Register your rental property: a landlord's guide to the new Rental Property Service

On 29 October 2026 the government published its guidance for the new Rental Property Service, the register of private landlords and rental properties in England that the Renters' Rights Act requires. Registration opens on 15 December 2026 and rolls out one region at a time through to November 2027.

This guide sets out what the published guidance says: who has to register, when, what it costs, what you need to have ready and what happens if you do not. It is written for landlords of all sizes, from one flat to a large portfolio, and for the people who help them.

It is based on the GOV.UK guidance as published on 29 October 2026. The service is not yet open, and details can change, so check the official guidance before you act. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

The short version

• Who: private landlords letting property in England on an assured or regulated tenancy, including companies, charities, trusts and partnerships.
• What: you register yourself as a landlord and then each rental property.
• When: from 15 December 2026, in nine regional windows of three months each. Every region's window has closed by 14 November 2027.
• Cost: £65 per property per year, free to register as a landlord and free to update.
• Evidence: gas safety, electrical safety and energy performance certificates, plus details of the tenancy and any licences.
• Keep it current: changes and expiries must be updated within 28 days.
• Penalties: up to £7,000 for not registering, up to £40,000 for knowingly or recklessly giving false or misleading information.

What the Rental Property Service is

The Renters' Rights Act requires private landlords to register themselves, and the properties they let, on a government service. It is overseen and operated by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. GOV.UK calls it Register your rental property.

Two things are registered, and both get a number:

• You, the landlord, which gives you a landlord registration.
• Each rental property, which gives the property a property registration number once the fee is paid.

Who must register

GOV.UK says that if you are a private landlord renting out a property in England that is currently occupied by tenants on an assured or regulated tenancy, you must register. That includes organisations that act as private landlords.

How you register depends on how you let:

• Individual landlords, including sole traders, register themselves.
• Joint landlords: each landlord must register. One joint landlord registers the property and invites the others to register. Anyone who owns part of a rental property and is entitled to possession must register as a joint landlord, even if they are not named on the tenancy agreement.
• Companies, charities, trusts, limited liability partnerships and Scottish partnerships register as organisations. Anyone in the organisation can register it and then add team members, who can register and update properties.
• Business partnerships in England: all the members register as individuals, following the joint landlord guidance. Limited liability partnerships and Scottish partnerships register as organisations and provide details of all their partners.
• Houses in multiple occupation (HMOs): one registration covers the whole property, not one per room.

Who does not have to register

The guidance names one exemption: tenancies that are supported exempt accommodation within the meaning of section 12 of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023.

Landlords with a live banning order may not be permitted to register, depending on the conditions of the order.

The page does not list other exemptions. If your letting does not look like an ordinary assured or regulated tenancy, such as a long lease or an unusual arrangement, check the guidance and take advice rather than assuming you are outside it.

When you have to register

Registration opens region by region. Each region has a three-month window, and you must register your property by the end date of the region it is in. You can register early.

The dates, with each window ending before midnight on the last day:

• West Midlands: 15 December 2026 to 14 March 2027
• East of England: 15 January 2027 to 14 April 2027
• East Midlands: 15 February 2027 to 14 May 2027
• South East: 15 March 2027 to 14 June 2027
• Yorkshire and Humberside: 15 April 2027 to 14 July 2027
• North West: 15 May 2027 to 14 August 2027
• North East: 15 June 2027 to 14 September 2027
• London: 15 July 2027 to 14 October 2027
• South West: 15 August 2027 to 14 November 2027

Which region a property is in depends on its local council. GOV.UK links a list of regions and their councils, and you can find a council from a postcode with the council finder.

If you own properties in more than one region, each has its own window. Early registration is allowed, so a landlord with a mixed portfolio can choose to register everything at once.

During the rollout

From 15 December 2026 to 14 November 2027, you only have to register properties that are currently let, or that become let in that period. From 15 November 2027, GOV.UK says all landlords will be required to be registered.

What is coming later

The guidance says two further changes are planned, with no dates given:

• You will be required to register unoccupied properties before marketing or advertising them.
• It will become a requirement to include the landlord and rental property numbers when advertising a property. You can include them voluntarily now.

What it costs

The annual service fee is £65 per property, and it is not subject to VAT. It is paid when you register each property and then every year to keep the property on the service. There is no charge to register as a landlord or to update landlord or property records.

The first-year fee during the rollout

During the rollout the fee is adjusted to ignore the days before 15 November 2027, so the first payment is lower for early registrants. GOV.UK gives this formula, where the free days are the days before 15 November 2027:

fee ÷ year length × (remaining days − free days)

The result is rounded down if it has more than two decimal places. GOV.UK gives two worked examples:

• Registering on 15 December 2026, with renewal on 15 December 2027 and 335 free days: £65 ÷ 365 × (365 − 335) = £5.34.
• Registering on 25 June 2027, with renewal on 25 June 2028, a 366-day year and 143 free days: £65 ÷ 366 × (366 − 143) = £39.60.

Renewal

Your renewal date for all your properties is one year from when you registered your first property. Every property you register shares that renewal date, so a portfolio is renewed together rather than property by property.

Tax

GOV.UK says the service fee is tax deductible and that you should review the relevant HMRC guidance when you submit your tax return. How a deduction works in practice depends on how you hold the property, so it is worth raising with your accountant.

What you will need

Registration happens in two stages.

First, the property details. GOV.UK's examples are the address, the number of bedrooms and the current rental status. You also give a correspondence address in England or Wales and contact details for managing agents, superior landlords and freeholders. You then pay the fee and receive a property registration number.

Second, the supporting information. You can give this with the property details or within 28 days:

• evidence of a gas safety certificate, if the property has a gas supply
• evidence of an electrical safety certificate
• evidence of an Energy Performance Certificate
• information about the tenancy, including the rent
• any licences, such as HMO licences or other licences

If the outstanding information is not provided within 28 days, the property registration may be deactivated. GOV.UK says that may put you in breach of the requirement to have an active registration if the property is rented out.

About you

• Individuals give their own details and contact information.
• Organisations give details of directors, trustees and other members of the governing body (where no Companies House number is given), a contact for the organisation, and the Companies House number and charity commission number where they apply.

How to register

You register using GOV.UK One Login, and you can choose to verify your identity. If you cannot use the service digitally, there will be a paper-based application, and GOV.UK says you will be able to contact the service for help completing your registration when it is live.

In outline:

1. Register yourself. The landlord must start the registration.
2. Add each property, pay the fee and receive its property registration number.
3. Add the supporting information with the property details or within 28 days.
4. Once the property is occupied, you can ask a letting or managing agent to provide the tenancy and health and safety information.

The guidance does not give screen-by-screen steps or the payment method. Those should appear when the service goes live.

Using an agent

The landlord stays responsible. GOV.UK says you must make sure the property record is completed within 28 days of registering it, even if you have delegated that to a letting or managing agent.

Third parties may register or update a property in certain cases, for example where the landlord has died or is incapacitated, or where a mortgage provider needs possession of an unregistered property by court order. Unless a third party has become the legal landlord in your place, the landlord remains legally responsible.

Keeping the registration up to date

You must update any information that changes or expires within 28 days of the change or expiry. That covers your personal details and property information such as occupancy and safety certificates. Updates are free.

In practice that means diarising certificate expiry dates, tenancy changes and changes of managing agent, and having one person responsible for the register. For a portfolio, this is where the work sits after the first registration.

A landlord registration is deactivated if you have no active properties on the service.

Penalties and enforcement

GOV.UK sets out two levels of penalty:

• Up to £7,000 for failing to register yourself and your property.
• Up to £40,000 for knowingly or recklessly providing false or misleading information to the service, or for continuing or repeated breaches of certain requirements.

Your local authority may take enforcement action if you do not comply.

Rent repayment orders

From 15 December 2026, tenants can apply for a rent repayment order where a landlord has knowingly or recklessly provided false or misleading information. These are only available once the registration period for the property's area has opened, and applications are reviewed by the First-tier Tribunal. A tenant's route to repayment makes accuracy as important as speed.

Will the information be public?

GOV.UK says landlord and property information is not currently shared publicly, but that in the future some information about you and your rental property may be viewable by the public. Information may be shared with other agencies where the law requires or permits it. A privacy notice will be provided and updated before any change to how data is used or shared takes effect.

A practical checklist for landlords

Work through this before your region's window opens:

1. List every property you let in England, who owns it and whether it is held personally, jointly or through a company.
2. Identify the landlords for each property, including co-owners who are not named on the tenancy agreement.
3. Find the region of each property from its local council.
4. Gather the certificates: gas safety, electrical safety and Energy Performance Certificate for each property, and note when each expires.
5. Collect the tenancy details, including the current rent, and any HMO or other licences.
6. Note your agents, freeholders and any superior landlords, with contact details.
7. Set up GOV.UK One Login and decide who in your business will own the registration.
8. Decide when to register. Registering early costs less in the first year, because the fee ignores the days before 15 November 2027, but it starts the 28-day update obligation sooner.
9. Set reminders for the renewal date and for each certificate expiry.
10. Tell your accountant, so the fee and the new record keeping fit into your tax reporting.

Where the guidance is silent

Some questions are not answered yet, and we will update this guide as they are:

• the payment method and the exact screens of the service
• whether and how a letting agent can start a registration in its own right
• whether any exemptions exist beyond supported exempt accommodation and banning orders
• the dates for registering unoccupied properties and for putting the numbers in advertisements
• what, if anything, will become public

How we can help

Registration is a short task for one property and a project for a portfolio. The harder part is the discipline afterwards: certificates that expire, tenancies that change, and records that need to agree across the register, your accounts and your tax return.

Tributom Advisory is an ICAEW-regulated practice that works with landlords, from a single property to large portfolios, including those held through companies, partnerships and family structures. We can help you work out which landlords and properties need to register and by when, set up the records the service asks for, and fit the new fee and obligations into your accounting and tax planning.

If you would like to talk it through, we are happy to help.