The government’s new National Landlord Registration Service (Service – that’s the first joke!) goes live in December 2026. The roll out is across regions over the next few months with the south west due to start on 15 August 2027. The annual fee at the moment is £65 per property but inevitably, this will rise as the government is looking for more funds. If there are 4.7m rental properties out there, that’s £305m for the government – ker ching!
The information to be input to the system is largely a duplication of information already supplied to councils under licensing schemes and includes;
- property address
- number of residents and bedrooms
- rents
- certificates such as gas, electric, EPC
Apparently, the government has indicated that future legislation will require unoccupied properties to be registered before marketing them and registration numbers will have to be displayed on adverts.
Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said: “Rollout of a national landlord registration service is an important first step toward establishing our new innovative database of private rented sector properties which will empower tenants, support responsible landlords and help councils enforce our transformative Renters’ Rights Act.” Landlords just can’t wait to see how this process will “support responsible landlords”.
It will be an offence not to register properties – one question – how will Councils know? The responsible landlords will play ball, the rogues and irresponsible landlords won’t.
