PRS Database Fee: £65 Per Property, Renewals and Who Pays

The PRS Database fee is £65 per property, per year. You pay it for every property you register on the government's “Register your rental property” service in England, not once per landlord, and it renews every 12 months. One property costs £65 a year, three cost £195 and ten cost £650. Joint owners pay once per property, and properties you add later are pro-rated so your whole portfolio renews on one date.

Key points

• £65 per property, per year, charged on each property entry
• Your landlord entry has no separate fee
• Every property you hold renews on the same date as your first one
• Joint owners share one property entry and one fee
• You cannot pass the fee to tenants as a separate charge

How much is the PRS Database fee?

The fee is £65 for each property you register, payable every year. The government confirmed the figure in its “Get ready to register” guidance, which says the fee is for one property and you pay it each time you register a different property.

The draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 do not fix a number. Regulation 14 lets the database operator set the fee by reference to the cost of running the service, so the £65 can change in future years. The government says the money also funds councils to find and act on landlords who don't comply.

What will the fee cost across a portfolio?

The table below shows the yearly fee for three portfolio sizes, and what it would cost after tax relief if HMRC treats it as an allowable expense.

A ten-property landlord pays £650 a year before tax relief. The net figures use the property income rates of 22% and 42% that apply from 6 April 2027. Fees paid before then, in the 2026 to 2027 tax year, would get relief at 20% and 40%.

Do you pay to register yourself as a landlord?

No. Under the draft regulations, the fee applies only to property entries: making one, renewing one, or reactivating one that has lapsed. You still have to create a landlord entry, verified against your own identity, but it costs nothing on its own.

That is why the cost scales with your portfolio rather than with the number of people involved.

When does the PRS Database fee renew?

Each property entry renews 12 months after it was made. The renewal date is the last day of the 12-month period that starts on the day you made the entry, so an entry made on 10 January 2027 renews on 9 January 2028.

You must renew and pay on or before that date. If you don't, the entry becomes inactive the next day, and an inactive entry has the same effect as no entry at all.

How does pro-rating work if you add properties later?

Every property you add after your first one takes the renewal date your existing entries already have. Because your second property's first year is shorter than 12 months, the government says its first fee is pro-rated, so landlords who register early don't pay more than those who register later.

Worked example. A landlord lets one flat in Birmingham and one in London.

1. The West Midlands window opens on 15 December 2026. They register the Birmingham flat on 10 January 2027 and pay £65. Its renewal date is 9 January 2028.
2. The London window opens on 15 July 2027. They register the London flat on 1 August 2027. That entry takes the same 9 January 2028 renewal date.
3. The London flat's first fee covers roughly five months, not twelve, so it is pro-rated.
4. From 9 January 2028, both properties renew together at £65 each.

The operator has not yet published how the pro-rated amount is worked out. The same alignment applies when you buy a new rental property mid-year.

Do joint owners pay the fee more than once?

No. The regulations allow only one active entry for each property at a time, so a jointly owned property carries one fee, whether two people own it or five.

Each joint landlord still needs their own landlord entry, which is free. The property's renewal date follows the joint landlord who makes the entry. Agree between you who makes it and who pays, because the person making the entry pays the fee.

Who pays the fee if you use a letting agent?

You do. The landlord starts and finishes the registration under their own identity check, and the fee is paid by the person making the entry. Your agent can supply some of the information, but the duty to register, and to keep the entry paid up, stays with you.

If your agent pays costs on your behalf and recharges them, agree that in writing. Our main PRS Database guide explains what agents can and can't do in the registration process.

Can you pass the PRS Database fee on to tenants?

No, not as a separate charge. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 bans landlords and agents in England from charging tenants anything outside a short list of permitted payments, such as rent and a capped deposit. A registration fee is not on that list.

Treat the £65 as a cost of letting, alongside your gas safety certificate and any council licence.

Is the PRS Database fee tax deductible?

Probably, but HMRC has not confirmed it. The NRLA says the fee should be an allowable expense against your rental profits, in the same way as the Rent Smart Wales registration fee. HMRC has not yet published guidance on it.

Until it does, record each payment against the property it relates to and confirm the treatment with your accountant. If you file under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, it belongs in the quarterly update for the period in which you paid it.

What happens to the fee if you sell or stop letting a property?

You can deactivate a property entry at any time, and your landlord entry deactivates automatically once you have no active property entries left. The regulations do not say the fee is refunded, so assume it isn't.

When you sell a let property, the regulations allow a second active entry once contracts have exchanged. The buyer can register the property, and pay their own fee, before completion, so the new owner is covered from day one.

What happens if you miss a renewal?

The entry goes inactive the day after its renewal date. From then on you can't legally market the property, and you can't use most possession grounds until the entry is active again. Reactivating after the renewal date means paying the fee again, and legal commentary on the draft regulations suggests late fees may apply. The amount has not been published.

The fee is small next to the penalties. Councils can issue civil penalties of up to £7,000, rising to £40,000 for repeated or continued breaches.

Does the fee apply in Wales or Scotland?

No. The PRS Database and its £65 fee cover England only. Wales has Rent Smart Wales and Scotland has the Scottish Landlord Register, each with its own fees and rules.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the £65 fee charged per landlord or per property?

Per property. You pay £65 a year for each property entry, and creating your landlord entry has no separate fee. A landlord with four properties pays £260 a year.

When do I pay the PRS Database fee for the first time?

You pay when you register each property, during the three-month window for the region it sits in. The first window opens in the West Midlands on 15 December 2026, and every actively let property in England must be registered by 14 November 2027.

Does it cost anything to update my entry?

No. The fee applies to making, renewing and reactivating a property entry, not to updating it. You must update an entry within 28 days whenever its details change, such as a new gas safety certificate or a new tenancy.

Can I claim the fee against my rental income?

The NRLA expects it to be an allowable expense, but HMRC has not published guidance yet. Record it against the property and check with your accountant before you claim it.

Get your records ready before your window opens

The £65 fee is easy to budget for. The real cost of getting registration wrong is a fine of up to £7,000 and a possession claim you can't bring. Both come from an entry that is missing, lapsed or out of date.

Landlord Studio keeps each property's certificates, expiry dates and tenancy details in one place, and records the fee against the right property for your tax return. When your region opens, the information is ready. You still register yourself: see how Landlord Studio tracks your compliance documents.

To see when registration opens in your property's region and what your portfolio will pay each year, use our PRS Database deadline checker.

For the full picture, including what information you need and the regional dates, read our PRS Database guide for landlords. If your property is also in a licensing area, see PRS Database vs selective licensing.

Last updated 28 October 2026. Sources: GOV.UK, Get ready to register; draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026; NRLA, Register your rental property service; Tenant Fees Act 2019. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.