A great deal of what landlords believe about the Renters' Rights Act 2025 is not in it. Some of it was in an earlier draft, some was proposed and dropped, some is a different piece of law entirely, and some was never true.
Each of these is checked against the Act itself.
Myth: the Act introduced rent controls
It did not. You set the rent at the start of a tenancy at whatever the market will bear. There is no cap, no formula, no register of permitted rents.
What changed is the route for increasing rent during a tenancy: once a year, by section 13 notice, with the tenant able to ask the tribunal to determine the market rent. The tribunal decides what the property would fetch on the open market. That is not a control; it is a test of whether your figure is the market figure.
Myth: you can no longer evict anyone
You can. Section 21 is gone, so you cannot evict without a reason — but Section 8 provides grounds, several of them mandatory. Serious arrears, moving back in, selling, anti-social behaviour. Each carries its own evidence requirement and notice period.
The change is from "no reason needed" to "a reason you can prove". That is a real and significant change. It is not abolition.
Myth: you must accept pets
You must not refuse unreasonably — a different thing. A head lease prohibiting animals, an animal genuinely unsuited to the property, a superior landlord's refusal: all capable of being reasonable. See the pet request right.
What you cannot do is maintain a blanket ban or refuse on preference. And you cannot charge a pet deposit — the deposit cap is unchanged.
Myth: the Act made EPC C compulsory by 2028
Not in this Act, and not by that date. Minimum energy efficiency sits in the MEES regulations, not the Renters' Rights Act. The current requirement to let is band E, with a registered exemption for F and G.
The government has confirmed an intention to raise the minimum to band C, with all private tenancies required to comply by 1 October 2030 — and the final regulations have not been made. Treat it as the proposed position, because that is what it is. Anyone telling you 2028 is quoting a consultation date that moved.
Myth: deposits changed
Unchanged. Five weeks' rent where annual rent is under £50,000, six weeks at or above it, under the Tenant Fees Act 2019. Holding deposit still one week. Protection in an approved scheme and prescribed information within 30 days, under Housing Act 2004 ss.213–215.
Myth: licensing was replaced by the PRS Database
Two separate regimes. The database is national registration; council licensing is designated locally under the Housing Act 2004. A landlord in a designated area needs both. Of the 318 councils in England and Wales we track, 87 operate at least one discretionary scheme — none of them care whether you are on the database. See the PRS Database.
Myth: the safety rules changed
They did not. Gas Safety annually under the 1998 Regulations. EICR at least every five years, and at the start of a new tenancy, under the 2020 Regulations. Smoke alarms on every storey with living accommodation, CO alarms in rooms with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker, under the 2015 Regulations as amended in 2022.
What the Act added is Awaab's Law — deadlines for responding to hazards, not new safety standards.
Myth: it applies across the UK
England. Housing is devolved. Wales operates under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, in force since December 2022, which abolished section 21 in Wales years earlier and uses occupation contracts rather than tenancies. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own regimes.
A Welsh landlord reading English commentary about "the changes that came in this year" is reading about a different jurisdiction — and Welsh landlords have their own registration duty through Rent Smart Wales under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, which no English article will mention.
What genuinely did change
- Section 21 abolished; possession through Section 8 grounds only.
- All tenancies periodic from the first day; no fixed terms.
- Rent increases once a year by section 13, challengeable at the tribunal.
- Pet requests must be considered and not unreasonably refused.
- Discrimination against benefit recipients and families prohibited outright.
- Mandatory PRS Database registration and Ombudsman membership.
- Awaab's Law extended to private lets.
- Rent repayment orders raised to a maximum of two years' rent.
Check your own position rather than the headlines. The free compliance check gives the requirements for your address, and the licensing index covers all 318 councils.