How the Renters' Rights Act will transform tenant protections in England and end no-fault evictions.
The Renters' Rights Act was passed in October 2025 and will give renters in England more security and a fairer deal.
The Act will bring in more legal protections for renters and will end no-fault evictions, which are a leading cause of homelessness.
It will also give tenants more power to challenge unfair rent increases, increase the notice period for evictions and replace fixed-term tenancy agreements with rolling, open-ended ones.
The law for renters is changing.
On 1 May 2026 the Renters’ Rights Act will come into effect.
In the meantime, your rights stay the same.
Under current law, landlords can serve a Section 21 notice and evict tenants with only two months’ notice and no stated reason. This puts thousands of households at risk of homelessness every year. The Renters' Rights Act abolishes Section 21 notices and requires a valid, listed ground for eviction, offering tenants far greater security. Legal grounds for eviction include if the landlord is selling their property, if the tenant is repeatedly behind on rent or if they’ve breached their tenancy agreement.
For practical advice on Section 21, see what to do if you are given a Section 21 notice.
The Renters' Rights Act will introduce longer notice periods to give tenants more breathing space before having to leave. Under the proposals, four months’ notice, instead of two currently, must be given by landlords for most types of eviction. More notice gives people more time to find somewhere else to live, reducing sudden homelessness risk.
The Act will replace fixed term tenancies with periodic tenancies (a rolling tenancy with no fixed end date – for example, month to month or week to week). This will give renters more flexibility to move if their situation changes. It will also stop people from being trapped paying rent for substandard properties.
Your landlord will only be able to increase your rent once a year. Your landlord must give you at least two months’ notice of a rent increase instead of one currently. Your rent increase must be fair and realistic, in line with average rents in your area. If the rent increase is unfair, you will be able to challenge it with greater protections through a tribunal.
Check out TDS Charitable Foundation's My Housing Issue Gateway for simple, straightforward and stress-free support to solve housing problems.
The Bill passed in October 2025 and will come into effect on 1 May 2026.
The Act will apply to all new and existing private rented tenancies. In most cases, renters won’t need to sign a new tenancy agreement as existing tenancies will automatically move to the new system.
Still, it’s a good idea to check your tenancy agreement, and make sure you understand your updated rights.
Strengthening renters’ rights will prevent people from being forced into homelessness in the first place.
Research from Crisis shows that more than 30,000 households were threatened with homelessness through no-fault evictions from July 2024 to August 2025. With no-fault evictions now abolished, the Act has put a stop to this preventable pathway into homelessness.
Introducing longer notice periods and making rent increases fairer will also help relieve some of the pressures that can lead to homelessness. This is a great step in the right direction. But we also need more genuinely affordable homes, stronger support systems and widespread homelessness prevention to end homelessness for good.
Find out more about the solutions to homelessness.
When the law changes on 1st May, we’ll release up to date guidance on your rights in partnership with the TDS Charitable Foundation.