Landlord database UK: registering on the PRS Database

What is the private rented sector database?

The Private Rented Sector Database, often shortened to the PRS database, is a national register of private landlords and the homes they let in England. It was created by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. The government’s name for the website landlords will use is the ‘Register your rental property’ service.

The government’s guide to the Act says the database will give councils the information about rented homes that they have lacked, and in time will let tenants see whether a landlord has registered. It will also take over the part of the Database of Rogue Landlords that deals with private landlords.

This guide covers England only. The rules for landlords in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are different.

Sources: GOV.UK: stronger protections and greater confidence for renters, 9 September 2026 · GOV.UK: guide to the Renters’ Rights Act

When do landlords have to register?

The government announced on 9 September 2026 that the service will launch on 15 December 2026 in the West Midlands and move to a new region on the 15th of each month after that. When your region is called forward, you have three months to register. All landlords who are letting a property must be registered by 14 November 2027.

The region is decided by where the rented property is, not where you live. A landlord in London with a flat in Birmingham registers that flat in the West Midlands window. In the draft regulations the West Midlands means Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Herefordshire, Sandwell, Shropshire, Solihull, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford and Wrekin, Walsall, Warwickshire, Wolverhampton and Worcestershire.

There is nothing to submit before your region opens. The draft regulations list each of the nine regions council by council, so if a property sits near a regional boundary, find out which council area it is in and look that council up in the list once the regulations are made.

Sources: GOV.UK: stronger protections and greater confidence for renters, 9 September 2026 · Housing Hub (HM Government): get ready for the ‘Register your rental property’ service · Legislation: draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026

Who has to join the landlord register in England?

Every landlord of an assured or regulated tenancy in England must register themselves and each property they let. That covers the great majority of private lets, including homes that moved to assured periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026. The government’s page names one exception: supported exempt accommodation under the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023.

For now the duty applies to properties that are let, or that become let during the rollout. The government says that under future legislation you will also have to register an empty property before you or your agent markets it, and adverts will have to show registration numbers.

Using a letting agent does not move the duty. The government’s guidance says the landlord must start and end the registration, and stays responsible for the information being right. An agent or property manager will be able to upload certain information for you. Offline routes will be available for landlords who cannot register online.

Sources: Housing Hub (HM Government): get ready for the ‘Register your rental property’ service · GOV.UK: guide to the Renters’ Rights Act · GOV.UK: stronger protections and greater confidence for renters, 9 September 2026

What you will need to register

The service asks for details about you, the property, the tenancy and the rent, plus three safety documents. Under the draft regulations the documents can follow within 28 days of the entry being made, but it is easier to have them ready on the day.

Registration is in two steps. You make an entry for yourself as a landlord first, then an entry for each property. The draft regulations say a property entry cannot be made unless an active landlord entry already exists for its landlord. They also say only one active entry is normally allowed for each property, and that no entry can be made for a person who is subject to a banning order.

Finding the papers is the slow part for most landlords. TenancyDesk keeps each property’s gas, electrical and energy certificates with their expiry dates in one record, which are the documents the service asks for.

• Your details: name, address, contact details and, for an individual, date of birth. Every joint landlord’s contact details are needed.
• The property: address, type, number of bedrooms, who owns it and whether it is currently occupied.
• The tenancy: the number of occupants and households, whether it is furnished and whether the property needs a licence. See our guides to HMO licences and selective licensing.
• The rent: the amount, how often it is paid and whether bills are included.
• The current gas safety record and its issue date, if the property has gas.
• The current electrical report, known as an EICR.
• The Energy Performance Certificate. Our guide to EPC rules explains when one is needed.
• A way to pay £65 for each property.

Sources: Housing Hub (HM Government): get ready for the ‘Register your rental property’ service · Legislation: draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 · GOV.UK: implementing the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, roadmap

How much does registration cost?

The fee is £65 a year for each property. The government’s page says the fee is for one property, that you pay it again for each further property, and that you renew every year. A landlord with four rented homes should budget for £260 a year. The government’s page describes the charge as a fee to register a property, and the draft regulations attach fees to property entries and their renewal.

During the rollout the fee will be adjusted pro rata, in the government’s words ‘so that those signing up first don’t have to pay more’. The draft regulations do not fix the amount themselves. They leave it to the database operator to set fees by reference to the cost of running the service, so the figure can change in later years.

Sources: Housing Hub (HM Government): get ready for the ‘Register your rental property’ service · Legislation: draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026

Keeping your entry up to date

Registering is not a one-off job. Under the draft regulations an entry lapses the day after its renewal date unless it is renewed, and the renewal date is normally 12 months after the entry was made. A property entry cannot be renewed until the fee has been paid.

The draft also gives you 28 days to update an entry when information goes out of date, and 28 days from the start of a new tenancy to add the tenancy details and safety documents. In practice that means updating the register each time you renew a gas safety record, get a new electrical report or EPC, or change the rent.

If you own several rented homes, the draft lines up the renewal dates so that later entries share the date of your existing ones. An entry that has lapsed can be reactivated, and its renewal date then runs 12 months from the reactivation. Put the renewal date in your diary beside the gas safety and electrical dates, because a lapsed entry leaves you unregistered.

Sources: Legislation: draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026

What are the penalties for not registering?

The government’s message is short: it is a legal requirement and you risk a fine if you do not register. The Renters’ Rights Act lets a council impose a civil penalty of up to £7,000 for breaching the registration and marketing duties. Knowingly giving false information, or continuing or repeating a breach, is an offence that can bring a civil penalty of up to £40,000 or a prosecution.

There are two further consequences in the Act. A court will not be able to make a possession order for a landlord who has not registered, except on ground 7A or ground 14, which deal with serious anti-social behaviour. Our guide to the grounds for possession explains those. And a tenant will be able to apply for a rent repayment order where a landlord carries on unregistered after a penalty, or gives false information.

A council can impose more than one penalty for the same breach if it continues for 28 days after the first penalty. The safest reading of the timetable is to register early in your three-month window, since the documents can follow within 28 days.

Sources: Legislation: Renters’ Rights Act 2025, Part 2, Chapter 3, the database · GOV.UK: guide to the Renters’ Rights Act · GOV.UK: stronger protections and greater confidence for renters, 9 September 2026

What is in force today and what is still to come

On 5 October 2026 nobody can register yet and no landlord is in breach. The Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 were laid before Parliament in draft on 9 September 2026 and need the approval of both Houses before they become law. When we checked Parliament’s own record of the instrument, no approval vote had been recorded. The dates above are the government’s announced timetable and the dates written into that draft.

Public access comes later. The government says tenants will in future be able to see whether a landlord has signed up, and it has not yet settled exactly what information the public will see. The separate landlord ombudsman is expected to become compulsory in 2028.

Sources: Legislation: draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 · GOV.UK: stronger protections and greater confidence for renters, 9 September 2026 · GOV.UK: implementing the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, roadmap

Common questions