The Renters’ Rights Act: should you switch to a short let?

What changed, and when

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. Its changes to private tenancies came into force on 1 May 2026, under commencement regulations made on 16 April 2026. The rest is being phased in.

1. 27 October 2025
   Royal AssentThe Renters’ Rights Bill became law.
2. 27 December 2025
   Council powersNew investigatory and enforcement powers for councils took effect.
3. 1 May 2026
   Tenancy reformsSection 21 ended, tenancies became periodic, and the new possession grounds, rent rules, pet requests and the ban on rental bidding all began.
4. 15 December 2026
   Landlord database opensGOV.UK says registration starts in the West Midlands, then moves region by region.
5. 14 November 2027
   Last regional deadlineThe South West is the final region to register.
6. 2028
   Landlord ombudsmanThe government expects membership to become compulsory in 2028.

• Section 21 has gone. A landlord can end a tenancy only on a ground for possession, using a notice under section 8 of the Housing Act 1988, even if the agreement says otherwise.
• No fixed terms. Every assured tenancy, including assured shorthold tenancies, became a rolling periodic tenancy on 1 May 2026. A tenant can leave at any time with two months’ notice.
• Rent rises once a year, by section 13 notice. You use form 4A, give at least two months’ notice, and cannot raise the rent in the first year. The tenant can ask the First-tier Tribunal to set the market rent.
• Pets. A tenant can ask in writing. You have 28 days to reply and cannot refuse unreasonably. If you are a leaseholder and the freeholder does not allow pets, refusing may be reasonable; disliking pets usually is not.
• No rental bidding. A written advert must state a specific rent, and you must not ask for, encourage or accept an offer above it. A first breach can bring a fine of up to £7,000.

Our guide to short let or long let sets these against the income and costs of each kind of let. This one goes further into the rules that decide whether a landlord can switch.

Selling or moving in: the new grounds

Every possession claim now rests on a ground in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988, which the Act rewrote. For a landlord weighing up a short let, the two that matter are Ground 1, moving in, and Ground 1A, selling.

From section 8 of and Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988, as amended by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. The family list also covers your partner’s children and grandchildren.

Grounds 1 and 1A come with a 12 month protected period: the tenancy must have begun at least a year before the date your notice gives. Your intention must be genuine, and if the tenant stays on, you still need a possession order from the court.

The rule most landlords miss comes next. From the day you serve notice on Ground 1 or 1A until 12 months after the date given in the notice, you must not let the home on a tenancy, allow anyone to occupy it under a licence for money, or market it for either. The wording covers any licence for money, and section 16F has no exception for holiday lets, so short letting is caught. With four months’ notice, that is at least 16 months. The ban applies even if the tenant leaves early, but it does not stop you or the family member living there.

The landlord database and ombudsman

Two more duties are coming for landlords of tenancies. The first is the Private Rented Sector Database: landlords of assured or regulated tenancies will have to register themselves and each home they let. GOV.UK says the fee will be £65 per property a year, and that the database opens on 15 December 2026 and rolls out by region, with three months to register once the region where the home sits starts. The dates and the fee are set by regulations that Parliament must approve, so check the Housing Hub before you rely on them.

From the GOV.UK Housing Hub, which gives these as the dates the regulations commence and publishes any change to them.

Not registering can bring a fine of up to £7,000, or £40,000 for repeated or serious breaches, and an unregistered landlord generally cannot get a possession order except under Grounds 7A and 14. The second duty is a landlord ombudsman for tenants’ complaints, which every private landlord with an assured or regulated tenancy will have to join, paying a fee the government says it will confirm closer to launch. The government expects that in 2028.

Neither applies to a home let only as a short let, because guests do not hold assured tenancies. Short lets have their own scheme coming: the government expects England’s short let register to begin in March 2027.

Why short lets sit outside the Act

The Act works by changing assured tenancies under the Housing Act 1988, and two parts of that Act keep holiday lets out. Section 1 says a tenancy is assured only if the tenant occupies the home as their only or principal home, which a guest on a week’s break does not. And paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 excludes any tenancy whose purpose is to give the right to occupy the home “for a holiday”. GOV.UK’s guide for landlords lists a holiday let as a reason a tenancy cannot be an assured periodic tenancy.

Short let guests stay on a licence: permission to stay for the nights they booked, which ends when the stay does. The Protection from Eviction Act 1977 treats a licence “for a holiday only” as excluded, so you do not need a court order to end the stay. For a landlord, that means:

• No section 8 notices or possession grounds. Each stay ends on its last booked night.
• No section 13 process. You set nightly prices and change them when you like.
• No pet requests under the Act. Pets are a matter for your house rules.
• No landlord database, ombudsman or rental bidding rules for that home.

What switching changes for a landlord

The biggest differences are about control.

The price of that control is cost and work. You pay the bills, council tax or business rates, furnishing and upkeep, and income moves with the seasons. If we manage the home, our fee is 15% plus VAT on bookings from booking sites, with a further 5% plus VAT platform fee on direct bookings instead of a booking site’s commission; our fees page sets out what that covers.

One option the Act has closed is mixing the two. Before 1 May 2026, a holiday home could be let to a tenant out of season for up to eight months, with Ground 3 to get it back for summer. The Act repealed Ground 3. A tenancy that starts in October now has no end date, so pick one way of letting the home.

What to check before you switch

If a tenant lives in the home, start there. Unless the court grants possession on another ground, such as serious rent arrears, the home becomes free only if the tenant gives notice, you both agree to end the tenancy early, or you genuinely need it to sell or move in, which rules out short letting for the restricted period. Harassing a tenant to make them leave is a criminal offence, and since 1 May 2026 councils can fine landlords up to £40,000 for it. Our guide from long let to short let walks through each route and the timings.

1. Ask your lenderMany buy to let mortgages are written for tenancies and need written consent for short lets. A residential mortgage needs consent to let at all.
2. Read the leaseFor a leasehold flat, check whether the lease allows short letting, and get the freeholder’s answer in writing.
3. Change your insuranceLandlord policies are written for tenants. Paying guests need a specialist short let policy.
4. Plan for council tax or business ratesOnce the tenant leaves, you pay. A home in England available for 140 nights a year and let for 70, in stays of 28 nights or less, is usually valued for business rates instead.
5. Check planning, especially in LondonIn Greater London, letting a whole home to guests for more than 90 nights in a calendar year needs planning permission, as our guide to the London 90 night rule explains. Elsewhere, your council decides.

Our guides to mortgages, leasehold flats, insurance, council tax or business rates and planning permission take each one in turn.

When staying with a long let is the better answer

The Act made long lets more regulated, not unworkable, and for many landlords keeping a good tenant is still right. A short let, and our kind of service, is usually not the better answer when:

• You have a good tenant paying a fair rent and little visitor or work demand nearby.
• Your lender, lease or freeholder says no, and that cannot change.
• The home is in London and would need more than 90 nights a year, with little prospect of planning permission.
• You need the same income every month to cover a mortgage through a quiet winter.
• You do not want to furnish the home, keep it to a guest standard, or carry the bills.

If you keep the long let, get ready for the new duties: section 13 for rent rises, the database when your region opens, and the ombudsman after that. If the numbers are close, the flexibility of a short let may tip it. Compare a full year of each, after every cost. Our free earnings report does that for your home, and short let management explains what we take on if you switch.

Wales and Scotland have their own systems

The Renters’ Rights Act’s tenancy changes apply to homes in England. Wales uses occupation contracts under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, with its own notice rules, and has its own register of visitor accommodation. Our guide to holiday lets in Wales covers it. Scotland uses the private residential tenancy under the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, which has no end date and also excludes holiday lets, and a home let to guests there needs a short let licence from the council. Our guide to short lets in Scotland explains how that works. Our overview of short let rules across the UK sets the four nations side by side.

Questions owners ask