If you’re a self-managing landlord in England, you’ve almost certainly heard some version of the same warning by now: big changes are coming. And yet, for most landlords, that warning hasn’t translated into action.
A recent Inventory Base survey of private landlords, reported by Landlord Today, found that 75% had made no preparations for the Renters’ Rights Act whatsoever. Not some. Three quarters. Despite most of them being aware that significant reforms are on the way.
So what’s going on? And more importantly, what should you actually do first, without spending a week buried in government guidance?
Landlords know. They’re just not doing anything.
The survey paints a pretty clear picture of what the typical landlord affected by this looks like. 63% owned a single rental property. Another 30% owned two to four. Nearly half were self-managing. Only 20% felt highly confident they understood how the Act would actually affect their business.
That’s the profile of someone who doesn’t have a compliance department, probably doesn’t have a solicitor on speed dial, and is already stretched managing tenancies alongside everything else in their life. When something feels complicated, and the deadline feels far away, it’s human nature to push it down the list.
The problem is that May 2026 is no longer that far away.
Why landlords are delaying — and it’s not laziness
1. The Act is genuinely complicated to get your head around
The Renters’ Rights Act isn’t one change — it’s a bundle of them. Tenancy structure, rent rules, pets, rent in advance, possession grounds, and enforcement. When people don’t know where to start, they often don’t start at all.
2. Landlords are waiting for the “final version” before they act
84% of landlords surveyed knew that fixed-term tenancies would be replaced by periodic ones. But 69% had no plans to make any changes, and only 14% intended to act before 1 May 2026. The logic is understandable: nobody wants to redo their tenancy agreements twice. But waiting for perfect guidance often means waiting until it’s too late to do things properly.
3. The things landlords are most worried about feel uncontrollable
The survey’s top landlord concerns were selling the property (32%), rent arrears thresholds (28%), and court delays (28%). All understandable worries. But when your biggest fear is “courts will be slow, and I can’t do anything about that,” it’s easy to freeze up rather than focus on what you actually can control.
4. Some rules are being misunderstood — so landlords think they’re already fine
Take rent in advance. Only 51% of landlords surveyed were even aware of the new rules, and 76% had no plans to change what they currently request upfront. The government’s position is clear: landlords cannot ask for rent before the tenancy agreement is signed. Breaches can trigger enforcement action. A lot of landlords are currently in a process that could land them in trouble — and don’t realise it.
5. Pets: everybody knows, almost nobody has done anything
92% of landlords were aware of the changes to how pet requests must be handled. 13% had updated their pet policies. 76% had done nothing. High awareness, almost zero action — the pattern that runs through the whole survey.
What to do first — without it becoming a project
You don’t need to fix everything at once. You need a sequence that starts with the foundations and works outward. Here’s a practical order:
Step 1: Sort your tenancy admin pack
The direction of travel under the new Act is clear: more grounds-based possession, more evidence required, less room for shortcuts. The landlord with clean, complete paperwork will fare better than the one scrambling to prove things after the fact.
For each tenancy, you want one folder containing:
- Tenancy agreement and any variations
- Deposit paperwork and proof of the prescribed information being delivered
- Safety documents and inspection records
- A running rent ledger
- A comms log — key emails and messages saved somewhere you can find them
Step 2: Fix rent in advance and pets — the two easy-to-get-wrong areas
These are the areas where landlords are most likely to be unknowingly non-compliant right now.
On rent in advance: review your current process and make sure you’re not requesting or accepting rent before the tenancy agreement is signed.
On pets: write down a simple process for handling requests. That means: request received → decision made → conditions agreed if yes (insurance, any reasonable requirements) → written response sent. The rule is “don’t unreasonably refuse” — not “accept everything.” But you need a process to show you’re handling requests properly.
Step 3: Get your head around periodic tenancies
Even if you’re not changing your contracts today, you need to understand what’s changing and how you’ll manage it. Fixed terms are going. Tenancies will roll on periodically. That changes how you handle notice periods, inspections, rent increases, and the whole rhythm of a tenancy.
Spend an hour now thinking through how your current process maps onto that new structure, and where the gaps are.
Step 4: Understand the possession world you’re moving into
92% of landlords knew Section 21 was being abolished. Only 12% felt prepared to rely on the new possession grounds instead. 43% said they felt poorly or not prepared at all.
You don’t need to become a housing lawyer. But you do need to understand what evidence matters (arrears records, breach documentation, inspection logs, proof of service) and why getting it right from day one matters so much more in a court-based system.
A 10-minute readiness check
If you only do one thing this week, use it to tick off as many of these as you can:
- Create a tenancy pack folder for each property
- Check that you can prove deposit compliance and key document delivery
- Write a one-page pet request process
- Review whether you’re requesting rent before agreements are signed
- Set up a basic rent ledger template if you don’t have one
- Decide your “evidence habit” — how you’ll save communications and proof of service going forward
The bottom line
Most landlords aren’t preparing because the reforms feel big, the timeline still feels manageable, and the scariest risks — courts, arrears, enforcement — feel like things that happen to other people or that they can’t influence anyway.
That’s understandable. But the landlords who come through this smoothly won’t be the ones who understood every clause of the Act. They’ll be the ones who had decent paperwork, a clear process, and evidence they’d done things by the book.
That part you can control. Start there.
