The proposed Private Rented Sector Database is intended to make it easier for tenants to check their landlord and for councils to identify non-compliant properties. In principle, a single national system could be useful. In practice, however, it risks becoming another costly administrative burden whose final bill will inevitably reach tenants.
Under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, landlords in England will be required to register themselves and every rental property they own. The regional rollout is expected to begin from late 2026, although many important details—including the final fee—remain unresolved.
The Government describes the database as a central source of information about landlords, rental properties and compliance. Landlords are expected to supply contact and ownership details, property information and evidence relating to gas safety, electrical safety and Energy Performance Certificates.
That may sound straightforward. For landlords and letting agents managing hundreds or thousands of properties, it could be anything but.
Registration Is Only the Beginning
The database will not simply involve entering a landlord’s name and property address once.
Entries will have to remain accurate when ownership changes, certificates are renewed, managing agents change, properties become vacant or occupied, and landlords’ contact details are updated. Joint owners, companies, trusts and overseas landlords could make the process considerably more complicated.
Letting agents are also likely to face direct responsibilities. A property must have active landlord and property entries before it can be marketed, while written advertisements will need to display the appropriate registration identifiers.
Agents may therefore have to:
- Check registration before accepting an instruction.
- Verify landlord and property identifiers.
- Record when and by whom checks were completed.
- Monitor whether registrations remain active.
- Collect additional information before marketing.
- Update agency websites, software and property portal feeds.
- Chase landlords for renewed certificates and corrected information.
- Establish who is responsible when information is incomplete or inaccurate.
This work requires staff time, training, new procedures and potentially substantial software development.
Has the Cost Already Been Underestimated?
An earlier Government impact assessment assumed a database fee of £28.58 per property, valid for three years. It also estimated that registering each property would take 24 minutes, with re-registration taking 12 minutes.
Those assumptions now look questionable.
Current information indicates that landlords will pay an annual fee, although its value has not been confirmed. There is also a significant difference between completing a carefully controlled prototype and managing real records involving joint ownership, missing documents, multiple agents and thousands of properties.
The earlier assessment valued the initial registration time at only £5.72 per property. That does not begin to reflect the possible cost of auditing records, resolving discrepancies, training employees, modifying software, monitoring expiry dates and accepting liability for errors.
The Government previously estimated that database registration fees could cost landlords around £36 million a year across the sector. If the fee structure, enforcement requirements and administrative workload expand, the real cost could be substantially higher.
Agents will not absorb these costs indefinitely. Some may introduce a separate registration or compliance service. Others may increase management charges. Landlords managing their own properties will still pay through their own time, registration fees and compliance systems.
Duplication Could Turn the Database Into an Expensive Burden
Many landlords already provide similar information through selective, additional and HMO licensing schemes. Letting agents also hold substantial compliance data within their existing management systems.
If the national database cannot communicate with agency software, licensing registers and other approved systems, the same information may have to be entered repeatedly.
Propertymark has called for bulk uploads, software integration and delegated access so agents can update records for landlords. These are not optional conveniences. They will determine whether the database becomes a workable national system or a vast manual data-entry exercise.
There is also a danger that responsible landlords will carry most of the burden while criminal operators simply refuse to register or provide false information. A database cannot inspect properties, investigate complaints or prosecute offenders. Councils will still require properly funded enforcement teams.
Tenants Will Ultimately Pay
Ministers may argue that registration charges are paid by landlords, not tenants. That ignores how every other business operates.
Landlords cannot add a separate database charge to a tenant’s bill, but registration fees, agent charges, software costs and staff time all become operating expenses. Those expenses influence rents when properties are re-let or annual rent increases are considered.
A relatively small cost on one property may appear insignificant. Multiply it across a portfolio and combine it with licensing fees, taxation, insurance, finance, maintenance and the wider costs of the Renters’ Rights Act, and the cumulative burden becomes considerable.
Some landlords will increase rents where the market allows. Others may decide that letting property is no longer worthwhile and sell. If rental supply falls while demand remains high, competition between tenants will place still more upward pressure on rents.
The uncomfortable reality is that tenants pay for landlord regulation through higher housing costs or reduced choice.
The Government Must Prevent Another Compliance Industry
A properly designed database could help tenants and allow councils to target genuinely dangerous and dishonest operators. However, it must replace duplication rather than add to it.
Before implementation, the Government should confirm a reasonable fee, provide adequate preparation time, enable agents to act fully on behalf of landlords and ensure that existing systems can exchange information automatically.
Most importantly, it should publish a credible assessment of the total cost—not merely the registration fee, but the staff time, software work, ongoing monitoring and professional charges required to keep millions of records accurate.
Without that transparency, the landlord database risks becoming another policy presented as being paid for by landlords while quietly increasing the cost of renting for tenants.
Telephone: 01352 721300
Email: support@netrent.co.uk
NetRent does not provide legal advice. This article represents our understanding of rental property law and the proposed operation of the Private Rented Sector Database at the time of publication.