The PRS Database: registration dates, the £65 fee and what landlords and agents must do

The PRS Database opens on 15 December 2026. The government’s Register your rental property service, created by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, starts in the West Midlands and is rolled out region by region. When a region is called forward, landlords with homes there have three months to register, and every landlord actively letting in England must be registered by 14 November 2027. The fee is £65 a year for each property. The duty is for landlords of assured and regulated tenancies (supported exempt accommodation is outside it), and in this first phase it covers homes that are let, or become let, during the rollout. Registering an empty home before it is marketed, and showing registration numbers on adverts, are a later phase under future legislation. The database is for England only: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each have their own landlord registration, summarised below.

Regional dates

The dates below are the government’s published schedule: the first column is when the legal requirement starts in each region, though any landlord can register from 15 December 2026. The same dates appear in the draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026, which are still in draft until they are made.

What each property needs

The government’s service page lists what a landlord will be asked for. For each property that includes:

• the address, the type of home, the number of bedrooms and occupants, and the tenancy and rent;
• the gas safety record, with its issue date;
• the Electrical Installation Condition Report or electrical installation certificate, with its expiry date;
• the Energy Performance Certificate where one had to be given to the current tenant (and the tenancy start date if the latest EPC is no longer valid), and any minimum energy efficiency exemption;
• HMO and licensing details where they apply.

For most agencies the slow part is not the form. It is finding the current certificate for every home, checking it is in date and knowing which ones are missing, which is exactly what the certificate checklist covers.

Can a letting agent access the PRS Database?

Not yet. The service opens region by region from 15 December 2026. Once it does, an agent will be able to enter some details for the properties a landlord chooses to share, and using this will be voluntary. The government’s guidance for letting agents and property managers, published on 29 October 2026, says how it will work.

• The landlord will register. Registration will be the landlord’s legal duty. The landlord will start every property registration, pay the fee and stay responsible for the information even when someone else supplies it.
• An agent will be able to supply information. When registering a property, the landlord will be able to give the service an email address for the agency, and the agency will be sent a link. Through it the agency will be able to provide licence details, the number of tenants and households, whether the home is furnished, the rent and any bills it includes, and the gas, electrical and energy certificates with their issue and expiry dates. The agency will be responsible for the accuracy of what it submits. In practice, the agency that holds the certificates is the one landlords will ask.
• Access will be a link and a password for each property. Each property will have its own link, and the first use will set a password. Anyone in the agency with both will be able to update that property, so plan where they will be kept. An agency will not be able to reset a password itself: the landlord will have to cancel the link and send a new one.
• The 28 day deadlines will stay with the landlord. If required information is not submitted within 28 days, the registration will become inactive and the landlord may breach their legal duties. Changes, such as a new rent or a replaced certificate, will have to be updated within 28 days, and an agency will be able to make those updates through the same link.
• Registration numbers will go on adverts, in a later phase. Under future legislation, once the public side of the service is live, landlords and their letting agents will need to show the landlord and property identifiers on adverts, and register empty homes before marketing them. When that arrives, an unregistered landlord client becomes a marketing problem for the agency too.

Penalties

These rules are in the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 but are not yet in force. Once the duty applies, a council will be able to impose a civil penalty of up to £7,000 under section 91. Continuing a breach more than 28 days after a penalty, a further breach within five years of one, and knowingly or recklessly giving false information to the database will be offences under section 92: the council will be able to prosecute, or impose a civil penalty of up to £40,000 instead. Under section 90, a landlord in breach of the duty to register will not be able to get a possession order except on the antisocial behaviour grounds (7A and 14). These will sit on top of the existing fines regime.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The PRS Database is for England only. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 defines the landlords who must register by reference to a dwelling in England, and the Act does not extend to Northern Ireland. Scotland already runs landlord registration through local councils, Wales has Rent Smart Wales registration and licensing, and Northern Ireland has its own landlord registration scheme:

• Wales: Rent Smart Wales. Every landlord of a home let, or marketed for let, in Wales must register, and registration lasts five years. A landlord who manages the let themselves also needs a licence, which needs approved training first and lasts five years; otherwise they must appoint a licensed agent, and every letting agent doing lettings work must be licensed. Cardiff Council is the licensing authority for the whole of Wales, and Rent Smart Wales confirms that the PRS Database does not apply in Wales because its own registration already covers it.
• Scotland: landlord registration and letting agent registration. Private landlords register with each council where they let property, through the Scottish Landlord Register. Registration lasts three years, the registration number must appear on adverts, and letting while unregistered can bring a fine of up to £50,000 and a ban on letting of up to five years. Letting agents must also be on the Scottish Letting Agent Register, renewed every three years, and follow the statutory Letting Agent Code of Practice; working unregistered has been an offence since 2 October 2018.
• Northern Ireland: the Landlord Registration Scheme. Every private landlord must register. Registration lasts three years, and one fee covers all of a landlord’s properties (£70 online, £80 on paper). Any agent’s details are part of the registration, the landlord includes the registration number in correspondence as a landlord, and councils have run the scheme since 1 March 2025. Not registering can mean a £500 fixed penalty or a court fine of up to £2,500.

What to do before your region opens

1. Confirm who owns each property you manage, with current contact details. Joint and company owners take longest.
2. For every let home, find the current gas safety record, EICR and EPC, and note the issue and expiry dates.
3. List what is missing or expires before your region’s deadline, and book those renewals now.
4. Agree with each landlord which information the agency will supply, in writing.

How Verixad helps

Verixad keeps the owner register and every property’s certificates with their dates, shows which statutory documents are on file, missing or expiring, and records PRS readiness per property, so an agency can see which landlords would struggle to register in their region’s window. It does not register anyone; registration is done by the landlord on the government service. See how it works for letting agents preparing a whole portfolio. To see which gas, electrical and EPC dates need attention before your region’s deadline, run the free compliance audit on a spreadsheet, with no account.

This page describes the position in England as at 2 October 2026, with the section on agents and the penalties checked on 6 November 2026, and the schemes in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as checked on 26 and 27 October 2026. The regulations are still in draft, so check the government’s service page before you act on a date.