Renters’ Rights Act : A landlord’s checklist to stay compliant
As private landlords will likely know by now, the Renter’s Rights Act increases your responsibilities and duties. Rules, practices, and statutory timeframes will soon mean that landlords have to work harder to stay compliant.
With the implementation date (1 May 2026) fast approaching, landlords may need to change their processes, paperwork, and communication methods to avoid penalties, legal challenges, and eviction-related issues later down the line.
In this article, we’ll provide a Renters’ Rights Act landlord checklist, detailing what may need to change in your processes and paperwork before the deadline to stay compliant.
Renters’ Rights Act Checklist: Process changes for landlords to stay compliant
See our Renters’ Rights Act checklist for landlords.
1. Tighten record-keeping
The Renters’ Rights Act places more responsibilities on landlords to meet – what’s known as – the Decent Homes Standard and the regulations of Awaab’s Law.
These require privately rented homes to be safe and well-maintained, with landlords investigating and fixing reported hazards – especially damp and mould – within strict legal timeframes.
Documentation is key for landlords in evidencing their actions and responses to renter complaints and mandatory repairs.
Things to consider to tighten record keeping in these regards include:
- Inspections: Complete a detailed report after inspections and store it in a secure place.
- Repairs: Keep records of repairs completed and planned maintenance (e.g., save email trails and ask builders for receipts on completion of works).
- Communication: Store your responses to renter complaints and keep timestamped records of text messages, phone calls, and emails.
- Reports: Request reports from professionals, where relevant, to evidence issues or non-issues following complaints (e.g., ask for detailed damp/mould reports).
- Evidence: Keep evidence trails of liaison/bookings with contractors – if repairs are delayed, save the messages from contractors to evidence the rearrangement and reasons for.
To keep good records, consider if it’s beneficial to:
- Use property management software, which has templates to help you keep a centralised repository for each of your rented properties.
- Create well-organised digital folders, with regular backups so you don’t lose documentation (e.g., if your laptop breaks/gets stolen).
- Keep physical folders, ensuring you print records, receipts, emails, text messages, reports, etc., and store them methodically in an offline folder.
2. Rework arrears management
Tenant eviction is stricter under the Renters’ Rights Act – especially with Section 21 being abolished.
Now more than ever, landlords wanting to evict tenants need good record-keeping and a clear rent arrears management process.
To manage rent arrears effectively and achieve eviction after Section 21 is abolished, consider the following:
- Create a de-escalation process: Have a plan for how you’ll approach rent arrears. When rent arrears first appear, follow a step-by-step process that’s both reasonable and proactive.
- Define payment plans: Have templates in place to offer tenants at the first sign of arrears. Be willing to adjust these in special circumstances to ensure it’s suitable for your tenant.
- Contact guarantors: Notify guarantors very early in the process. Send copies of the correspondence to your tenants and give deadline dates for responses/further action.
- Keep proof: Documentation is key to a successful eviction later down the line. In court, you’ll need evidence that you’ve made strong efforts to inform tenants of arrears and provided them with opportunities to pay.
3. Refresh referencing and ‘Right to Rent’ checks
Tenant referencing is designed to protect landlords, but, naturally, it’s also a statutory requirement that you need to get right for compliance reasons.
With it being a benefit to landlords, try to design your process so that you get as much out of the checks as possible.
Following a consistent process, digitalising procedures, and making your storage mechanisms audit-proof can avoid costly penalties and fines. It can also help you reduce turnover and the risk of rent arrears.
To assist, build into your process the need to:
- Perform digital checks, rather than manual checks.
- Document evidence, including evidence of no-bidding wars in your marketing/decision process and non-discrimination in referencing/listings.
- Use searchable, cloud-based storage (like property management software) to quickly locate evidence – even years into the future.
4. Update maintenance response standards
Once again, the Renter’s Reform Act places stricter standards on landlords when it comes to home maintenance.
To ensure compliance, ensure you:
- Know your triage rules and the three distinct categories of maintenance issues (emergency, urgent, and routine).
- Understand your response times – these range between 24 hours for emergencies to 12 weeks for non-emergencies, with very clear limits on when you need to respond.
- Log your actions to prove compliance – keep timestamped records of conversations, evidence when inspections have taken place, and have a reliable means to store compliance certificates.
Consider how digitalisation, like using property management software for landlords, can help you stay compliant.
For example, Rentila has a maintenance tracking feature that allows landlords to log, track, and prioritise maintenance requests across properties.
Learn more about how to manage maintenance requests via Rentila.
5. Re-check deposit compliance
Deposit compliance is another key area of the Renter’s Reform Act for landlords, with several new changes put into place.
When reviewing your tenancy deposit compliance, make sure you:
- Know your deadlines: When it comes to placing deposits in a Tenancy Deposit Scheme and communicating with tenants (both within 30 days of receipt).
- Check prescribed information: Include all mandatory information in your written statement to tenants before the tenancy is signed (including the property address, rent amount, due dates, deposit details, and notice period for the tenant).
- Evidence deductions: Ensure tenants sign inventories, take before and after photos of the property condition, complete a detailed end-of-tenancy report, and keep receipts of any repair costs incurred.
6. Review pet requests and “reasonable refusal”
Another key change of the Renter’s Reform Act is the review and response to tenants’ requests for pets in the property. As the tenancy is their recognised home, landlords are no longer allowed to issue “blanket bans”.
Refusals must have a “good“ reason, so consider the following:
- Ensure listing compliance: Make sure your listing doesn’t include blanket bans on pets or a certain type of pet.
- Have a process: Create your own process for how you’ll respond to pet requests. E.g., ensure the tenant puts the request in writing and answers specific questions (like type, size, age, vaccination records, etc.).
- Know what’s reasonable: Define parameters for each property and make sure you know what’s legally defined as reasonable. Some “good” reasons could include leasehold restrictions, property suitability, or a history of damage from the tenant.
- Document decisions: Keep detailed records of your decisions and include any supporting evidence in the communication to the tenant.
- Follow the timelines: If landlords don’t respond within set timeframes, pet requests are automatically granted. Make sure you build into your process a reminder to respond on time.
7. Ensure you have a “no surprises” move-out process
Another tip for landlords managing the Renters’ Rights Act changes is to break down the moving process into clear steps – for both you and the tenant. Make sure there aren’t any surprises for either party, as best as you can.
As a guide, try to build into your process that you:
- Create a checkout inventory: Send the original inventory to the tenant in advance, and have a checkout inventory you use to compare against the original documents and photos.
- Communicate cleaning/repair standards: Ensure tenants know how they’re expected to leave the property. E.g., ask tenants to ensure the same level of cleanliness as when they checked in, give a checklist of tasks, encourage early reporting of damage, and explain what constitutes minor wear and tear.
- Give a deposit return timeline: Make sure your own process follows the government rules for returning tenant deposits, and ensure this is communicated to tenants to avoid them chasing for a response.
FAQs
How can landlords stay compliant with the Renters’ Rights Act?
The Renters’ Rights Act brings several changes to landlord practice. Knowing the rules, ensuring good communication, and keeping as much evidence as possible is crucial to staying compliant.
For DIY landlords operating without a letting agent, utilising property management software can help you stay on top of duties.
Features include robust analytics, automatic tenant reminders, maintenance tracking, digital templates, and cloud-based document storage to help landlords manage one or multiple properties.
What are the drawbacks of a periodic tenancy?
Periodic tenancies automatically keep rolling, with no fixed end date. Under the Renters’ Rights Act, fixed-term tenancies will be abolished and replaced with a periodic (or rolling) tenancy.
Rolling tenancies can have some challenges for landlords, including:
- Short notice periods: Rolling tenancies can be terminated at short notice (up to a month), which can feel more unstable to landlords.
- Increased risk of high turnover: Tenants can exit leases more easily, which can mean a higher turnover rate for landlords.
- Potentially higher costs: If tenants move more frequently, marketing costs/voids can increase for landlords.
How much rent can you take in advance?
Under the Renters’ Rights Act, which comes into effect on 1 May 2026, landlords will only be able to ask for a maximum of one month’s rent in advance. Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, there is no rent-in-advance limit for landlords.
Things to remember: Renters’ Rights Act landlord checklist
- Tightening record keeping is a crucial part of staying compliant, with more emphasis placed on landlords to evidence as much communication, payment records, and decision-making as possible.
- Know your timeframes: Statutory deadlines are in place for managing deposits, responding to maintenance requests, handling pet requests, and ending a tenancy.
- Check outputs and documents, including property adverts, inventories, tenancy agreement letters, email reminders, and maintenance responses for any potential breaches.
- Use digital tools to support effective property management, like Rentila’s property management software, with cloud-based storage, digital templates, dashboards, and auto communication.
