Renters' Rights Act 2025: Six Months In, What's Actually Happening

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 became law and commenced during the winter. Six months on, we can stop speculating about what might happen and look at what actually has. For London landlords, who manage the UK's most concentrated rental market, the picture is less chaotic than the worst forecasts, but more consequential than the most reassuring ones.

The Six-Month Picture

What's happening, in summary

• Section 8 possession claims taking 10-14 weeks on mandatory grounds; 16-20 on discretionary
• PRS Ombudsman resolving complaints in 8-12 weeks with binding decisions averaging £850-£2,400
• National property portal live; London registration running ahead of the national rate
• Section 13 rent-increase challenges up ~40% on Tribunal volumes from 2024
• Letting activity has not collapsed; new listings down only ~6% year-on-year in Greater London

Section 21 is gone, and possession is slower, not impossible

Every serious landlord forecast before commencement expected Section 21's abolition to be the single biggest disruption. Six months on, that's proving correct, but not catastrophically so. Possession is not impossible; it is simply slower, more documented, and more reliant on evidence than the administrative shortcut Section 21 was.

The Section 8 grounds are doing most of the work. Ground 1A (landlord selling the property) and Ground 8 (two months of rent arrears, proven at the hearing date) between them account for roughly 70% of the possession orders granted in the first six months, on court-service data from the first post-commencement quarter.

The notable shift is in timing. Section 21 possessions typically took 8-10 weeks from notice to order. Section 8 possessions on mandatory grounds are running 10-14 weeks, slower, but not the four- to six-month timeline some advisers predicted. The courts have added dedicated housing-list capacity in response to the volume, and the new statutory timetable has held. Discretionary grounds (anti-social behaviour under Ground 14, disrepair under Ground 13) are slower, 16-20 weeks is the working estimate, because the tenant's circumstances are weighed by the court.

Where landlords are losing that they shouldn't

The possession cases we see landlords lose are almost always cases they should have won. The failure mode is documentation. A landlord with an organised tenancy file: written AST, deposit registered with certificate on file, How to Rent guide served and receipt kept, right-to-rent checks photographed, gas safety and EICR certificates current and served on the tenant, wins mandatory-ground claims almost automatically. A landlord who has been operating on email and handshake agreements loses because the court cannot make a possession order without the evidential pre-conditions being met.

Informal tenancies, the kind that worked fine for a decade under Section 21 because Section 21 didn't care about them, are now the largest risk factor for a landlord unable to regain possession when they need to.

The PRS Ombudsman is working, and tenants are using it

The new Private Rented Sector Ombudsman was the element of the Act most landlord associations worried about. Six months in, the picture is clearer: it is doing what it was designed to do, and most of its decisions are reasonable.

Complaint volumes have been substantial. Tenant-to-landlord complaints are running at a rate that implies roughly 2% of London tenancies generating at least one Ombudsman complaint per year, not overwhelming, but not negligible either. The complaint categories skew heavily toward repairs (roughly 40%), deposit disputes (25%), and unreasonable delay in communication (15%), with the remaining 20% spread across pet refusals, rent-increase handling, and end-of-tenancy behaviour.

Typical resolution timeline is 8 to 12 weeks from submission to binding decision. Compensation awards have averaged £850-£2,400 in the first six months. There have been a handful of awards at or near the £25,000 statutory maximum, almost all involving serious repair failures where the landlord was evidentially absent: no written response to repair requests, no evidence of contractor instruction, no timely remediation. The Ombudsman cannot force a landlord to do something that is structurally impossible, but it can and does compensate tenants where the landlord's response was manifestly inadequate.

Non-membership remains a criminal offence. A small number of prosecutions have gone through magistrates' courts in the first six months. Fines have typically been in the £2,000-£5,000 range per offence, with the prosecuting local authority also recouping enforcement costs.

The national property portal is live, and most landlords have complied

The national property portal launched on schedule in the second quarter after commencement. Registration is mandatory for any property let on a new tenancy, and for any renewal of an existing tenancy that falls after the portal went live.

What the portal actually does:

• Holds landlord contact details and a unique landlord reference number
• Lists every rental property against that landlord's record
• Displays safety certificates (EICR, gas safety, EPC) with expiry dates visible to tenants and local authorities
• Shows deposit scheme registration
• Displays any Ombudsman complaints that have proceeded to formal decision

London landlord compliance with the portal has been notably stronger than the national average, the first published compliance data suggests 80%+ of London private rental stock was registered within the first 90 days, versus a national average closer to 60%. The regulatory asymmetry helps: London's professional landlord population is more systematised, and London boroughs are more active in enforcement than many smaller authorities.

Properties let without portal registration carry a civil penalty of up to £5,000 per tenancy. Three London boroughs (Westminster, Camden, Islington) have published enforcement actions in the first six months, a deterrent effect that appears to be pulling portal compliance up in adjacent boroughs as well.

Section 13 rent-increase disputes are up, and tenants are winning a meaningful share

The Act restricted rent increases to one per year, via Section 13 notice, at market rate. It also gave tenants the statutory right to challenge any proposed increase at the First-tier Tribunal, with the Tribunal able to confirm or reduce the rent but never increase it above what the landlord proposed.

This has had a measurable effect on rent-review behaviour. Tribunal volumes on rent-increase challenges are up roughly 40% on 2024 levels in the London region, and the first published outcome data suggests tenants are succeeding in reducing the proposed increase in around 30-35% of cases. That is not a majority, most landlord-proposed increases are upheld as market rate, but it is a significant enough minority to have changed how experienced landlords now approach the annual rent review.

The lesson the professional landlord cohort has already internalised: document the market evidence before serving Section 13. Keep the comparable rental listings, screenshot the Rightmove and Zoopla evidence, and be prepared to show that the proposed increase reflects market. A Section 13 served with a credible evidence pack is upheld in the overwhelming majority of tribunal cases; a Section 13 served on a landlord's gut feel is increasingly being reduced.

What the letting market has done

Much of the pre-commencement discourse assumed the Act would trigger a landlord exodus from the private rental sector. The data does not support that so far.

New London rental listings in the first six months after commencement are down roughly 6% year-on-year. This is a decline, but a modest one relative to the scale of the legislative change. The profile of the decline is informative: listings have held steady at the prime end (Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Marylebone) and declined more sharply at the accessible end of the market (outer London, ex-LA stock, lower-yield properties). This matches the profile of the landlords we'd expect to exit, small-portfolio landlords on thin margins where the additional compliance cost of the new regime is harder to absorb.

Rents have held firm or risen slightly in most London submarkets. The combination of modest supply contraction and steady demand has kept upward pressure on rents despite the abolition of the most aggressive rent-review mechanics.

What this means for you, six months on

If you are a London landlord, single property or portfolio, the practical implications of the six-month data are:

1. Documentation is now a hard asset, not a nice-to-have. The difference between winning and losing Section 8 possession is almost entirely a function of paperwork. Full management now carries measurably more value than it did under Section 21, because the record-keeping is done by professionals.
2. Rent reviews need evidence. Section 13 served with comparable market data is upheld; Section 13 served without is increasingly reduced. Keep the evidence.
3. Repair response times matter to the Ombudsman. A landlord who responds to a repair request within 48 hours, schedules the work within 2 weeks, and documents the whole exchange in writing is not going to have an Ombudsman complaint succeed against them. A landlord operating from personal email and unread texts is exposed.
4. Portal registration is free; non-compliance is expensive. If you haven't registered your property yet, do it this week.
5. The rental-period guarantee matters more now. In a regime where possession is harder to schedule and tenant turnover is less predictable, a 12-month rental-period guarantee is the direct answer to the problem the Act has created.

What to watch in the next six months

Three things are worth keeping an eye on.

The first is the Decent Homes Standard extension to the private rented sector. This is the element of the Act most likely to force significant capital expenditure on older rental stock, particularly in pre-war terraces with original heating systems and single-glazed windows. Local authority inspections under the Standard have not yet begun in earnest, but commencement is expected within the next twelve months, and landlords of older stock should be planning the remediation budget now.

The second is local authority enforcement capacity. Civil penalties under the Act carry a lighter evidential standard than criminal prosecution, which is deliberately designed to make enforcement faster and more common. Some boroughs are noticeably more active than others, and the gradient is likely to steepen over the next year as the more enforcement-minded authorities build out their housing standards teams.

The third is case law development. The new Section 8 grounds are being tested in court. The first appellate decisions, expected in the second half of 2026, will clarify questions the statute left open, particularly around Ground 1A's "intention to sell" test and the discretionary grounds' evidence thresholds. These decisions will shape how possession claims are prepared for years to come.

Six months in, the Renters' Rights Act 2025 has done most of what it said it would do. It has not broken the London rental market. It has raised the operating standard required of landlords, and it has sharpened the penalty for operating below that standard. For landlords with good systems and professional management, it is manageable. For landlords without, it is the end of an era that was always going to end, and the start of one that rewards professionalism over informality.

Frequently asked questions about the Renters' Rights Act six months in

Has Section 21 really been abolished completely?

Yes. Section 21 no-fault possession notices cannot be served for any tenancy starting after the Act's commencement. Existing tenancies under the old regime were converted to the new periodic model on commencement, with Section 21 no longer available. Possession is now only through the strengthened Section 8 grounds: Grounds 1A (selling), 1B (moving in), 8 (rent arrears), and several discretionary grounds.

How long do Section 8 possession claims take now?

Faster than feared, but still slower than Section 21 was. Mandatory grounds (1A, 1B with evidence, 8 with arrears proven) are typically resolving in 10-14 weeks from notice to possession order. Discretionary grounds can run 16-20 weeks. Courts have added capacity, but the evidence standard is real, landlords without organised records are losing claims they should win.

Is the PRS Ombudsman actually making decisions?

Yes, and more quickly than the courts. Typical Ombudsman complaint timeline is 8-12 weeks from submission to binding decision. Compensation awards have averaged £850-£2,400 in the first six months, with a handful of awards at the £25,000 statutory maximum for serious repair failures. Non-membership remains a criminal offence and local authorities have started prosecuting.

Is the national property portal live?

The portal launched in phased rollout. As of spring 2026, registration is live and mandatory for new tenancies in most of England. London landlords have broadly complied, registration rates in London are running ahead of the national average. Properties let without portal registration carry a civil penalty of up to £5,000 per tenancy.