The landlord database: your deadline, the £65 fee and what to provide

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 creates a national register of private landlords and their properties in England: officially the Private Rented Sector Database, and the service you'll use is called “Register your rental property”. Registration opens on 15 December 2026 and becomes compulsory region by region through 2027, starting with the West Midlands, at £65 per property per year. Once the enforcement rules are in force, being unregistered will block possession on most grounds and can bring a penalty of up to £40,000.

If you'd rather watch than read, this video covers the dates, the fee and what you'll be asked for in seven minutes.

Watch the video7 min

What is the landlord database?

The Private Rented Sector Database is a national digital register established by the Renters' Rights Act 2025. The service landlords use is called “Register your rental property”. It will hold an entry for every private landlord in England and an entry for every property they rent out. Landlords will need to register and upload their safety certificates. The Act also lets the government require landlords to keep entries up to date, though those rules haven't been published.

You may see it called the “Property Portal” in government material and industry coverage. The two names refer to the same thing. The database is the register itself; the portal is the digital service landlords, tenants, and councils will use to interact with it.

Parts of the register will be publicly accessible in future. GOV.UK says tenants will be able to use the service to see whether a landlord is compliant with key legal requirements, but the list of what the public can see will be published later. Local authorities will use it to identify landlords in their area and to target enforcement at those who haven't registered.

Why it exists

The database addresses a long-standing gap, because nobody knows exactly who England's private landlords are. Local authorities have historically had no reliable way to identify the landlords operating in their area, which makes enforcement of housing standards slow and patchy. Councils typically only discover a non-compliant landlord when a tenant complains.

The database changes that in three ways:

• Visibility for enforcement. Councils will be able to see every registered landlord and property in their area and, more importantly, identify rented properties that are missing from the register.
• Transparency for tenants. In future, prospective tenants will be able to check whether a landlord is registered and compliant before committing to a tenancy, in the same way you can check a company on Companies House.
• A single point of compliance. The database gives landlords one place to show they've met their obligations.

It sits alongside the other institutional reforms in the Act, including the PRS Ombudsman, which all private landlords will also need to join. That isn't operating yet, and the government expects membership to become compulsory in 2028. For the full picture of what's in force now and what's still to come, see our complete Renters' Rights Act timeline.

Who must register

Registration will be mandatory for private landlords in England with assured or regulated tenancies. For now you only have to register a property that is let, or becomes let during the rollout. GOV.UK says future legislation will also require empty properties to be registered before they are marketed. Registration works at two levels:

A landlord entry. You register yourself as a landlord: your name, date of birth, address, phone number and email address. It makes no difference if you own one buy-to-let or a portfolio of fifty, or if you self-manage or use an agent. Using a letting agent does not remove the registration obligation. An agent can help, but GOV.UK says you remain responsible for providing all the required information.

A property entry for each rental. Each property you let is registered separately and linked to your landlord entry. A landlord with four properties will have one landlord entry and four property entries. If you sell a property or stop letting it, the entry would be updated accordingly.

Landlords of supported exempt accommodation under the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 are exempt. Otherwise, if you let property in England under an assured or regulated tenancy, you need to register.

What registration involves

For each property, GOV.UK says you will need to upload copies of your safety certificates and give details of the property and the letting. The certificates are the familiar set:

• Gas safety record (CP12), renewed annually
• Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR), renewed at least every five years, or an Electrical Installation Certificate, with its expiry date
• Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), plus details of any MEES exemption
• Licensing status and licence numbers, where available, if the property needs an HMO, additional or selective licence

It is now settled that you upload copies of the documents themselves. So you need current, valid certificates for every property, and you need to be able to lay your hands on them.

Registration is renewed every year, and you pay the fee each time. The Act lets the government require entries to be kept up to date, for example when a gas certificate is renewed, but GOV.UK hasn't yet said how that will work.

When: the confirmed rollout

MHCLG confirmed the timetable on 9 September 2026. The service opens on 15 December 2026, and from that day any landlord can register, wherever the property is. What moves region by region is the date registering becomes a legal requirement: the West Midlands first, then a new region every month. From your region's date you have three months to register, and once that deadline passes your council can begin enforcement. So if you let in more than one region, you can register everything at once. The dates below come from the GOV.UK Housing Hub page “Get ready to register”.

Every landlord actively letting in England must therefore be registered by 14 November 2027 at the latest. Registration is England only. Wales has Rent Smart Wales and Scotland its own landlord register, and neither is affected by this.

The fee

£65 per property, every year. This is an annual charge, because GOV.UK says you will need to renew your registration each year. It hasn't said how the fee will be paid. During the rollout the fee is pro-rated, so landlords in the regions that register first don't pay more.

For a landlord with five properties that is £325 a year, every year, on top of licensing fees where they apply.

Joint owners, agents and other questions landlords are asking

Once the date and the fee sink in, the questions on the landlord forums turn practical. Some have answers on GOV.UK. Some only have an answer in the draft regulations, which haven't been made yet and could still change. And a few have no published answer at all. Here is which is which, as of 14 October 2026.

We own the property jointly. Do we both register, and is that two fees?

GOV.UK's page doesn't mention joint owners. It does say “The fee is for one property”, and that you pay it each time you register a different property. The draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 describe one joint landlord making the property's entry “on behalf of the joint landlords” (regulation 10(5)). Read together, that points to one property entry and one fee for a jointly owned flat. GOV.UK hasn't said so in as many words, though, and nothing published yet says whether each joint owner also needs a landlord entry of their own. Agree between you now who will make the entry, and check the service's own guidance when it opens.

My agent manages everything. Can they register for me?

Not entirely. GOV.UK says “you'll still need to start the registration process yourself”, and that landlords are responsible for starting and ending it. There will be an option for your agent or property manager to upload certain information for you, and the government says it will publish guidance for agents before launch. Whatever the agent uploads, you stay responsible for it being complete.

I let in two regions. Do I register twice, months apart?

No need. Each property's deadline depends on where that property is, but you can register whenever you want from 15 December 2026. GOV.UK mentions landlords who let in several regions and want to register them all at once, and that is allowed.

Does the day I register matter?

Possibly. Under the draft regulations, each entry runs for 12 months from the day it was first made, and has to be renewed by then or it lapses (regulation 10(1) and (3)). A second or later property you add takes the same renewal date as the properties you already have on the register (regulation 10(4)). So the first property you register sets the renewal date for the rest. GOV.UK says the fee is pro-rated during the rollout so that early registrants don't pay more, but not how, and nothing published explains the fee for a property added part-way through the year. If you want every property on one date, registering them together is the simple way to get it. Either way, register before your deadline.

What if I can't get one of the certificates?

The form asks for each of the gas safety record, the EICR and the EPC “if one exists”. GOV.UK doesn't say what the service does when one is missing. A common reason is a tenant who won't let the electrician in. The electrical regulations say a landlord isn't in breach if they can show they took all reasonable steps, and not going to court to get in doesn't on its own count against you (regulation 3(2A) and (2B)). So keep a dated record of every attempt: the letters, the booked slots, the replies. More on that in our EICR guide.

Will the register remind me, or count as giving my tenant a copy?

Nothing published says either. Uploading a gas safety record to the database is a separate duty from giving it to your tenant, which still has to happen within 28 days of the check for an existing tenant, and before a new tenant moves in. Keep your own record of when each tenant received each document, because the register won't hold that for you. Our guide on proving your tenant received their documents covers what that record should look like. And diarise your own renewal dates for certificates, since no reminder service has been announced.

Penalties: what happens if you don't register

The Act backs the database with real consequences, and the one that matters most is the possession bar. GOV.UK confirms that landlords who don't register risk a fine. The rest of what follows is what the Act provides for. Those sections are not in force yet, and no start dates have been confirmed beyond the registration deadlines.

You will not be able to get possession while unregistered. Under the Act, a court cannot make a possession order on most grounds while the landlord is in breach of the registration duty. The exceptions are Grounds 7A and 14, for serious anti-social behaviour. With Section 21 gone and every claim running through Section 8, once this applies an unregistered property means you cannot get your property back through the normal route, however good your grounds are. That is a far bigger operational risk than the penalty.

Financial penalties. Under the Act, local authorities can impose a civil penalty of up to £7,000 for failing to register, rising to £40,000 for giving false information or for repeated breaches, with prosecution available for the worst cases.

Marketing restrictions. The Act will ban marketing a property to let unless the landlord and the property are registered. GOV.UK says that, in future, you and your agent will need to include your landlord and property identifiers on adverts.

How it interacts with selective licensing

With a national register in place, you may wonder what happens to selective licensing schemes run by local councils.

The short answer is that they are different tools and, for now, both apply. Selective licensing is a local scheme: a council designates an area, and landlords in that area must obtain a licence, pay a fee, and meet licence conditions. The PRS Database is national: it registers who landlords are and what they let, everywhere in England.

Registering on the database will not exempt you from a selective licensing scheme, and holding a selective licence will not exempt you from the database. If your property is in a designated area, expect to need both, and expect your licensing details to form part of your database entry: registration asks for licence numbers where you have them. Whether the government eventually rationalises the overlap between national registration and local licensing is a question for future policy; no such change has been announced.

In practice, check whether your properties fall inside any current or proposed licensing designations now, because that's a live obligation today, and it's information you'll likely need again at database registration.

How to prepare now

Registration is a straightforward data-entry job if your records are in order. Everything the service asks for is something you are already required to hold. Before you register:

• Find your three certificates. A current gas safety record, a valid EICR (or Electrical Installation Certificate) with its expiry date, and an EPC, for every property. You upload copies of these.
• Pin down your licensing position. Registration asks for your licensing status and your licence numbers, where available. This is the field landlords most often cannot answer, because the licence was granted years ago by a council whose scheme may since have changed. Check each property against current HMO, additional and selective designations. Our free licensing checker will tell you which schemes apply to an address.
• Collect the letting details. Rent and payment frequency, which utilities are included, number of occupants and households, bedrooms, furnished or unfurnished, ownership type, and freeholder details if the property is leasehold.
• Set up your GOV.UK One Login. The service can only be used with one, so create it now rather than on the day you sit down to register.
• Have your own details to hand. Name, date of birth, address, phone and email. If you let through a company, you will need the entity type and Companies House number instead, or the directors' details if it has no number.
• Diarise both dates. Note the date registering becomes compulsory in your region and the deadline three months later. Then diarise the annual renewal, because £65 a year is exactly the kind of thing that lapses quietly.

The first job on that list has its own video. In five minutes it covers what the form asks for, how to check each certificate is still in date, where to find a lost copy, and how to file them so registering takes minutes.

Watch the video5 min

Our free PRS Database readiness check takes a postcode and tells you your region, both of your dates, and the full list of what you will be asked for.

What is still not confirmed

Most of the detail is now fixed, but a few things are not. We will update this page as they are published:

• Exactly which details will be visible to tenants searching the public database.
• Whether letting agents will be able to bulk-upload a portfolio.
• How rent is reported for HMOs where each room is let at a different rent.
• When the rule that stops a court making a possession order on an unregistered property starts.
• When the Act's penalties and advert rules come into force.
• How the fee is paid, and how entries are updated when a certificate is renewed.
• How joint owners register, and whether the draft regulations on renewal dates are made as written.

Before you register

The PRS Database puts every private landlord and rental property in England on a national register, with compliance visible to councils and, in part, to tenants. The dates are now fixed, the fee is £65 per property per year, and registration opens on 15 December 2026.

Registration asks you to identify yourself and your properties and to show they are compliant, which you should already be able to do. If your certificates are current, your licence numbers are to hand, and your documents live somewhere organised, registration will be an afternoon's admin. If they are not, your region's deadline is the date to have them in order.

Source: GOV.UK: Get ready for the ‘Register your rental property’ service. Confirmed by MHCLG on 9 September 2026; this page last checked 14 October 2026. Renewal dates and joint landlords: draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026, regulation 10.