The regulatory landscape for estate and letting agents has undergone major change in recent years. Under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, agents now have a range of new obligations, designed to increase transparency and prevent discriminatory practices in the private rented sector.
Here’s what you need to have on your radar as an estate or letting agent in 2026.
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The Renters’ Rights Act 2025: what has changed?
- Marketing and advertising requirements
- An end to rental bidding
- Anti-discrimination obligations
- Limits on advance rent
- Advance notice of grounds for possession
The basics still apply
A range of relevant laws and regulations apply to estate and letting agents, including contract law, consumer and data protection rules, and anti-money laundering regulations.
Terms of business
You should have a clear, written set of standard terms of business in place with every client, and your terms must comply with consumer protection laws. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies to estate and letting agents and provides clear protections against unfair terms to individuals not acting in a business capacity, such as residential home buyers and private tenants.
Under the Renters Rights Act 2025, letting agents must provide their written statement of terms (which can be the tenancy agreement) before the tenancy begins. Failure to comply can result in fines of up to £7,000.
Make a note in your calendar to review your terms of business at least annually, to ensure they remain current and legally valid.
Pre-contract disclosure
If engaged in estate agency work, you must provide each client with the following before entering into a contract:
- Details of fees, charges, and other forms of remuneration, and when they will be payable
- Notice if you do not subscribe to a client money protection scheme
- The name of the redress scheme of which you are a member (compulsory for agents)
- The meaning of certain phrases used in terms of business, such as “sole agency”, “sole selling rights” and “ready, willing and able purchaser”
- Your identity of the estate agent
- Your complaints handling policy
- The main characteristics of the services you are providing
- Information on their right to cancel, where applicable
Data protection
Estate and letting agents hold a range of sensitive personal data and must ensure they are compliant with GDPR obligations. If you haven’t done so recently, conduct a data audit to map what data you collect and how it is used, stored and disposed of. Review your privacy notices and data retention policies regularly, and check that they meet GDPR requirements.
Anti-money laundering (AML)
Estate agents must register with HMRC as their supervisory authority, and must have documented policies and procedures to prevent and report financial crime, as well as staff training in place. This is a requirement under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 – if you haven’t reviewed your AML procedures recently, now is the time.
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025: what has changed?
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 represents the most significant overhaul of the private rented sector in a generation. Letting and estate agents – defined as “relevant persons” under the Act – must comply with several new obligations before a tenancy is entered into or marketed.
Marketing and advertising requirements
A property cannot be marketed for let unless:
- The landlord has an active entry in the new Private Rented Sector (PRS) Database, and the specific property also has an active dwelling entry in the Database.
- All written advertisements include the unique identifiers allocated by the database operator to both the landlord and the property.
- All advertisements state a specific rent amount. Listing a property without a clear price is prohibited.
- The landlord is a member of the mandatory Landlord Redress Scheme.
An end to rental bidding
Agents and landlords are now legally prohibited from inviting or encouraging prospective tenants to offer rent exceeding the stated amount, and it is illegal to accept an offer of rent that is higher than the price advertised in the written listing. Any informal practice of running a “best and final” process for lettings is now unlawful.
Anti-discrimination obligations
The Act introduces or strengthens several protections for prospective tenants:
- Pets: Blanket bans on pets in advertisements are no longer permitted. Tenants have an implied right to request a pet, and landlords can only refuse on “reasonable grounds” within 28 days of a written request.
- Children and Benefits Recipients: It is a civil offence to prevent a person from enquiring about, viewing, or entering a tenancy because they have children or receive benefits. This includes applying criteria – such as affordability thresholds – in such a way that disproportionately disadvantages these groups and makes it harder for them to secure a home.
- Affordability Checks: While discrimination is banned, agents can still take a person’s income into account to assess their ability to afford the rent.
Limits on advance rent
Landlords and agents cannot request or accept more than one month’s rent in advance, and payments of rent are generally prohibited if they are required before the tenancy is entered into, except for “initial rent” – defined as the first rent period or rent ending within the first 28 days of the tenancy.
Advance notice of grounds for possession
If a landlord intends to rely on one of the limited, mandatory grounds for possession – such as Ground 4A (student HMOs), Ground 1A (sale of property), or Ground 5C (grounds related to employment) – in the future, they must provide a written statement of this intention to the tenant before the tenancy is entered into. If this “advanced notice” is not provided, the landlord may be prohibited from using those grounds later.
Staying up to date
With the roll out of the Renters’ Rights Act and future leasehold and homebuying reforms on the horizon, changes to the regulatory landscape for estate and letting agents look set to continue.
Our advice is straightforward: review your standard terms and processes, make sure your team is trained on the new requirements — particularly around rental bidding, anti-discrimination obligations, and the pre-tenancy documentation rules – and keep an eye out for further policy announcements.