When the government confirmed the details of England’s new landlord database on 9 September 2026, I published a video about it. Within a day it had hundreds of comments, and most of them were questions. Some were angry, some were worried, and a surprising number were about situations the official guidance doesn’t spell out.
This article answers the questions that came up most. It covers England only, reflects the position as at September 2026, and is general information rather than legal advice.
1. What is the new landlord database?
The landlord database is a national register of private landlords and the homes they let in England. Its formal name is the Private Rented Sector Database, often shortened to the PRS database. It was created by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, and the service you will actually use is called Register your rental property.
If you have seen it described as part of the “Renters Reform Bill”, that is the earlier bill, which fell at the 2024 general election. The database finally became law through the Renters’ Rights Act, which received Royal Assent in October 2025.
Every landlord of an assured or regulated tenancy must register themselves and each property they let. Registration gives you a landlord registration number and a property registration number for each home.
2. When does the landlord database open?
Registration opens region by region, starting with the West Midlands on 15 December 2026. A new region follows each month until the South West on 15 August 2027. Each region then has three months, so the last deadline in England is 14 November 2027.
The region is set by where the property is, not where you live. If your properties are spread across the country, you may have several deadlines. You can find your region’s registration window by typing in the town or county each property is in.
3. How much does it cost?
£65 per property, per year, renewed annually. It is charged per property rather than per landlord, so a five-property portfolio pays £325 every year. The draft regulations don’t fix the amount in law, so expect it to be reviewed over time.
4. Will registering early cost me more?
No. The government says the fee will be pro-rated during the rollout, so landlords who sign up first don’t pay more. Registering early should not cost you extra, and it avoids a last-minute scramble if a certificate turns out to be missing.
5. Can I pass the fee on to my tenant, and is it tax deductible?
You cannot charge it to a tenant as a fee. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 restricts what landlords and agents can take from tenants, and a registration fee is not a permitted payment. It can only be reflected in the rent through a lawful rent increase.
On tax, the fee is a cost of running a letting business, so in normal circumstances it sits alongside your other allowable expenses. Check the treatment with your accountant, particularly if you let through a company.
6. I have a lodger. Do I need to register?
Not if they are a genuine lodger in the home you live in. A letting by a resident landlord cannot be an assured tenancy, so it falls outside the duty.
The exception people get wrong: if you don’t live in the property, the people renting rooms there are not “lodgers” in the legal sense. They are normally assured tenants, and the property must be registered.
7. My property already has an HMO or selective licence. Is that enough?
No. Licensing and registration are separate duties, with separate fees and separate penalties. The landlord database asks whether a property is licensed and whether it is an HMO, but holding a licence does not exempt you from registering. A small HMO that doesn’t need a licence still has to be registered if it is let on assured tenancies.
8. What about empty properties and homes I don’t let?
A property you own but don’t let is not in scope. Homes that are empty right now don’t need registering in this first phase either, but the government says future legislation will require registration before an empty property is marketed for let. Treat that as a delay, not an exemption.
9. Who will be able to see my details on the landlord database?
This is the question I was asked most, and the answer is that much of it is not yet decided. Councils will use the information for enforcement. The government says tenants will be able to use the service to check whether a landlord is compliant with key legal requirements.
The government has also said it does not envisage all the data being publicly accessible, and that it will publish the list of what the public can see later. Anyone telling you today that your rent or home address will definitely be public, or definitely private, is ahead of the government. Registration is a legal requirement, so you cannot opt out.
10. My EPC expired during the current tenancy. Do I need a new one before I register?
The legal duty to provide an EPC is triggered when a property is sold or rented out, not continuously through a tenancy. So a certificate that expires part-way through an existing tenancy doesn’t have to be renewed just because it has expired.
What has not been confirmed is exactly how the registration service will handle an expired certificate on a continuing tenancy. Keep the old certificate and the tenancy start date together, never describe an expired EPC as current, and check the official instructions when they are published for your region.
11. Can my letting agent do it for me?
Not entirely. Agents will be able to upload certain information on your behalf. But the government is clear that landlords start and complete the registration themselves, and that the landlord remains responsible for providing all the required information. “My agent handles everything” won’t protect you if the entry is wrong or missing.
12. What happens if I don’t register, and who fines me?
The local council for the area the property is in enforces the landlord database, and you can appeal a penalty to the First-tier Tribunal:
- Up to £7,000 for letting or marketing a property without the required registration
- Up to £40,000, or prosecution, for knowingly or recklessly giving false information, carrying on a breach after a penalty, or repeat breaches
- Rent repayment orders can follow a continued failure to register after a penalty
The biggest consequence is not the fine. With section 21 abolished since 1 May 2026, section 8 is the only way to recover a property. A landlord in breach of the duty to register cannot get a possession order except on the antisocial behaviour grounds. If your tenant stops paying and you aren’t registered, you have no route to possession until you fix it.
One thing most coverage has missed
Registering is not a one-off job. The draft regulations say information in your landlord database entries must be updated within 28 days of becoming out of date: a new gas certificate, a rent increase, a change of tenants. Entries also have to be renewed every year, and an entry left to lapse puts you back in breach.
The landlords who will find this easy are the ones who already keep their certificates, rents and tenancy details in one place. For everyone else, the months before your region opens are the time to get organised.
About the author
James Nicholson is a UK landlord and the founder of The Landlord Alliance, a compliance and portfolio management platform for landlords in England. He runs the Property Accelerator YouTube channel, where he covers property investment and landlord law.
