Landlord registration is coming: when do you need to sign up, and who will help?

If you let a property in England, you will need to register it with the new Register Your Rental Property service. The rollout starts in the West Midlands on 15th December 2026 and moves through England region by region. 

Once a region is called forward, landlords will have three months to register. 

When is the deadline for your property?

Susie Crolla from the Guild of Lettings & Management sets out the commencement dates and registration deadlines in her regional timetable:

This also clarifies the months shown on Generation Rent’s map: they correspond to the deadline months, not the dates registration becomes mandatory in each region. 

Source: Generation Rent – England’s Landlord Register Takes Shape

The government says all landlords actively letting property must have registered by 14th November 2027. 

The 14th November 2027 date applies to the South West, the final region in the rollout. Landlords elsewhere must register by the earlier deadline for the region where their property is located.

What information will landlords need to supply?

Although not included in the government announcement, we understand landlords will need to supply the following information:- 

Details about the: 

• Landlord
• Property
• Tenancy
• Rent and relevant licensing

And health and safety information such as gas safety records, electrical reports and Energy Performance Certificates where applicable. 

Can your agent do this for you?

It’s understood an agent may be able to supply certain information, but the landlord must start and complete the registration. 

Will everyone be able to see this?

On public access, the government says that in future tenants and prospective tenants will be able to check whether a landlord has registered. The supplied announcement does not say when that public feature will launch or specify which other details, if any, people will be able to see. It says councils will have access to information to help them take action against landlords who break the rules. Source: government announcement.

Expert Views

That regional approach is intended to make the launch manageable, so let’s see what the property experts have to say on this: 

Susie Crolla, Managing Director from the Guild of Letting and Management says “the regional approach should help avoid the bottlenecks that could arise if every landlord had to register and renew on the same date.”

Sean Hooker, head of redress at Property Redress, agrees that a phased rollout makes sense, but warns that it could confuse landlords with properties in more than one region. The ‘deadline follows the property’s location, rather than where its landlord lives or its agent works’.

Allison Thompson, Chief Lettings Officer, from LRG commented:

“We support the principle of a national landlord register. Greater transparency should give tenants confidence that their landlord is legitimate and compliant while allowing responsible landlords to demonstrate the standards they already maintain. It should also make it easier for councils to identify those who are not meeting their obligations.

 But the success of the register will depend heavily on the detail. Landlords will be required to provide a substantial amount of information and documentation and at present we do not have complete guidance on how letting agents will be able to support them. For landlords with larger portfolios in particular, a system which relies heavily on manual input could create a considerable administrative burden, in addition to a cost burden. We would like to see the process designed so that agents can play a meaningful role and ultimately for it to integrate more effectively with the systems the industry already uses.

Privacy is another important consideration. The database will necessarily contain significant personal and property information, so landlords need clarity about exactly what will be visible to tenants and the wider public, what will remain private and how that information will be protected. I do wonder whether all of the information requested, such as a date of birth, is relevant for this purpose.

The principle is a good one and the regional rollout gives the industry time to prepare. The priority now must be getting the practical detail right so that the register improves standards without creating unnecessary complexity for the landlords who are already doing the right thing.”

Kate Faulkner OBE, UK property Analyst of UK Property News and the National Landlord Investment Show says:

“The biggest concern landlords have raised with me is whether the information they provide will be made public. However, landlord registration systems have been in place in Scotland and Wales for some time, and we are not aware of any major issues arising from them.

It’s also worth remembering that information about who owns a registered property, and whether a mortgage is recorded against it, has been available through HM Land Registry for over 20 years. While that information may have helped some fraudsters, we are not aware of it causing widespread problems.

Finally, our understanding at present is that people will be able to see whether a landlord has registered. It is not yet clear which, if any, of the other information supplied will be publicly available.”

To get latest updates on new ‘Register your Rental Property Service’, you can access ongoing learning and education, join the digital landlord community hub for free today. You can also attend live events and training for free in-person via the National Landlord Investment Show events, with 2 live shows remaining in 2026 in the North West in Manchester on 14th October 2026 and London on 28th October 2026. Get your free show day tickets today here.