Renters’ Rights Act 2025: New Protections for Residential Landlord Tenant Disputes

New protections for England’s 11 million private renters, including a ban on no-fault evictions, have received the Royal Assent and passed into law.

The government says the Renters’ Rights Act will rebalance the relationship between England’s 2.3 million landlords and 11 million tenants, ending a system that has left renters vulnerable to unfair treatment and insecurity.

At the core of the Act is the abolition of Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions. The change will empower tenants to challenge poor conditions and unreasonable rent increases without fear of retaliatory eviction.
The reforms will give renters the right to end tenancies with two months’ notice, while protecting legitimate landlord interests through strengthened – applicable repossession grounds that support continued investment in the sector.

What Does the Renters’ Rights Act Mean for Residential Landlord Tenant Disputes?

The main measures include:

• Abolish Section 21 evictions and move to a simpler tenancy structure where all assured tenancies are periodic.
  
• Ensure possession grounds are fair to both parties, giving tenants more security, while ensuring landlords can recover their property when reasonable.
  
• Provide stronger protections against backdoor eviction by ensuring tenants can appeal excessive above-market rents, which are purely designed to force them out.
  
• Introduce a new Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman that will provide quick, fair, impartial and binding resolution for tenants’ complaints about their landlord.
  
• Create a Private Rented Sector Database to help landlords understand their legal obligations and demonstrate compliance (giving good landlords confidence in their position), alongside providing better information to tenants to make informed decisions when entering into a tenancy agreement.
  
• Give tenants strengthened rights to request a pet in the property, which the landlord must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse. To support this, landlords will be able to require pet insurance to cover any damage to their property.
  
• Apply the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector to give renters safer, better value homes and remove the blight of poor-quality homes in local communities.
  
• Apply Awaab’s Law to the sector, setting clear legal expectations about the timeframes within which landlords in the private rented sector must take action to make homes safe where they contain serious hazards.
  
• Make it illegal for landlords and agents to discriminate against prospective tenants in receipt of benefits or with children – helping to ensure everyone is treated fairly when looking for a place to live.
  
• End the practice of rental bidding by prohibiting landlords and agents from asking for or accepting offers above the advertised rent. Landlords and agents will be required to publish an asking rent for their property, and it will be illegal to accept offers made above this rate.
  
• Strengthen local authority enforcement by expanding civil penalties, introducing a package of investigatory powers and bringing in a new requirement for local authorities to report on enforcement activity.
  
• Strengthen rent repayment orders by extending them to superior landlords, doubling the maximum penalty and ensuring repeat offenders have to repay the maximum amount.

Details of how the reforms will be rolled out will be announced over the coming weeks.

Support for Landlords and Tenants Navigating the Renters’ Rights Act

If these changes affect you as a landlord or tenant – whether you’re facing a dispute, unsure about your rights, or need help navigating the new rules – we’re here to help. Please contact us if you would like more information about the issues raised in this article or any aspect of residential landlord/tenant law.

We advise both landlords and tenants on a range of residential landlord tenant disputes. We provide early, cost-effective advice and try to find solutions through negotiation, mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution when problems arise. Find out more here.