The Renters' Rights Act 2025 creates a national Private Rented Sector Database. Every private landlord letting an assured tenancy in England must register themselves and each let property, and keep the entries current.
It is not a licence and it does not replace one. A landlord in a designated area needs a council licence and a database entry — two regimes, two obligations. Of the 318 councils in England and Wales we track, 87 operate at least one discretionary licensing scheme; registering on the database does nothing for any of them.
The consequence that matters most
An unregistered landlord cannot obtain a possession order. The court is barred from making one where the landlord is not registered in respect of that property.
This is the provision to understand properly, because it operates in the background and only surfaces at the worst moment. You can hold serious rent arrears, a mandatory ground, and a correctly served notice — and still lose the hearing because the database entry was never made or has gone stale.
It is the same shape as the old section 75 and section 98 licensing bars: a compliance failure that does not announce itself, and then decides a possession claim.
What must be on it
The exact content is set by regulations, but the shape is the landlord's identity and contact details, each let property, and evidence of the safety obligations attaching to it. Entries must be kept up to date — a register that is right on the day you create it and wrong a year later is a register you are in breach of.
Timing
The database is being introduced in stages rather than switched on nationally. Our own rule set records the expected position as a rollout from late 2026, region by region, and treats that as a stated intention rather than a fixed date. Where we are not certain of a commencement date we say so rather than publishing one — the alternative is a date landlords diarise that turns out to be wrong.
Penalties
Letting without registering, or holding out a property as available when it is not registered, carries a civil penalty of up to £7,000, rising to up to £40,000 or prosecution for a repeat or continuing breach. Alongside that sits the possession bar, which in practice is the more expensive of the two.
What to do now
- Treat it as a possession prerequisite, not paperwork. Its practical force is the bar on possession orders.
- Get your certificate records in order first. The entries reference the safety obligations, so a landlord who cannot produce a current gas or electrical record cannot complete a truthful entry.
- Do not assume it substitutes for licensing. Check your council's position separately — see our licensing index.
- Plan to maintain it. The duty is continuing, and nothing will remind you.
Check what applies to your address. The free compliance check covers licensing and the safety obligations the database entries reference.