The National Landlord Register: England's Private Rented Sector Database Explained

England is getting a national landlord register. It is called the Private Rented Sector Database, it was created by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, and every landlord of an assured or regulated tenancy in England will have to register on it, along with each property let under one. The government says the rollout starts from late 2026. As things stand there is no live registration service and no published fee, so nobody in England is registered yet and nobody can be.

So the short answer to "is there a national landlord register in England?" is not yet. It is law rather than a proposal, and it arrives with real teeth: a landlord who lets or advertises an unregistered property faces a council penalty of up to £7,000, rising to £40,000 or prosecution for repeat or serious cases, and cannot get a possession order on most grounds while unregistered.

Article updated: August 2026

What the Private Rented Sector Database is

The Private Rented Sector Database, usually shortened to the PRS Database, is a national register of private landlords and the homes they let in England. It sits in Part 2, Chapter 3 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, sections 75 to 96. Under section 76 it is run by the Secretary of State or by an organisation the Secretary of State appoints, which the Act calls the "database operator".

The government's guide to the Act describes it as a "one stop shop" for landlords, a single "front door" to guidance on their obligations, and a way of telling landlords when the rules change. For tenants it is meant to increase the information available before they rent. For councils the guide is blunter: identifying poor-quality rented homes and who owns them is one of the biggest and most time-consuming barriers to enforcement, and the database is meant to remove that barrier.

Two features make it different from a membership list. Under section 84 the operator must give every registered landlord and every registered property a unique identifier, in effect a landlord registration number and a property number. And under section 82 any written advert for a rental home must carry both identifiers. So once the database is live, a portal listing without a landlord number and a property number is itself a breach.

It is a register, not a licence. In most of England a landlord still needs no licence to let unless the property is an HMO that needs an HMO licence or sits in a selective licensing area, and the database sits alongside those schemes rather than replacing them. It is also not a trade body: the National Landlords Association, now merged into the NRLA, is a membership organisation landlords choose to join, while the database will be a legal duty on every landlord the Act covers.

When the landlord database starts: the dates we actually have

I have watched this idea go from a white paper to a bill that fell at an election to an Act that passed. The Act itself is done. The government's guide records that it "received Royal Assent on Monday 27 October 2025". The first wave of changes is also done: the November 2025 implementation roadmap set 1 May 2026 as the day section 21 "no fault" evictions ended and assured tenancies in England moved onto a periodic footing, and the Commencement No. 2 Regulations brought that into force on that date.

Key dates

The database is Phase 2. The roadmap's words are "We will commence roll out of the Database from late 2026", under a heading that calls the first stage a regional rollout. It adds that "Public access and data sharing will be enabled following the launch of landlord registration", so landlords register first and the public-facing search follows. The ombudsman and the Decent Homes Standard follow later, as the table shows.

Some of the groundwork is visible. The NRLA reported in August 2025 that the government was recruiting around ten landlords in each of Birmingham, Gateshead and Nottingham for a four-to-six-week test from 1 September 2025. In January 2026 it reported a further beta "in stages over the coming months, beginning in mid-February/March", with "any information entered during the beta phase" to be "deleted shortly afterwards", and said the database "will not be implemented until later in the year, when it will be rolled out on a regional basis".

There is still no gov.uk page where a landlord can register, no commencement date for the duty, and no published fee. The roadmap says the fee "will be confirmed closer to launch".

Until the commencement and fee regulations are made, "late 2026" and "regional" are the only timing words the government has published.

Who has to register as a landlord in England

The guide's answer is wide: "All landlords of assured and regulated tenancies will be legally required to register themselves and their properties on the database". The roadmap repeats it as "mandatory for all PRS landlords". Assured tenancies are the normal modern private let; regulated tenancies are, in the government's words, "Most lettings by private landlords which began before 15 January 1989" under the Rent Acts (gov.uk guidance). It is mandatory in the plain sense: the Act as passed has no portfolio-size threshold and no exemption for accidental landlords or people letting one flat, though section 82(4) lets regulations carve out cases. If you are the landlord of an assured or regulated tenancy in England, the duty is meant to reach you.

Note the two halves. You register yourself, and you register each property. In the Act's language these are a "landlord entry" and a "dwelling entry", and under section 82(3) the landlord is under a duty to make sure both are active and kept up to date. A landlord with six houses will hold one landlord entry and six dwelling entries.

On agents, the Act as passed is clear about where the duty sits. Section 82(3) places it on "a person who is a residential landlord". Section 82(4) lets the Secretary of State make regulations that put the duty on "a person of a description specified in the regulations" instead, or switch it off in specified cases. No such regulations exist yet.

So a landlord who uses a full-management letting agent may well have the agent do the form-filling, but on the Act's current wording the legal duty to be registered, and the penalty for not being, is the landlord's. An agent's offer to handle database registration is a service; unless regulations later say otherwise, it does not move the liability. The agent is not outside the Act either: section 82(1) and (2) bind "a person" who markets or advertises, so an agent or portal marketing an unregistered home is itself in breach, and under section 91 a council may penalise any person who breaches section 82(1), (2) or (3). The duty to be registered still sits with the landlord.

Joint owners are covered too. The roadmap says the landlord contact details captured will include "relevant information from all joint landlords", and section 90 applies the possession restriction where "any of the joint landlords" is in breach.

If your tenants are already in, the timing is not yet written. Section 82(3) is drafted as a duty on a person who is a residential landlord, not only on new lets, and the roadmap's field list includes "confirming whether the property is occupied". Section 82(4)(b) lets regulations provide that a duty under the section "either does not apply at all or does not apply for a period specified in or determined in accordance with the regulations". So whether sitting landlords get a run-in period when their region goes live, and how long, is for regulations that have not been published.

For anyone buying a first rental this is the practical point. The duty is not something that arrives after you have built a portfolio. On the government's wording it applies from the first let, and under section 82(1) a property cannot even be marketed for letting until both entries are active. Registration will sit on the same checklist as the gas safety certificate and the EICR, before the first viewing rather than after.

How to register as a landlord in England: what you will provide, and what will be public

Nothing is open yet: the Act leaves the detail to regulations. Section 77 lets the Secretary of State set how an entry is made, by whom, what "information or documents" must be provided and what fee is paid. It also allows regulations to accept an entry before every requirement is met, provided the rest is completed within a period of no more than 28 days from the day the entry is made. Those regulations have not been published.

Landlord and property details

The roadmap is the closest thing to a list. It says regulations "will mandate landlord registration, payment of a fee and the provision of key information by landlords", and it names three groups of information:

• The landlord's contact details, "including capturing relevant information from all joint landlords".
• The property details, "including the full address, type of property (flat/ house), number of bedrooms, number of households/residents and confirming whether the property is occupied and furnished, etc."
• Safety information: "Gas, Electric and Energy Performance Certificates", so that "tenants are assured about the safety and energy efficiency of the property".

The enforcement record

The enforcement record is a separate layer. Under section 83 a council must make an entry when it has obtained a banning order against someone, secured a conviction for a banning order offence, or imposed a financial penalty for one. It may also record convictions and penalties that came from other bodies' action.

What will be public

How much of this the public will see is not settled. The guide says: "We are still determining the exact information which will be available to the public and this will be set out in regulations. We are planning for this to include information related to property standards." It adds: "Tenants will be able to access necessary information in relation to their landlord and details of the property, but we do not envisage that all data will be publicly accessible."

Section 86 lets the Secretary of State decide what the operator publishes from landlord, dwelling and enforcement entries. For council-made enforcement entries, regulations can require a wait of at least 21 days before publication, and the person must be told so they can point out errors first. Councils, local weights and measures authorities, the lead enforcement authority, mayoral combined authorities and the Greater London Authority get access regardless. On HMRC: the Act names no HMRC feed, and section 87 bars the operator from disclosing restricted information except under section 86 or where regulations authorise it.

For what a public landlord search looks like in practice, the three live UK registers differ.

What you cannot do if you are not registered

Four consequences are written into the Act, and each only bites once the relevant part of the Act is commenced.

You cannot market or let the property

Section 82(1) says a person must not market a dwelling for letting unless there is an active landlord entry for the person who will be the landlord and an active dwelling entry for the property. Section 82(2) requires written adverts to carry both unique identifiers. Section 82(5) adds that a breach does not make the tenancy itself void, so a tenant of an unregistered landlord still has a valid tenancy.

You cannot get most possession orders

Section 90 inserts a rule into the Housing Act 1988 that a court "may not make an order for possession of a dwelling-house while the landlord (or, in the case of joint landlords, any of the joint landlords) is in breach of section 82(3)(a)", unless the ground is Ground 7A or Ground 14. The government's guide puts it plainly: landlords in breach of the duty to register "will not be able to get a possession order except if the ground under which possession is sought is ground 7A or ground 14 (tenant anti-social behaviour)".

Civil penalties, and when it becomes an offence

Under section 91 a council that is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that someone has breached section 82 can impose a civil penalty of up to £7,000. Under section 92 it becomes an offence to knowingly or recklessly give the operator information that is false or misleading in a material respect, to carry on breaching more than 28 days after a penalty, or to breach again within five years of a penalty or conviction. For a section 92 offence the council's civil penalty rises to up to £40,000, or the case can go to court, where the sentence on summary conviction is a fine. Where the landlord is a company, section 92(8) extends the offence to an officer of the company where it was committed with their "consent or connivance" or is "attributable to any neglect" on their part.

The guide summarises it as "a civil penalty of up to £7,000" for letting or advertising unregistered, and "up to £40,000 or could face criminal prosecution" for repeat breaches or serious offences such as fraudulent information.

Section 79 matters for all of this because it lets regulations say when an active entry becomes inactive "if requirements specified in the regulations are not met", and states that those requirements "include requirements for the payment of fees". So an entry can lapse for non-payment, and the position between tenancies is for the regulations, though section 82(1) already means both entries must be active before a home is marketed again.

A tenant can seek a rent repayment order

Section 98 adds two database offences to the list that can ground a rent repayment order under the Housing and Planning Act 2016: providing false or misleading information under section 92(1), and a continuing breach under section 92(2) "but only if the penalty imposed relates to a breach of a requirement imposed by section 82(3)". So this one bites after a penalty has been imposed and ignored, or after false information, not on day one of being unregistered. It is also not yet in force: the Commencement No. 2 Regulations brought section 98 in on 1 May 2026 except for the database and ombudsman rows, which wait for a later order.

The biggest practical cost of ignoring the database is being unable to advertise, and being unable to get a tenant out on rent arrears or any other ground outside 7A and 14 until the entry is put right.

What landlord registration will cost

No figure has been set. The guide says "Landlords will be required to pay to register on the database. However, we will work to ensure that the fee is proportionate and good value." The roadmap says landlords "will be required to pay an annual fee which will be confirmed closer to launch". So the two things we know are that it is annual and that it is not yet priced. Anyone quoting you a pound figure for England today is guessing.

The Act does say what the fee is allowed to pay for. Section 81 lets regulations set the fee, or let the operator set it to cover the "relevant costs": building and running the database, enforcing its rules, and enforcing "any other requirements imposed by or under this Act or otherwise in relation to the private rented sector". It is headed "Fees for landlord and dwelling entries" and speaks of "the amount or amounts of the fee", so the Act allows a fee on either or both entries; whether you pay per landlord, per property or both is for the regulations. It also allows a higher fee to reactivate an entry that has lapsed than to keep one active. The fee is designed to recover the cost of the system and some enforcement, and letting your entry lapse may cost more than renewing on time.

The nearest guide to scale is the three registers that already charge, set out in the comparison tables below. These are comparables, not predictions. England's fee is annual rather than three or five yearly, which is a different shape from all three, so a like-for-like comparison will only be possible once the regulations land.

For a landlord running the numbers on a purchase, the practical step is to carry a line for it: it belongs next to the gas check and the EICR in the running-cost column rather than being a one-off.

How England compares with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

There is no single UK landlord register. England is the last of the four UK nations to get one. Scotland's runs under Part 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004, Northern Ireland's under its Landlord Registration Scheme, and Wales's under Rent Smart Wales.

All three are live, all three charge, and all three have a public search. The figures below come from each register's own published fee and scheme pages, linked under the table.

Who registers, what it costs, how long it lasts

Sources: the roadmap and guide for England; the Scottish register's fees page; Rent Smart Wales; and nidirect.

Penalties and public search

The second half of the comparison is what happens when you do not register, and what anyone can look up.

Sources: the government's guide and section 91 for England; the Scottish register's about page and search page; the Rent Smart Wales registration page and its public register; and nidirect.

Two things stand out. England's £7,000 headline civil penalty sits between Wales's £150 fixed penalty notice and Scotland's criminal ceiling of £50,000, and both England and Wales tie the register to possession: Wales restricts a landlord's ability to secure possession, England bars possession orders outside Grounds 7A and 14.

Wales goes a step further than a register: a landlord who manages their own Welsh property needs a licence from Rent Smart Wales on top of registration, which has no English equivalent in the database. Our separate Rent Smart Wales guide covers that side.

Landlord registration in Scotland

Scotland's system is landlord registration with the local council under Part 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004, not licensing, and it is not the same thing as the selective licensing schemes English councils run ward by ward. Registration is renewed every three years, the principal fee is £85 per council plus £20 per property, and letting unregistered is a criminal offence with a penalty on conviction of up to £50,000 and a letting ban of up to five years. The public search runs on a registration number or the property postcode.

Landlord registration in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland's Landlord Registration Scheme covers all landlords who let under a private tenancy there. Registration costs £70 online or £80 on paper and the certificate lasts three years. Anyone can search the register for a landlord by name or for a property; the nidirect scheme page does not state a penalty figure for not registering.

How to check if a landlord is registered today

A lot of people reach this page looking for a landlord registry to search. The answer depends on where the property is.

In England there is nothing national to search yet, because the register does not exist yet. The roadmap's sequence is landlord registration first, then "Public access and data sharing will be enabled following the launch of landlord registration". Until then, the public registration records available in England are councils' HMO and selective-licensing licence registers.

Every council must keep a register of the HMO and selective licences it has granted, and under section 232 of the Housing Act 2004 must make that register available for public inspection at its head office at all reasonable times. That tells you whether a licensable property is licensed and to whom. It does not tell you anything about the landlord of an ordinary single let.

In Scotland, the Scottish Landlord Register search takes a landlord registration number or the property postcode. In Wales, the Rent Smart Wales public register searches by address, landlord, agent or reference. In Northern Ireland, the nidirect scheme page carries a search for a landlord by name and a search for a property.

For an English landlord the flip side matters more than the search. Once the database is live, every written advert will carry your landlord number and the property number under section 82(2), and the government is "planning for" property-standards information to be public. On the roadmap's sequence, public access follows landlord registration, and the regulations will set what is published.

Where the database sits in the Renters' Rights Act

The database is one part of a much bigger Act, which the roadmap puts in three phases:

• Phase 1, from 1 May 2026 (roadmap): section 21 evictions abolished and assured periodic tenancies introduced in the private rented sector. Our guide to the assured shorthold tenancy explains what that change did to the tenancy itself.
• Phase 2, from late 2026: the PRS Database, then the PRS Landlord Ombudsman, with mandatory membership expected in 2028. The roadmap says the government is exploring how to share information between the database and the ombudsman "to minimise landlord sign-up burden".
• Phase 3: a Decent Homes Standard for the private rented sector, proposed to come into force "in either 2035 or 2037".

What to do now if you let property, or are about to

Nothing can be registered yet, and there is nothing to pay yet. What a landlord can do is make registration easier to complete once it opens. These are the steps I would line up, built from what the government's implementation roadmap says it will ask for.

• The roadmap names three things worth having in one place for each property: the landlord's contact details (and every joint landlord's), the property details it lists, and the current gas safety certificate, electrical installation condition report and Energy Performance Certificate. The database is expected to collect all three.
• Licensing continues alongside the database: a property in a selective licensing area or needing an HMO licence keeps that, and the council that issues the licence is the council that will enforce the database.
• With an agent, the useful thing to have in writing is who will make and maintain the entries; on the Act's current wording the duty and the penalty sit with the landlord unless regulations move them.
• The fee is an annual running-cost line once it is published.
• gov.uk is where the commencement regulations and the fee will appear; until then any page giving a date or a price for England is ahead of the government.

If you are at the other end, looking at an investment property purchase rather than managing one, the change is that registration becomes part of the buying checklist. A property bought as a rental will need its dwelling entry before it can be marketed to tenants, and you will need your landlord entry before your first let. That is true whether you are browsing buy to let property for sale on the open market or taking on below market value properties that need work first. Where a project commissions the gas, electrical and EPC inspections, those certificates are the same ones the database is expected to ask for.

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