The Renters' Rights Bill became the Renters' Rights Act 2025 on Monday 27 October 2025, when it was given Royal Assent. No dates have been published for when most of the sections will come into force, but the Government will outline how the reforms will be rolled out in the coming weeks. The new enforcement powers for local authorities have a date for coming into force in two months.

We expect the reforms abolishing assured shorthold tenancies, fixed-term tenancies and S21 notices (which enabled ‘no fault’ evictions), to be rolled out to the private rented sector first, as that is what the Government’s Guide to the Bill stated originally. Existing tenants will not need new tenancy agreements, as the legislation will automatically convert existing assured shorthold tenancies into assured periodic tenancies. S21 notices and Notices of seeking possession already served before the provisions come into force will only be valid for a maximum of three months after that date. For now however, there is no immediate change and S21 notices already served remain valid and can continue to be served.
 

We await further news on the new private landlord database and the new private sector housing ombudsman, as private landlords will need to join the database as a precondition to obtain any possession order.   

For the social housing sector, the tenure reforms are expected to follow at a later date, as the Regulator of Social Housing will need to consult on the new tenancy standard. This extra time should be used to review tenancy agreement terms and policies and procedures. In addition, it allows time to adjust income, team workflows and template documents ready to roll out to allow for the longer notice periods for the rent arrears grounds. The much-debated pet provisions do not apply to social housing.

The variance in dates will mean that for perhaps a year (?) there will be the old and new arrangements in use in parallel. Social landlords will be able to continue granting assured shorthold tenancies and serving S21 notices (if they choose to) and will only be able to use the current 17 unamended grounds for possession in notices of seeking possession. Private landlords, meanwhile (and social landlords in relation to their market rent housing stock) will only be able to serve notices seeking possession using the new (now 35) grounds for possession.

For further information, you can contact me and visit our Renters Rights Act Hub, where you can find our insights on the Act as well as any government guidance and announcements in one place. The final text of the published Act is expected shortly.