The government confirmed it on 9 September 2026. England’s new “Register your rental property” service opens on 15 December 2026, and the West Midlands is the first region in the country to go live.
If you let property in Coventry or anywhere across the West Midlands, you have until 14 March 2027 to register. That is three months from the day the portal opens. Miss the deadline and councils in your region will be able to begin enforcement activity.
Here is what it means, what it costs, and the three things most landlords will get wrong.
What You Are Registering For
The Private Rented Sector database is a new mandatory national register introduced by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. Every landlord letting under an assured periodic tenancy must register. Since all assured shorthold tenancies converted automatically on 1 May 2026, that means effectively every private landlord in England.
Registration has two parts. You register yourself as a landlord, which is free, and receive a Landlord Registration Number. You then register each property at £65 per property per year and receive a Property Registration Number.
One point worth knowing if you register early: the government has confirmed the fee will be pro-rated during the initial rollout, so landlords who register before the anniversary date will not pay a full year’s fee for a partial year.
What Happens If You Miss the Deadline
A single breach carries a civil penalty of up to £7,000. Providing false or misleading information, or continuing to let unregistered after receiving a penalty, is a criminal offence under Section 92 of the Renters’ Rights Act, with a civil penalty of up to £40,000 as an alternative to prosecution.
The penalty that tends to land hardest is this one. An unregistered landlord loses access to most Section 8 possession grounds. If a tenant stops paying rent, you cannot obtain a possession order. The only exceptions are Ground 7A for severe anti-social or criminal behaviour and Ground 14 for anti-social behaviour. Registration is the price of entry to the legal tools you rely on.
What About Adverts and Portals?
This is where some early coverage has been misleading and worth clarifying.
From your registration deadline, the legal obligation is to be registered. The requirement for your Landlord Registration Number and Property Registration Number to appear on adverts and listings, and for portals including Rightmove and Zoopla to refuse to market unregistered properties, comes under future legislation that the government has not yet introduced. The GOV.UK guidance states this will happen “as we roll out the public interface” and that further guidance will be published ahead of that requirement.
So the immediate obligation is registration. The advert and portal obligation follows later.
Three Things Most Landlords Will Get Wrong
Your letting agent cannot do this for you. This is the one that surprises people most. The government has confirmed that registration is the landlord’s personal legal obligation. Landlords are responsible for starting and ending the registration process. Your agent can provide certain information on your behalf once the process is under way, but you must initiate it yourself and you remain responsible for all information provided. You cannot simply hand it over.
Joint owners each need their own Landlord Registration Number. If you co-own a property with a spouse or partner, you both register separately as landlords. There is only one Property Registration Number per property and the £65 fee is charged once regardless of how many owners there are.
You have 28 days to update any change. New gas safety certificate, rent increase, change in the number of occupants. Every update must be made within 28 days of the change. There is no direct debit option for renewal either, since you must confirm all information is current at the point of each annual renewal.
What to Gather Before December
Pull these together now so registration takes minutes rather than hours.
- Valid Gas Safety Certificate and Electrical Safety Certificate (EIC or EICR)
- EPC for each property (the system cross-checks the national register automatically)
- Property type, ownership type (freehold, leasehold and so on) and bedroom count
- Current rent, payment frequency, whether bills are included and whether the property is furnished
- Number of current occupants and households
- Licence numbers for any HMO, additional or selective licences
- Name and contact details of your freeholder and property manager
- GOV.UK One Login credentials
The full information requirements are set out in Schedule 3 of the draft PRS Database Regulations on legislation.gov.uk and on the government’s dedicated page at housinghub.campaign.gov.uk.
A Note From Us
We are a Coventry property company rather than regulated advisers, so please treat this as a plain-English briefing. The official guidance is available at GOV.UK.
If you would like a recommendation to a good local accountant or solicitor who handles landlord compliance, get in touch and we will point you in the right direction.
