To help, I have developed a number of training services which range from free to paid bespoke, as follows:

My Free Landlord Law Essentials Course

This is a 12-part course comprising a series of articles covering the main areas of landlord and tenant law and practice.

If you are new to renting or just want to brush up your knowledge this course is an excellent place to start.

Find out more and sign up here

The Landlord Law Fundamentals

This is a series of 16 monthly webinars I will be delivering, covering all areas of landlord law and practice. The first webinar will take place on 11 June 2026 and will be on Background Law.

Other topics include what you need to do before letting property, property condition requirements, Local Authority enforcement, tenancy agreements and possession proceedings.

Each webinar lasts around two hours and includes time for delegate questions.

• Landlord Law members can attend these as part of their membership entitlement.
• Non-members can book to attend at a cost of £18 (£15 + VAT) each.

Recordings will be available for 12 months after the event and delegates can get a CPD certificate on request, based on the attendance records logged by our system.

Find out more about the Fundamentals training here

Tessa’s Renters Rights Act Masterclass

This was a 3 hour training session which took place on 21 April, where I discussed all the changes being brought in by the Renters Rights Act.

The session was recorded, and the recording remains available to Business Level Landlord Law members.

Note that Business Level members can also watch all our past training sessions going back to 2018 which are all available via this page.

Find out about Landlord Law membership

In house and bespoke training

If you want something designed specifically for your organisation, hop over to my Easy Law Services website.

This is where you can book me to design and deliver training for your organisation. Or, if the training is not something I can do, I can arrange for a specialist barrister to deliver the training for you.

Find out more here

And finally

Whether you are looking for introductory guidance, regular updates or specialist in-house training, there is now a range of options available to help you stay compliant and confident under the new regime.

However, it will take some time for the changes to filter through.  Many landlords, tenants, and perhaps even some letting agents are still unaware of the scale of the changes.

Government aims for the Renters Rights Act

This is what the government hopes the new legislation will achieve:

• Longer security for tenants, with many able to remain in their homes long term, plus
• An end to tenants feeling trapped in properties they do not want to live in
• A decrease in the rate of rent increase, so over time, rented property becomes more affordable
• A fairer tenant selection process, with the abolition of large up-front lump sum payments (other than deposits) and rental bidding, and a prohibition on blanket bans on tenants on benefit or with children
• Tenants feeling more empowered to enforce their rights – particularly once the new Ombudsman service comes on board
• Rogue and criminal landlords being properly punished by Local Authorities, who are then able to use the fine money to fund further enforcement work
• More control over and understanding of the extent of the PRS by government and Local Authorities

It will be interesting to see whether these aims are successful over the coming years.

The Role of Local Authorities

To a large extent, the success of this legislation will depend on Local Authorities doing their job properly and enforcing against the many rogue and criminal landlords.

However, there is a fear among the many good landlords that Local Authorities will feel intimidated by the rogues and criminals, and so will instead build up their funds by enforcing mainly against good landlords who make a mistake.

Hopefully, they will not be allowed to do this, and tenants’ organisations will pressure them into enforcing against the rogues. I know that many tenants’ organisations are gearing up to bring Judicial Review claims against Local Authorities who drag their heels.

Increasing affordability

Making rented accommodation more affordable is another aim. However, the real problem is a lack of suitable accommodation in many areas where it is needed. Until this is dealt with, market forces will inevitably result in higher rents.

There is also the fact that it is not cheap to be a landlord, and the rent needs to be sufficient to cover these costs and give a decent profit.

So if rents are to be kept down, landlords will need financial help, for example, to bring substandard properties up to scratch and allow landlords to carry out work to make properties more energy efficient.

Forcing landlords to rent out properties where they are not allowed to make a decent profit, or (as some are advocating) any profit at all, will simply result in most landlords selling up.

This will lead to a contraction of the PRS, to the detriment of those who have no alternative but to live in it.

Changing attitudes

Another aim of the legislation is to change attitudes towards housing. In particular, to focus on rented property as a home for the tenants rather than an investment opportunity for the landlord.

At present, many properties are purchased by investors who are simply interested in their increasing value.  Indeed, it is often more cost-efficient for them to just leave it empty.  Something which should be discouraged if not actively prohibited.

This will all take time.

There is also the problem that the Renters’ Rights Act cannot, in itself, solve all problems.

The Renters’ Rights Act’s success is also dependent on other factors

There are many issues with the PRS, and not all of them can be resolved by this legislation. For example:

The social housing deficit

There is a massive need for more affordable social housing. As much of the older stock has been sold off under Mrs Thatcher’s ‘right to buy’.

This Labour government has promised more social housing, but this is easier said than done. There are problems with planning, sourcing suitable sites, securing trades to do the building work, and the availability of essential supplies such as bricks.

These are all big problems which will have to be overcome before new social housing can be built.  Although maybe using the modular housing method of building could help?

Empty and holiday homes

Then, many properties which formerly housed families are either lying empty or are now used as holiday homes.

Many landlords find renting to holidaymakers more financially rewarding. But although holidaymakers may bring money into an area, those providing services to them need to have somewhere to live!

This is a massive problem in many areas such as Cornwall, Cumbria, Devon and North Norfolk.

In some areas, it has resulted in ghost towns, for example, in many coastal areas.

Changing the rules, for example, tax rules, to make renting to families more profitable, could help to reverse this.  As is now already happening.

Escalating financial penalties against empty homes can also help, or even taking them into public ownership under compulsory purchase orders. Making this process easier for Councils would help.  At present, it is expensive, bureaucratic and very slow.

And finally

It’s far too early to say whether the Renters’ Rights Act will achieve its aims.

Not all of the act is in force yet. The new Database and Ombudsman schemes are critical to its success, but are still several months or years away.

Another important part of the Act is the decent homes standard and Awaabs law, which are not expected to come into force until the 2030s.

This is a long way off, and we could even have another government by then.

This legislation has many good parts, and hopefully it will help ease the many housing problems we have.

However, it cannot do that on its own. It needs to work in conjunction with other new legislation dealing with planning, new financial initiatives to overcome problems such as the heavy cost of improving property standards, and the practical issues of building new social and other housing.

We shall have to wait and see. What do you think?

Read the other posts in this series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

There is quite a bit in the new legislation about rent, and the ever-increasing rent levels have been a concern for this government.

Why rent levels are of concern

For years, decades even, tenants have been intimidated from challenging rent increases, due to the overt or implied threat of a section 21 eviction. So, in many areas, rents have been increasing at above the rate of inflation for a long time.

Partly as a result of this, housing is more expensive in the UK than in almost any comparable country.  It also absorbs a larger share of household spending than in any other OECD country apart from Finland.

But the new Act is designed to change this.

Rental bidding

There has also been the problem, caused mainly by the shortage of decent accommodation in areas where it is needed, of ‘rental bidding’. Or tenants pushing up rents by offering higher and higher rents in an attempt to secure a home.

The government hope to stop this by:

• Requiring all property adverts to state a ‘proposed rent’ which landlords cannot charge more than, and
• Giving Local Authorities the power to fine landlords who either fail to cite a proposed rent, or who allow tenants to bid above this.

Then, there are new laws against:

Rent in advance

This has been another reason why renting property has become so expensive for many tenants.

Landlords are requiring increasingly large sums paid in advance, particularly where tenants have a less than satisfactory credit record.

So now if landlords accept any rent in advance of the tenancy agreement being signed, this is a breach for which they can be fined up to £5,000 per offence by ‘local weights and measures authorities’.  In other words, Trading Standards.

Increasing rent

Up until 1 May, landlords could increase rent by

• Agreement – normally by the tenant signing a new tenancy agreement with the increased rent, at ‘renewal’
• A rent review clause in the tenancy agreement, and
• By the statutory notice procedure set out in section 13 of the Housing Act 1988.

However, now landlords can ONLY increase rent via the statutory notice procedure.

This does not mean that rent levels can’t be agreed with tenants.  But new rents can only be implemented if the section 13 notice (form 4A) has been served first.

Any rent review clauses in tenancy agreements are now unenforceable.

Challenging rent increases

The thing about using the section 13 notice procedure is that tenants can challenge the proposed rent to the First Tier Tribunal on the basis that it is not a ‘market rent’.

The Tribunal will only be able to review the rent down, not up, and the new rent will be payable from the date of the Tribunal’s determination.  Or up to two months later if the Tribunal considers it would cause serious hardship to tenants.  So the rent increase will no longer take effect from the date in the notice.

Many landlords are seriously annoyed about this.  It will delay rent increases, whether or not the challenge is justified.  The Tribunals are overstretched and are likely to be more so if more tenants decide to challenge rent increases.  In which case, the delays could become unacceptably long.

The government has reserved to itself the power to change this if the delays become too serious.  We shall have to wait and see whether this happens.

The effect of these new rules

These new rules will undoubtedly make life easier for many tenants. Up until 1 May 2026, many were having to pay not only a deposit of up to five times the weekly rent, but also six months’ (or sometimes more) rent in advance.  Not to mention quite high rent increases every six months or so (in some cases).

However, the new rules will also create a problem for many tenants. In particular, tenants with a poor credit record.  These will likely struggle to find anywhere to live.  As landlords will undoubtedly become more picky about the tenants that they accept.

So far as the rent levels themselves are concerned, the government hopes that these new rules will slow down the rate of increase.  Making tenancies more affordable over time.

To prevent a downward drift in rent levels, landlords will need to ensure that rents are increased regularly.  Small annual rent increases are better anyway, as they are more affordable for tenants and less likely to cause problems.

However, rent levels are ultimately driven by the market.  At present, good properties are in short supply in many areas.

So rents are likely to remain high, and those with poor credit records are likely to struggle to find a suitable property.  Unless and until the government is able to honour its promise to build more social and other housing.  In particular, for low-income tenants.

Tomorrow I want to talk about the forthcoming new Database and Ombudsman services.

Read the other posts in this series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 |

Yesterday I talked about the new rules which will force Local Authorities to carry out enforcement work.

Today, I want to talk about the new powers they have been given by the Act and the significantly increased fines they will be able to charge.

What is enforcement?

Local Authorities are now under a duty to enforce the landlord legislation in their area. Enforcement action means one of the following:

• Issuing a Civil Penalty Notice with a fine
• Bringing a prosecution, normally through the Magistrates’ Courts, and
• Bringing a claim in the First Tier tribunal for a Rent Repayment Order.

Civil Penalty Notices

Most Local Authorities will, for the most part, opt to issue a Civil Penalty Notice (CPN).

• They will be easier (particularly if the Local Authority uses the CPN generator software developed by Justice for Tenants)
• They will be considerably quicker – it can take up to a year or more to bring a prosecution through the court, by which time many of the witnesses may have left, and
• They (ie the Local Authority) can keep the fine money! This is a deliberate ploy by the government to make enforcement action self-financing.

So I suspect that in the vast majority of cases, CPNs will be the order of the day, unless the Local Authority is looking to impose a banning order.

New breaches and offences

• Breaches are the less serious issues which carry a fine of up to £7,000
• Offences are the more serious issues which carry a fine of up to £40,000

In addition to the existing breaches and offences, there are a number of new ones introduced by the Act.

New breaches include: 

• Attempting to give a tenant a fixed-term tenancy
• Failing to give a tenancy agreement/statement of terms
• Failing to give the information sheet to existing tenants at 1 May 2026
• Failing to provide a ‘proposed rent’ in advertisements
• Illegal discrimination against applicants on benefit or with children
• Less serious offences relating to eviction

New offences include:

• Knowingly or recklessly using an incorrect ground for possession – if this causes tenants to vacate
• Re-letting a property within 12 months of using grounds 1 (recovering possession for you or your family to live in) or ground 1A  (to sell)
• Unlawful eviction and/or harassment under the Protection from Eviction Act.

Eye-watering fines

However, landlords need to take note that the fines available for Local Authorities to impose for these are eye-watering indeed.

For the less serious issues, breaches, the fines are limited to £7,000, but this is still a significant sum. Particularly bearing in mind that if there are several breaches, they can issue a CNP fine for EACH of them.

For example, where landlords have breached several of the HMO Management rules.

More serious issues (offences), for example, landlords trying to bully tenants into leaving by issuing possession notices for grounds they know full well are not enforceable, carry a maximum fine of £40,000.

This includes situations where landlords have illegally harassed and evicted tenants in breach of the Protection from Eviction Act – something that up to now (May 2026) could only be punished via the courts.

Continuing or repeated breaches

Then there are ‘continuing or repeated breaches’. If a landlord (or an agent, or property manager) is hit with one CNP or prosecution, and they

• Commit the same breach again after 28 days, or
• Commit another breach of offence within 5 years of the initial penalty

This alone will allow the Local Authority to fine them up to £40,000 IN ADDITION to the CPN fine for the second breach or offence.

This is because, for many rogue and criminal landlords, the fines, (if they pay them) are a minor irritant, something to be treated as a ‘business expense’ and which is insignificant bearing in mind the income they get from their illegal behaviour.

These very high fines for serious matters are an attempt to make sure that illegal behaviour does not pay.

Enforcing the fines and awards

At the moment, many, or more likely most, rogue and criminal landlords just don’t pay the fines.

Research by the NRLA shows that of the almost £30 million penalties issued, around 54% was unpaid.

This may change through, with the launch of JFT Legal Limited, a specialist law firm focusing entirely on collecting Local Authority fines, which I discussed here.

Once fines are being properly enforced, things may start to change.

Rent Repayment Orders

Finally, Local Authorities can also issue applications for a Rent Repayment Order (RRO) if any of the rent was paid by benefit. These are also likely to net significant amounts of money.

The maximum awards have now gone up to 24 months’ worth of rent. Plus, if the Local Authority apply for their RRO after a successful prosecution or unchallenged CPN (or a CPN where the challenge failed) the First Tier Tribunal will have no alternative but to award the full amount possible.

It is hoped by the government (and many others) that these new powers to fine rogue and criminal landlords will discourage them and hopefully result in their exit from the Private Rented Sector.

Good landlords will not be immune, but are less likely to be targeted by Local Authorities.

However, all consumer-facing trades and professions are regulated and subject to fines for breaches of those regulations. Why should landlords be exempt?

Tomorrow I want to talk about the new rules about rent.

Read the other posts in this series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 |