The Renters’ Rights Act is here: a survival guide for property managers

The Renters’ Rights Act is the biggest rewrite of English tenancy law in over thirty years, and it lands squarely on the desks of property managers. The headlines are familiar by now; the operational detail is where businesses will sink or swim. Here’s the short version, and a checklist for surviving it. (The official overview is on gov.uk — bookmark it.)

What actually changes

Section 21 goes. “No-fault” evictions end, and fixed-term ASTs convert to periodic tenancies. Every ending now runs through strengthened Section 8 grounds — which means evidence, served correctly, on the right timescales. Sloppy paperwork that used to be rescued by a Section 21 fallback no longer will be; organisations like Shelter will make sure tenants know it.

Pets become a right to ask. Tenants can request a pet, landlords can’t blanket-refuse, and each request must be considered on its merits with a response within 28 days. The clock starts when the email lands in your inbox — we built a worked example showing exactly how that should be handled.

Awaab’s Law reaches the private sector. Damp, mould and other hazards now carry statutory response timescales. The first report — usually a worried email with a photo attached — starts a legal clock. Triage can’t depend on who happens to read the inbox that morning; see how Lanten flags it in our damp & mould use case.

Everything gets more visible. A new ombudsman scheme and a private rented sector database mean complaints escalate faster and compliance failures are easier to find. The Property Ombudsman has long signalled the direction of travel: document everything, respond promptly, keep your promises.

Where compliance actually fails

Almost never in the policy binder. It fails in the inbox: the pet request answered with an old template that blanket-refuses; the mould report that sits unread over a long weekend; the rent increase promised informally in an email that contradicts the Section 13 notice. The risk is created at the moment of reply — so that’s where the checks have to live, not in a quarterly audit.

A practical checklist

• Audit your templates now — any blanket pet refusal or Section 21 reference is a liability.
• Put response-time clocks on categories of email (pets: 28 days; hazard reports: Awaab’s timescales), not on individuals’ memories.
• Log every commitment made by email against the tenancy record, automatically if possible.
• Re-train the team on Section 8 grounds and evidence standards — endings are now built on paperwork.
• Make compliance checks part of sending, not something that happens after.

That last point is the one we obsess over. Lanten reads each outgoing reply against the Renters’ Rights Act and flags the problem before you hit send — politely, in the moment, while it’s still free to fix. It’s a big part of why we think AI belongs in the inbox. If the new rules are looming over your team, try it on your own email — it takes about two minutes to install.