Renters' Rights Act · 12 September 2026
Government confirms the PRS database: £65 per property, every year
On 9 September the government confirmed what the national landlord register will cost, when it starts, and what it will hold about every rented home in England. The fee is the headline. The per-property paperwork is what lands on landlords.
Landlords in England will pay £65 per property, per year to register on the Private Rented Sector database, the government confirmed this week. The service, named Register Your Rental Property, opens in the West Midlands in December 2026 and is then extended across the rest of England over the following twelve months. Registration is compulsory for every property let under the Renters' Rights Act once the rollout reaches its area.
The government described the fee as “fair and sustainable”, and said it will fund both the running of the service and council enforcement against landlords who do not comply. It is charged for each property registered, which means a portfolio landlord pays it as many times as they have addresses: £650 a year for ten properties, £1,300 for twenty, before any selective-licensing fee that already applies in the same area. The register is in addition to local licensing schemes, not a replacement for them.
Two further requirements were signalled for later legislation: a property will have to be registered before it can be marketed, even while empty, and the registration number will have to appear on any advert — the landlord's and the agent's alike.
What the register collects, per property
Five things, each of which has to be true on the day it is entered and kept true afterwards.
The property's address
One registration per property, so a portfolio is registered address by address, and each one carries its own fee and its own registration number.
Bedrooms and residents
The number of bedrooms and the number of people living there. The second figure changes within a tenancy — a partner moves in, a lodger leaves — and the register expects to be told.
Rent received
The amount of rent for the property. This is also the figure the Valuation Office would see if a tenant challenges an increase, which the same announcement moves from the tribunal to HMRC's valuers.
Copies of gas, electrical and EPC certificates
Not the dates — the documents. A gas safety record renews yearly, an EICR every five, an EPC every ten, and the copy on the register has to be the current one each time.
The penalties
The Renters' Rights Act provides civil penalties of up to £7,000 for letting or marketing an unregistered property, rising to £40,000 — or prosecution — for continuing breaches and for giving the register false information. What the announcement did not say is how late is late: whether an EICR that expired on Monday and was renewed on Thursday is a breach for three days, and what that costs. Landlords on the forums this week asked exactly that, and the honest answer is that the regulations will have to say.
Rent disputes move to HMRC
The same announcement hands first-instance decisions on rent-increase challenges in England to HMRC's Valuation Office, taking them away from the First-tier Tribunal. The stated reason is speed: tribunal demand has risen under the Act and the government wants determinations made faster. For now, a tenant challenging an increase still applies to the tribunal; the NRLA expects the transfer to take around two years. The register and the valuers will be looking at the same rent figure.
What was not announced
- Whether an agent can register for you. Asked by agents on the day; unanswered. The NRLA reads the announcement as landlords registering their own properties.
- The order of regions after the West Midlands. Twelve months for the rest of England, sequence unpublished.
- Void periods. Nothing on refunds, and the marketing rule implies an empty property stays registered.
- Whether the certificate copies on the register discharge the duty to give them to tenants. Nothing suggests it does.
What to do before December
Nothing about the register is new information. Every landlord already has — or is already required to have — the address, the bedroom count, the tenancy agreement with the rent on it, and the three certificates. What is new is being asked for all of it in one place, per property, on a date, with a fee and a penalty attached. The preparation is finding those five things for each address now, and putting them somewhere they stay current, so that December is a copy-out rather than a search.
The per-property checklist is here: what the PRS database will need, per property.
What this is not
This is a report of an announcement, not legal advice, and the announcement is not yet regulations. Fees, dates, the penalty regime and whether agents can act for landlords may all change before the rollout reaches your area. GOV.UK is the authority; the NRLA and Propertymark are tracking the questions the announcement left open.
LetBuddy does not connect to the register and cannot submit anything to it. It keeps the five things above per property, with the certificate copies and their expiry dates, and tracks the registration itself as a dated compliance item once you have a date for your area.
Common questions
How much is the PRS database fee?
£65 per property, per year. The fee applies each time a different property is registered, so a landlord with ten properties in England pays £650 a year. It was described by the government as a level set to balance fairness for landlords against the cost of running the service and enforcing against non-compliance.
When do landlords have to register?
The Register Your Rental Property service launches in the West Midlands in December 2026 and is then rolled out across the rest of England over the following twelve months. The government has not published the order of the remaining regions. A landlord outside the West Midlands does not yet have a date.
Does the PRS database apply in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland?
No. It is a Renters' Rights Act measure and applies in England only. Scotland has had a landlord register since 2006, Wales has Rent Smart Wales, and Northern Ireland has its own landlord registration scheme — all already in force and separate from this one.
Can a letting agent register on the landlord's behalf?
Not confirmed. Agents have asked the question publicly and the government has not answered it. The NRLA's reading of the announcement is that landlords register their own properties. Until guidance says otherwise, plan on the account being yours.
Is the fee refunded when a property is empty?
Nothing in the announcement says so, and the requirement to register an unoccupied property before marketing it suggests the opposite: an empty property still has to be on the register to be advertised.
Have the five things ready, per property
Your first property is free, permanently. The whole product, no card, no countdown. Drop in its three certificates and the dates are read off them.
Your first property is free forever. No card required.