last day to apply for a Hillingdon additional HMO licence | Small shared houses and flats | Risk of operating an unlicensed HMO |
| 24 Aug 2026 | Hillingdon borough-wide additional licensing scheme goes live | Small HMOs across the borough | Letting unlicensed becomes an offence |
| Late 2026 | Private rented sector database and Ombudsman registration begins, in phases | All landlords, by area | Once live, an unregistered landlord can be refused a possession order |
Two of those dates have already gone. The Act commenced on 1 May, and the deadline to issue the tenant Information Sheet fell on 31 May. The next live deadline for many local landlords is 23 August, the last day to apply for the new HMO licence before the scheme starts. The PRS Database and the new Ombudsman are still to come and will be rolled out region by region from late 2026, so exact local timings are not yet fixed.
Is Section 21 really gone?
Yes. From 1 May 2026 a landlord can no longer end a tenancy simply by serving two months' notice with no reason given. Every possession claim now has to rely on a specific legal ground under Section 8, and the court will only grant an order where the ground is made out and the deposit was protected correctly with the prescribed information given. One transitional point matters: a valid Section 21 notice served before 1 May 2026 stays valid until it expires or the tenant leaves, so a claim already in progress is not lost.
How do you get your property back now?
Through a Section 8 notice that names a ground, such as serious rent arrears or anti-social behaviour, with the notice period set by that ground. Where the ground is serious rent arrears, the main mandatory ground now requires the tenant to be at least three months in arrears, while other grounds are discretionary and can apply at lower levels. The grounds are tighter and the evidence bar is higher than the old no-fault route, which makes thorough referencing and a clean paper trail far more valuable than they used to be. Our pre-letting checklist covers the documentation that protects a possession claim before a tenancy even begins.
Can you still sell with a tenant in place?
Yes. A new ground, Ground 1A, lets a landlord who genuinely intends to sell recover possession with four months' notice. A property can also be sold with the tenant staying in place, where the buyer simply takes over the tenancy, which can suit an investor buyer. If you are weighing whether to sell the property rather than keep letting it, the choice between vacant possession and a sitting tenant now carries real timing consequences worth planning early. The same applies to an inherited home: executors handling a probate sale need to decide before marketing whether the property goes to the market tenanted or empty.
What happened to fixed-term tenancies?
They no longer exist in the private rented sector. Every assured shorthold tenancy became an open-ended assured periodic tenancy on 1 May 2026, and every new let is periodic from the outset. There is no twelve-month lock-in either way. A tenant can now end the tenancy by giving two months' notice, so neither side is held to a fixed minimum term. In practice, the bigger change for a single family let is paperwork rather than churn. For a landlord letting a single family home in Uxbridge or Harefield, the practical change is less about churn and more about paperwork: any tenancy agreement still referring to a fixed term, a Section 21 route or a contractual rent review is now describing rules that have been overtaken.
How can you increase the rent now?
Rent can be increased once in any twelve-month period, up to the market rate, and only by serving the statutory Section 13 notice with at least two months' notice. Rent-review clauses written into older agreements no longer have effect. A tenant who believes the proposed figure is above market rent can refer it to the First-tier Tribunal, and the Tribunal cannot set the rent any higher than the figure the landlord asked for. In short, the increase has to be reasonable, properly served and no more than once a year.
The Act also bans rental bidding. A property has to be advertised at a fixed rent, and a landlord or agent cannot invite, encourage or accept offers above that figure. In a competitive corner of the market like Ruislip or Ickenham, where well-presented homes have often attracted several applicants, that changes how a let should be priced from day one: the advertised rent is now the ceiling, so setting it accurately at the start matters more than leaving room to be bid up. Setting that opening figure correctly is one of the things our fully managed lettings service exists to get right.
Do the new pet and discrimination rules affect you?
They affect every landlord, including those with a single property. A tenant can now make a written request to keep a pet, and a landlord cannot unreasonably refuse it. A refusal needs a genuine reason, such as a superior lease that forbids animals or a property that is plainly unsuitable. Pet damage can still be covered through the tenancy deposit, so the risk is manageable rather than removed.
Separately, the Act makes it unlawful to discriminate against prospective tenants because they receive benefits or because they have children. That covers indirect discrimination too, so a blanket "no DSS" line in an advert, or quietly screening out families before a viewing, is no longer allowed and is enforced by the council. The safe approach is to assess every applicant on the same affordability and referencing criteria, applied consistently.
Did you send the tenant Information Sheet?
This is the obligation most easily missed, because the deadline has already passed. The Government published an official Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet, and most landlords and letting agents had to give it to every tenant named on the agreement by 31 May 2026. It is not enough to send a link: the rules require a hard copy or an actual PDF attached to an email or message. Where the property is managed by an agent, the agent carries the duty, and the liability.
If you let through a managing agent, this will have been handled for you. If you self-manage and the 31 May date slipped past, the practical answer is to serve the Information Sheet now and keep a dated record that you have done so, because the penalty for failing to provide it is a civil penalty of up to £7,000. For any tenancy that becomes periodic after 1 May 2026, the sheet has to be given within one month of that change. If you are unsure whether your tenants received it, treat that as a job for this week rather than a worry for later.
What about HMO licensing in Hillingdon?
This is the part a national guide will not tell a Hillingdon landlord. Alongside the Act, the London Borough of Hillingdon has introduced a borough-wide additional HMO licensing scheme. Applications opened on 20 May 2026, the scheme goes live on 24 August 2026 and runs for five years, and the last day to apply ahead of the start date is 23 August 2026. The licence fee is £1,401 per property, payable in two parts (£934 then £467), with a 10 per cent discount for accredited landlords and managing agents.
The scheme sits on top of the Renters' Rights Act, it does not replace it. So a landlord can face two separate sets of duties at once: the Act for the tenancy, and the council for the licence. That stacking is exactly what catches people out, because the two timetables and the two enforcement regimes are entirely separate.
Does the scheme apply to your property?
It depends on what you let. The additional scheme covers smaller houses in multiple occupation, broadly a property shared by three or four people who form two or more households and share a kitchen or bathroom, that fall outside the existing mandatory HMO licence. Converted blocks of self-contained flats (section 257 HMOs) are excluded. A single home let to one family or one household is not caught by this HMO scheme at all, and Hillingdon does not currently run a selective licensing scheme for ordinary single lets. The distinction is simple but important: if you let a shared house in Uxbridge to a group of sharers, you will likely need a licence and you are also covered by the Act; if you let a flat in Ickenham to one family, the Act applies but this HMO licence does not. If you are unsure which side of the line your property sits on, it is worth confirming before the 24 August start date. Our guide to letting across the Hillingdon borough and our lettings fees set out how we handle this for managed landlords.
Running alongside all of this, the Government has set out proposals to raise the minimum energy efficiency standard for rented homes to EPC band C, though that sits separately from the Act and its timetable is not yet confirmed. It is one to keep on the horizon rather than act on today.
What this means for you
For most landlords across Ickenham, Ruislip and Uxbridge the Act is manageable, but it no longer runs quietly in the background, and in Hillingdon it now sits on top of a separate licensing duty for shared homes. The tenancy is open-ended, the only route to possession is a legal ground, rent moves once a year on a formal notice, and the council has added a licensing duty on top for shared homes. The landlords who will find the next year hardest are the ones still working from a 2025 tenancy agreement and an old mental model of how renting works.
The practical response is to get three things straight: confirm your tenants received the Information Sheet, check whether your property needs a Hillingdon HMO licence before 23 August, and make sure any future rent increase or possession step follows the new statutory process exactly. We manage all of this for the landlords on our books, from the first advert at a fixed rent through to compliant notices, and we keep a deliberately small number of properties so each one gets proper attention. To talk it through for your own property, you can speak to the director, or see what we currently have available on our rental listings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Renters' Rights Act apply to my property in Hillingdon?
If your property is in England and let on an assured tenancy, yes. The Act applies across the country, including every part of the Hillingdon borough, from Ickenham and Ruislip to Uxbridge, Harefield and Denham. It came into force on 1 May 2026, so it already governs your existing tenancy.
I served a Section 21 notice before 1 May 2026. Is it still valid?
Yes. A Section 21 notice that was validly served before 1 May 2026 remains valid until it expires or the tenant leaves, and a possession claim already under way can continue. What you cannot do is serve a new Section 21 notice now, because the no-fault route has been abolished. Any new possession action has to use a Section 8 ground.
I missed the 31 May deadline for the Information Sheet. What should I do?
Serve it as soon as possible and keep a dated record that you have done so. The penalty for not providing the official Information Sheet is a civil penalty of up to £7,000, so acting now is far better than leaving it. If a managing agent looks after the property, the duty sits with them, so check it was issued on your behalf.
Can I still increase the rent on my rental property?
Yes, but only once in any twelve-month period, up to market rent, and only by serving the statutory Section 13 notice with at least two months' notice. Older rent-review clauses no longer apply. If the tenant thinks the figure is above market rent, they can refer it to the First-tier Tribunal, which cannot set the rent higher than you proposed.
Do I need an HMO licence for a single let in Ruislip?
Not under Hillingdon's new additional licensing scheme, which is aimed at smaller shared houses and flats occupied by three or four people from different households. A home let to a single family or one household is not covered by that HMO scheme, though the Renters' Rights Act still applies in full. If your property is a shared house, you will likely need a licence and should apply before 23 August 2026.