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What’s changing in lettings law
Every change we are watching, the date where there is one, and the instrument it comes from. Where a figure or a deadline comes from an announcement or a guidance page rather than legislation, it says so.
Last read at source: the dates below are checked against legislation.gov.uk and the government guidance, and each entry links to what was read.
The property register, region by region
Registration opens for the first region on 15 Dec 2026, then monthly. A property already let must be registered within three months of its region opening.
| Region | Registration opens | Already let: register by |
|---|---|---|
| West Midlands | 15 Dec 2026 | 14 Mar 2027 |
| East of England | 15 Jan 2027 | 14 Apr 2027 |
| East Midlands | 15 Feb 2027 | 14 May 2027 |
| South East | 15 Mar 2027 | 14 Jun 2027 |
| Yorkshire and Humber | 15 Apr 2027 | 14 Jul 2027 |
| North West | 15 May 2027 | 14 Aug 2027 |
| North East | 15 Jun 2027 | 14 Sept 2027 |
| London | 15 Jul 2027 | 14 Oct 2027 |
| South West | 15 Aug 2027 | 14 Nov 2027 |
The opening dates are in the draft regulations’ own commencement provision. The three-month deadlines are on the registration guidance page only. Both are listed here as what they are.
Everything we are watching
Including the ones with no date. A list of only the dated changes would read as though the undated ones were not coming.
The private rented sector database — registration opens
15 Dec 2026Landlords in England will have to register themselves and each rented property on a new government database, and keep the entries up to date. It opens region by region over nine months, and a property already let must be registered within three months of its region opening.
Two things about this are weaker than they are usually reported. The regulations were a draft laid before Parliament rather than made when last read, so the dates are commencement dates in a draft. The £65 fee is a government announcement and is in neither the draft nor the guidance — regulation 14 leaves fees to the database operator. And the three-month deadlines are on the registration guidance page only; the draft carries the opening dates.
Keyring shows this on a property and never raises an alarm about it, because it has not commenced.
Ground 8 — the old arrears thresholds stop applying
1 May 2027The rent arrears threshold for Ground 8 changed on 1 May 2026 to 13 weeks or 3 months, and the quarterly and yearly limbs were removed. The earlier figures survive only where a section 8 notice was served before that date and is still valid, and such a notice stays alive for twelve months — so from about this date no pre-amendment notice can still be running.
The savings turn on a notice already served, not on when the tenancy began — which is the opposite of how the How to Rent repeal works, and the thing most summaries get the wrong way round.
Keyring reports whether recorded arrears have reached the threshold. It is not a duty: nothing is chased and nothing is emailed.
Landlord ombudsman membership
No sign-up date announced.Every private landlord in England will have to belong to an ombudsman scheme. The scheme and the duty are in the Act; the date is not.
Not tracked. There is no date to track.
Awaab’s Law in the private sector
No date, and no regulations laid.The repair timescales known as Awaab’s Law bind registered providers of social housing. Extending them to private lettings needs consultation and separate regulations.
It is widely written about as though it already applies to private lettings. It does not: the social-housing duty is s.42 of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, and the extension to private lettings is provided for by s.60 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 and awaits regulations.
Not tracked, and Keyring will not alert on it until it is a private-sector rule.
Empty properties on the database
Named in guidance as future legislation.Registration is expected to extend to properties before they are marketed to let, rather than only to those already let. The guidance says this will come under future legislation.
Not tracked. It is not in the draft regulations.
Subject access requests — a pause on the clock
In force in part; the pause could not be confirmed.The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 rewrote parts of how a data request must be answered. Two changes are already in force: a refusal must now tell the person they may complain to you directly, and you must acknowledge such a complaint within 30 days. A third — letting the one-month clock be paused while you wait for information you reasonably need — could not be confirmed as commenced.
Keyring quotes the month and the two-month extension, which are true either way, and offers no pause. Most templates still mention only a complaint to the regulator.
Keyring assembles a subject access response and states what a refusal has to tell them.
Keyring watches the dates on your properties
This page is the law. Keyring is the other half: which duties apply to each property you manage, when each one falls due, and what has lapsed. There is a free tool for the first of those.
Or read every duty Keyring tracks, and the twenty it does not.
This is a list of dates and the instruments behind them. It is not legal advice, and where something is announced rather than legislated it says so.