Do you need to register on the landlord database?
The Renters' Rights Act creates a national landlord register. Does it apply to my property, and when?
Rules last read at source on 16 September 2026. Covers England. Scotland and Wales run their own separate landlord registration schemes, and the checker says so rather than leaving you guessing.
Your property
Answer the three questions and this will tell you whether the database applies to this property, and when registration opens where it is.
What is actually known, and what is not
This one is worth separating carefully, because a great deal is circulating that the government has not said. The first column is GOV.UK's announcement and the draft regulations; the second is everything else.
- The service is called Register your rental property.
- It launches on 15 December 2026, starting in the West Midlands.
- It reaches the rest of England over the following twelve months, and the draft regulations set a date for all nine regions. They are draft — laid, not yet made.
- Schedule 1 defines each region by naming the local authorities in it.
- Every actively let property must be registered by 14 November 2027.
- It "initially only applies to landlords with properties under let, or which become occupied during rollout".
- There is an annual fee, and registration is a legal requirement.
- A £65 annual fee per property. Widely quoted, and there is nothing to quote. Regulation 14 of the draft sets no amount at all — the fee is "to be determined by the database operator by reference to the relevant costs". There is no figure to find yet, so there is nothing to budget against.
- A deadline for any region. The dates above are when registration opens to a region. GOV.UK gives a three-month window from that point and one completed date, 14 November 2027. The March 2027 figure quoted for the West Midlands is arithmetic on those two, not something the government has published.
- A penalty figure. The £40,000 in circulation is not in the instrument.
What registration will ask for
From Schedule 3 of the draft regulations, which lists them — so these are the actual fields rather than the roadmap's summary of them.
You
Your name, a correspondence address that cannot be a PO box, and an email address. Plus contact details for a freehold owner, superior landlord or property manager where there is one.
The property
The address, the ownership type, the property type, the number of bedrooms and whether it is currently let.
The letting
How many people live there and how many households they form, the rent and how often it is paid, which utilities it includes, and whether it is furnished, part furnished or unfurnished.
Safety and licensing
Whether HMO, additional or selective licensing applies and the licence number; a copy of the gas safety record and its issue date; a copy of the EICR and its expiry date; the EPC, and whether an exemption is registered where the rating is below the minimum standard.
The last group is the one to look at hardest. Schedule 3 asks for a copy of the gas safety record and its issue date, a copy of the EICR and its expiry date, and the EPC — so registering means putting the certificates themselves on a government record, and one that has quietly lapsed becomes visible on the day you register rather than on the day somebody inspects. If you want the dates in front of you first, the certificate expiry calculator works them out from what is on each certificate.
What this does not tell you
It is arithmetic on the dates you typed in. Every one of these is a way the answer above can be right and your position still be wrong.
Nobody can register yet. The service opens on 15 December 2026, so this tells you where you stand rather than what to do today.
Eight of the nine regional dates come from regulations that are still in draft — laid before Parliament and not yet made. Treat your date as the intended one rather than a fixed one. Only the West Midlands date is in a GOV.UK announcement as well.
The date for your region is when registration opens to it, not a deadline. GOV.UK gives a three-month window from that point, and one completed date: 14 November 2027 for every actively let property in England. Any other regional deadline you have seen is somebody's arithmetic.
It asks which region you are in rather than working it out from a postcode. Schedule 1 of the draft regulations defines each region by naming its local authorities, and the page links it — but that mapping is not built into this tool.
It does not state a fee, and there is currently no figure to state. Regulation 14 leaves the amount to the database operator on a cost-recovery basis, so the £65 circulating widely is not an unconfirmed government figure — it is not a government figure at all.
Whether a letting is an assured tenancy depends on the facts of the occupation rather than the label on the agreement. If that is genuinely uncertain, it is a question for someone who can look at your situation.
England only. Scotland's landlord registration and Rent Smart Wales are separate schemes with their own rules, and this page does not cover either.
Answers, in plain terms
When does the landlord database open?
15 December 2026, starting in the West Midlands, then reaching the rest of England over the following twelve months. Every actively let property in England has to be registered by 14 November 2027 — those are the government's own dates, announced on 9 September 2026. The draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 fill in the rest: East of England 15 January 2027, East Midlands 15 February, South East 15 March, Yorkshire and Humber 15 April, North West 15 May, North East 15 June, London 15 July, South West 15 August 2027. Those eight are in draft and could still move.
Does every landlord have to register?
Every landlord in England letting on an assured or regulated tenancy, with no minimum portfolio size — one property carries the same duty as a hundred. Registration covers both you and each property you let. A holiday let, a lodger sharing your own home and a let to a company are not assured tenancies, so the database is unlikely to apply to them.
What about a property that is sitting empty?
It is outside the first wave. GOV.UK says the requirements "initially only apply to landlords with properties under let, or which become occupied during rollout". So an empty property you are not letting is not caught yet — but it is the moment you let it, and registration is a condition of letting rather than paperwork that follows the tenant in.
How much does it cost?
There is an annual fee and no published amount — and the draft regulations explain why. Regulation 14 sets no figure at all: the fee is "to be determined by the database operator by reference to the relevant costs". So the £65 per property per year circulating very widely is not an unconfirmed government figure, it is not a government figure at all, and there is nothing yet to budget against. Treat it as a rumour until an amount appears on a government page.
What will I have to provide?
Schedule 3 of the draft regulations lists it. Your own details, including a correspondence address that cannot be a PO box. The property's address, ownership type, property type, bedrooms and let status. The letting itself — how many people live there and how many households they form, the rent and its frequency, which utilities it includes, and the furnishing status. Then licensing, and the safety documents: a copy of the gas safety record with its issue date, a copy of the EICR with its expiry date, and the EPC. That last group is the one worth preparing, because registering means putting the certificates themselves on a government record.
How do I know which region I am in?
Schedule 1 of the draft regulations defines each of the nine regions by naming the local authorities in it — the West Midlands is the areas of Birmingham City Council, Coventry City Council, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council and so on. So it is your billing authority that decides your region, not your postcode or where you would say you live. The schedule fixes those authority areas as they existed on 15 December 2026, so a later council reorganisation will not move your date. If your council sits near a regional boundary, read the schedule rather than assuming.
Is this the same as the landlord ombudsman?
No, and they are not arriving together. The ombudsman is a separate redress service that tenants will be able to use for free, with membership becoming a legal requirement for private landlords in England. The roadmap says the government expects mandatory membership in 2028. The database comes first.
Tenarize runs this same calculation against your actual tenancies
The code behind this page is a copy of the code behind the product, kept in step by a check that fails our build if the two ever disagree. The difference is that inside Tenarize it runs against dates already on file, and tells you before the deadline rather than when you think to ask.