The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (RRA 2025) is overhauling the law underpinning the private rented sector in England. In this article, we explore what this means in practice for landlords, tenants and their agents, focusing on two key issues – rent review and subtenancies.
Rent review
From 1 May 2026, the existing statutory rent review procedure as set out in section 13 of the Housing Act 1988 (amended by the RRA 2025) will be the default position. It will not be possible to contract out of this, and any agreements made between landlords and tenants for alternative rent review mechanisms will be void.
Both new assured tenancies granted after 1 May 2026 and existing Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) (which, with only a few exceptions as set out in our article Renters’ Rights Act 2025: which tenancies are not caught?, will convert to assured tenancies from 1 May 2026) are affected.
The changes have been brought in with the intention of bolstering tenants’ security: providing them with the opportunity to challenge excessive above-market rent increases imposed by unscrupulous landlords attempting to force tenants out. The abolition of Section 21 “no fault” notices means that tenants have less to fear from challenging proposed increases to rent.
Practically speaking, this means that from 1 May 2026, where landlords of assured tenancies wish to increase the rent, they must serve notice under section 13. The prescribed form is being updated, so Form 4A notices must be used from 1 May 2026. Under section 13, only one rent review notice can be served each year, and none can be served within the first 12 months of the tenancy. If the tenant does not agree to the increase, they can make an application to the First-tier Tribunal which will determine whether the landlord’s notice is valid and determine the market rent for the property.
While the section 13 procedure may be familiar, the RRA 2025 makes some specific amendments to the legislation:
- The notice period for landlords’ section 13 notices is increased from one month to two.
- The tribunal will consider the open market rent, which can be upwards or downwards. However, this will be capped at the landlord’s proposed rent: the tribunal will never decide a rent higher than the rent sought by the landlord in their section 13 notice, even if the open market rent is found to be greater, thereby removing the risk for tenants in challenging the proposed increase.
- Whatever new rent the tribunal determines is fair will not take effect earlier than the date of the First-tier Tribunal’s decision. Given the potential for delays in the review process, this could be significant for landlords, and attractive to tenants who will have nothing to lose and everything to gain from the delay caused by applying to the tribunal.
Subtenancies
The situation where the assured tenancy (be it a new tenancy or converted AST) sits underneath a head tenancy (which is not an assured tenancy) has some particular nuances for landlords and tenants to consider.
Pets
It is widely known by now that the RRA 2025 makes it easier for tenants to have pets, as landlords cannot unreasonably refuse such requests. However, where the assured tenancy sits under a superior tenancy, there are two scenarios whereby it will be reasonable for landlords to refuse to consent to a tenant keeping a pet:
1. where doing so would cause the landlord to be in breach of their obligations to a superior landlord; and
2. where the landlord is obliged by the superior lease to seek consent to the keeping of a pet at the property, and despite the landlord making reasonable attempts to obtain that consent, the superior landlord has not agreed. It may be that the superior landlord has refused consent, reasonably or not, or they may simply have not answered such a request. In either case, the landlord will be acting reasonably in refusing the request of their assured tenant.
Repairing obligations
The repairing obligations for assured tenancies under the RRA 2025 will continue to be governed by section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, albeit with strengthened obligations on the landlord to ensure minimum standards are met. These obligations cannot be contracted out of. Where the assured tenancy sits under a head tenancy, there is potential for discrepancies to arise between who is obliged to do what.
If the head tenancy is either an agricultural holding or farm business tenancy, the model clauses may apply and there may be gaps which mean that the landlord of the assured tenancy is statutorily obliged to carry out repairs which might in fact fall within the head landlord’s remit. As a starting point, landlords and tenants should check the obligations under the head tenancy.
Where the superior tenancy is a common law tenancy with an assured tenancy below, the parties may choose to replicate the repairing obligations owed under section 11, thereby passing responsibility up to the head landlord and avoiding the uncertainty which can lead to disputes.
Termination of head tenancy
The RRA introduces several new mandatory grounds for possession, a couple of which provide important carve outs for agricultural tenancies.
1. Ground 2ZA: this will enable some landlords (including agricultural landlords) of assured tenancies who hold their interest under a superior tenancy to end the assured subtenancy if the superior lease is ending within 12 months.
However, unless there is a clause in the head lease requiring the head tenant to terminate the sub‑tenancy when the head lease ends, there is no obligation on head tenants of assured tenancies to recover possession. In this scenario, the head landlord becomes the direct landlord of the subtenants pursuant to section 18 of the Housing Act 1988.
2. Ground 2ZC: this will enable some landlords (including landlords of an agricultural holding) who terminate that superior tenancy and are left with a sitting assured subtenant to serve a possession notice within six months of the end of the superior lease.
Watch out for the next article in this series which will explore possession grounds under the RRA 2025 in more detail.
For more insights in our series on the RRA 2025 see:
Part 1: Renters’ Rights Act 2025: navigating accommodation for rural workers – Michelmores
Part 2: Renters’ Rights Act 2025: which tenancies are not caught?
Part 3: Renters’ Rights Act 2025: practicalities for landlords of dealing with new and existing tenancies
