Do landlords have to register? The private rented sector database explained

Yes — in England, every private landlord letting on an assured or regulated tenancy will have to register themselves and each of their properties on a new Private Rented Sector Database. It is not live yet. The government's implementation roadmap says the rollout begins from late 2026 and happens gradually, area by area, and that signing up will be mandatory for all private rented sector landlords, with an annual fee.

This is the second phase of the Renters' Rights Act. The first phase — Section 21 gone, tenancies periodic from the outset — landed on 1 May 2026 and is already in force. The database is the part still coming.

What the database actually is

A single national record of who is letting property in England and what they are letting. Today there is no such thing: a council enforcing standards on a street has to work out who owns what from land registry entries, letting boards and complaints. The database is intended to close that gap, and to give tenants somewhere to look before they take a tenancy.

Two consequences follow from that design, and they are the ones worth planning around.

The first is that it is a condition of letting, not an administrative afterthought. The roadmap is explicit that landlords could face penalties if they market or let out a property without registering it and providing the required information. Registration therefore sits before the tenancy, in the same place as the Right to Rent check — which we have written up in full — and the compliance certificates, rather than after it.

The second is that what you register is checkable by someone else. A register that records which safety certificates a property holds is a register that makes a missing one visible without anybody visiting the property.

What you'll have to register

The roadmap sets out three groups of information:

• Your own details as the landlord, including contact details.
• The property, including its address, the type of property, the number of bedrooms and whether it is currently occupied.
• Safety information — gas, electrical and energy performance certificates.

That third group is the one to look at hardest, because it is where the database stops being a form-filling exercise and starts being an audit. Registering a property means stating, on a government record, the position on its gas safety check, its EICR and its EPC. If one of those has lapsed, registration is the moment you find out rather than the moment an inspection does.

The precise fields and the exact process are still to be confirmed, and will be published on GOV.UK as the rollout approaches. The categories above are what the government has committed to so far, and they are enough to prepare against.

When is it happening?

From late 2026 onwards, rolled out gradually by area. The government has not published a full regional schedule, so the honest answer for any specific property is that the date depends on where it is and has not been confirmed for everywhere yet.

That is not a reason to wait. Nothing in the list above is information you will be able to assemble quickly if it is not already assembled — a missing EICR takes as long as an electrician takes, and an EPC below band E is a project rather than an appointment.

The ombudsman is a separate thing

The database is often mentioned in the same breath as the Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman, and the two are not the same and are not arriving together.

The ombudsman is a redress service: free for tenants to use, able to compel a landlord to apologise, provide information, put something right or pay compensation, with binding outcomes. Membership will be a legal requirement for private landlords in England letting on assured or regulated tenancies. The roadmap says this is being implemented in stages and that the government expects mandatory membership in 2028, once the Secretary of State is confident the service is ready.

So: the database first, area by area, from late 2026. The ombudsman later, expected 2028. Both are commitments rather than dates you can put in a diary yet.

What to do before it reaches you

Nothing about the database asks for information a compliant landlord does not already have. It asks for it in one place, at one time, in a form somebody else can read — which is a different problem from having it.

Three things are worth doing now, all of which are useful whether or not the timetable slips:

1. Get the certificate position straight, per property. Not "I think the gas one is current" — the actual expiry dates, written down, for gas, electrical and energy performance. Our compliance checklist for letting in England is the full list of what a property needs before a tenant moves in.
2. Know which properties are occupied and by whom. Occupancy status is a registered field, and on a room-by-room let it is a per-room question rather than a per-property one.
3. Check your licensing separately. Registering on the database will not be the same as holding an HMO licence, and it will not replace one. Those remain your council's, and letting a licensable property without one remains a criminal offence.

Where Tenarize helps, and where it doesn't

Tenarize will not register you. That will be a government service, it will charge its own fee, and it is yours to complete — in the same way Tenarize does not apply for your HMO licence or protect your deposit for you.

What it does is hold the answers. Each property carries its address, type, number of bedrooms, furnishing status and licensing details as structured fields rather than as notes, alongside the tenancies running in it — including, on a room-by-room let, one tenancy per room. The compliance checklist tracks the gas safety certificate, the EICR, the EPC and the rest per property, with the expiry date recorded against each document and a reminder before it lapses rather than after. From sixty days out you can book the renewal from the reminder itself, which picks the right trade from your own suppliers and tracks the visit as a job.

That is the difference between a register being a morning's work and a register being a discovery. When the database reaches your area, the useful thing to have is not a folder of PDFs — it is a list of properties where every date is already known.

Where to check this yourself

• Implementing the Renters' Rights Act 2025: the roadmap — GOV.UK, the source for the database, the ombudsman and the phasing
• The Renters' Rights Act: an overview for landlords — GOV.UK, what is already in force
• Renting out a property — GOV.UK, a landlord's duties in England
• Landlord's guide to Right to Rent checks — GOV.UK, the check that already sits before a tenancy
• Find an energy certificate — GOV.UK, to check an EPC before you have to declare it
• Shelter and Citizens Advice — free, independent advice

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