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The Private Rented Sector (PRS) Database is confirmed. The government service, called “Register your rental property”, opens on 15 December 2026, starting with the West Midlands and rolling out region by region across England through 2027.
Registration is mandatory for private landlords in England, it costs £65 per property per year, and every actively let property must be registered by 14 November 2027.
Here is what you need to register, when your region opens, what it costs, and what happens if you miss your deadline.
What Is the PRS Database?
The PRS Database is a national register of private landlords and rental properties in England, created by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. The public-facing service is called “Register your rental property”.
You register twice: once as a landlord, and once for each property you let. You receive a landlord registration number and a property registration number for each home.
It is run by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It is not an HMRC service and it is not connected to your tax return, though it sits alongside Making Tax Digital as part of a broader move to digital compliance.
The PRS Ombudsman is a separate requirement. The Ombudsman handles disputes; the database records who you are, what you let, and whether it is compliant.
When Do You Need to Register?
The service rolls out on a regional basis from 15 December 2026. When your region is called forward, you have a three-month window to register.
The confirmed schedule is:
| Region | Registration opens | Deadline to register |
|---|---|---|
| West Midlands | 15 December 2026 | 14 March 2027 |
| East of England | 15 January 2027 | 14 April 2027 |
| East Midlands | 15 February 2027 | 14 May 2027 |
| South East | 15 March 2027 | 14 June 2027 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 15 April 2027 | 14 July 2027 |
| North West | 15 May 2027 | 14 August 2027 |
| North East | 15 June 2027 | 14 September 2027 |
| London | 15 July 2027 | 14 October 2027 |
| South West | 15 August 2027 | 14 November 2027 |
If you let properties in more than one region, each property follows the schedule for the region it sits in. All actively let properties in England must be registered by 14 November 2027.
How Much Does It Cost?
The fee is £65 per property, per year. It is charged for each property you register, so a landlord with three properties pays £195 a year.
The registration renews annually. During the rollout the fee is pro-rated, so landlords in the earlier regions are not charged more than those who register later.
Updating an entry that is already registered — for example, adding a renewed gas safety certificate — is free.
What Information Do You Need to Provide?
You will need the following ready before you start.
Landlord Details
- Your name, address and contact details
- Details for all joint landlords, if the property is jointly owned
- Organisation details, if you let through a company
- Evidence of authority, if you are registering on behalf of someone else
Property Information
- The property address
- Property type and number of bedrooms
- Number of residents
- Occupancy and furnishing status
- Licence details, where the property is licensed
Tenancy and Rent
- The amount of rent you receive
- Rent frequency
- Whether utilities are included
Compliance Documents
- Gas safety certificate
- Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)
- Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
You are legally required to keep the entry up to date once it is created, so expiring certificates now carry a second consequence.
Can Your Letting Agent Register For You?
Not entirely. Landlords are responsible for starting and ending the registration process — it is tied to your own government identity verification, and you cannot hand that step to anyone else.
Your agent can provide certain information on your behalf. But if you use an agent for letting only, the duty to register still sits with you, and it is worth confirming rather than assuming it has been handled.
Letting agents carry their own exposure. Once the requirement applies in your region, no one may market a property without active landlord and property registration numbers, and those numbers must appear in written adverts. That restriction catches the agent as well as the landlord.
What Happens If You Do Not Register?
Local councils enforce the database, and the penalties are set out in the Act:
- Civil penalties of up to £7,000 for breaching the marketing and letting restrictions
- Up to £40,000, or prosecution, for repeated or continued breaches
- Providing information you know to be false, or are reckless about, is a criminal offence
There is a further consequence that matters more than the fines for most landlords. You cannot obtain a possession order without an active database entry, aside from a small number of specific grounds. With Section 21 abolished, a lapsed registration can block a possession claim and the re-let that follows it.
Does the PRS Database Replace Existing Licensing Rules?
No. If you already need a licence from your local council — because you let an HMO, or your property sits in a selective licensing area — you still need that licence.
The difference is that you will also record those licence details on the national database. It brings the information together in one place rather than replacing local schemes.
How to Prepare Before Your Region Opens
1. Gather Your Compliance Documents
Create a folder per property holding the gas safety certificate, EICR, EPC, deposit protection details and any licensing documents. Check the expiry dates while you are there.
2. Track Down Your Joint Owner Details
This is the field most landlords do not have to hand. If a property is jointly owned, you need contact details for every joint landlord, not just the one who manages it.
3. Confirm the Details You Have Never Written Down
Bedroom count, furnishing status, number of residents, rent frequency and whether utilities are included. These are easy to confirm now and irritating to chase under a deadline.
4. Move Off Paper and Spreadsheets
The service is digital, the entry must stay current, and it renews every year. Landlords keeping certificates in email and property details in memory will find both the first registration and every renewal harder than it needs to be. Keeping property records, certificates and tenancy details in one place makes the process straightforward.
What Is Still Unconfirmed
Most of the detail is now settled, but a few points are still to come:
- Whether a grace period applies after an entry is first created
- The full field list beyond the categories published so far
- Whether agents will be able to submit data in bulk, or through an API
- Exactly how joint, company-held and multi-agent cases are handled in the service
We will update this page as each is confirmed.
Get Registration-Ready
The database is a form. Passing it is a record-keeping job, and the landlords who find it easy will be the ones whose certificates, joint owner details and property records are already in one place before their region is called forward.
Landlord Studio helps you store compliance documents, track certificate expiry dates and keep a clear record for every property you own — so that when your three-month window opens, the information is ready rather than scattered.
Last updated 22 September 2026. Sources: GOV.UK, Register your rental property; GOV.UK rollout announcement; Renters’ Rights Act 2025, Part 2 Chapter 3.