rentready / Landlord database guides
Do I need to register every rental property on the landlord database?
Yes: every rental home in England let on an assured or regulated tenancy needs its own entry on the landlord database (the PRS Database, "Register your rental property"), at £65 a property a year, plus one entry for you as the landlord. The test is the kind of tenancy, not the kind of building. Holiday lets, company lets, lodgers in your own home, social housing, supported exempt accommodation and some student, very high and very low rent lets are not assured tenancies, so they are outside the database. Empty properties do not need registering yet.
Does this let need registering?
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Check this property's deadline and certificates
Free check: your region's deadline, whether the gas record, EICR and EPC will still be valid, and a calendar with reminders.
One entry per home, not per building or per landlord
The Act's unit is the dwelling: "a building or part of a building which is occupied or intended to be occupied as a separate dwelling" (section 63). So a house converted into three self-contained flats is three entries and £195 a year, and a landlord with ten flats in one block pays for ten. You also make one landlord entry for yourself, which has no fee of its own: the draft regulations charge only for dwelling entries (regulations 6(5) and 14); the £65 is per dwelling (fee guide).
Joint owners do not each register the same home. The draft regulations allow only one active entry for a dwelling at a time (regulation 6(6)). The one exception is a sale with tenants in place: after exchange, the buyer can make a second entry so the home is never unregistered (regulation 6(7)). Each joint landlord still gets their own landlord identifier alongside the single dwelling identifier (MHCLG's answers to the TLIC committee, 28 October 2026).
Shared houses (HMOs): the dwelling entry asks for the number of occupants, the number of households and the HMO licence number (Schedule 3), which reads as one entry for the shared house rather than one per room. The official guidance has not said so in terms yet; we will update this page when it does.
Which lets go on the database
The duty falls on a "residential landlord": the landlord under an assured tenancy (Housing Act 1988) or a regulated tenancy (Rent Act 1977) of a dwelling in England that is not social housing (section 63). An assured tenancy needs a tenant who is an individual living there as their only or principal home (Housing Act 1988, section 1), and Schedule 1 to that Act lists tenancies that can never be assured.
| Type of let | Register? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary let to people who live there as their home | Yes | An assured tenancy, so a relevant tenancy (s.63) |
| Old regulated (Rent Act) tenancy that began before 15 January 1989 | Yes | Regulated tenancies are relevant tenancies too (s.63(3)(b)) |
| Shared house let room by room, or to a group | Yes | Tenants are individuals living there as their home; see the HMO note above for how many entries |
| Let through a letting agent | Yes | You are still the landlord and start the entries; an agent may add the documents for you (draft reg 4(5)) |
| Empty, between tenancies or not yet marketed | Not yet | Official guidance: register once it is let; later you must register before advertising (s.82(1)) |
| Company let (a company is the tenant) | No | The tenant must be an individual for an assured tenancy (1988 Act, s.1(1)(a)) |
| Holiday let | No | Lettings for a holiday cannot be assured (Sch. 1, para 9) |
| Lodger in your home, or a tenant in the building you live in (not a purpose-built block, unless it is your own flat) | No | Lodgers usually have a licence, not a tenancy; resident landlord lets cannot be assured (Sch. 1, para 10) |
| Student let by a university, or managed by a member of a specified student housing code | No | Sch. 1, para 8. Ordinary student lets by private landlords are assured and do need registering |
| Rent over £100,000 a year | No | Sch. 1, para 2 |
| No rent, or £250 a year or less (£1,000 in Greater London) | No | Sch. 1, paras 3 and 3A |
| Social housing (council or housing association landlord) | No | Excluded by s.63(1) |
| Supported exempt accommodation | No | Excluded by draft reg 3, confirmed in the official guidance |
| Property in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland | No | The database is England only; those nations have their own landlord registers |
Business tenancies, licensed premises (pubs), farms with more than two acres, Crown lettings and a few other cases are also outside, but rarely matter to private landlords (Sch. 1).
Empty properties and adverts
For now you register properties that are let, or that become let during the rollout. The official guidance says empty properties do not need registering yet. That changes later: the Act already says you must not market a home for a residential tenancy without active landlord and dwelling entries, and every written advert must show both unique identifiers (section 82). MHCLG says that part will not start before the rollout ends on 15 November 2027, and that adverts will then need the identifiers of every joint landlord as well as the dwelling (MHCLG's answers to the TLIC committee). Between tenancies you will need an active entry while you market the home; if you are not marketing it, you can deactivate the entry. You can already make an entry for a home you intend to let, with fewer details (draft regulation 6(3)).
What could still change
The Act lets the government widen or narrow the database by regulations: adding or removing kinds of tenancy or licence, including superior landlords, or counting structures and vehicles as dwellings (section 63(4)). The draft regulations use that power once, to take out supported exempt accommodation, and both Houses of Parliament still have to approve them. We re-check the legislation and the official guidance each week.
Questions
Do I need to register every rental property on the PRS Database?
Every home in England you let on an assured or regulated tenancy needs its own dwelling entry and £65 fee, plus one landlord entry for you. Holiday lets, company lets, lodgers, social housing and supported exempt accommodation are outside it.
Do I need to register an empty property?
Not yet. The official guidance says to register properties that are let or become let during the rollout. Later, you will have to register before you advertise a property, and adverts must show both registration numbers.
Do company lets and holiday lets need registering?
No. A company let is not an assured tenancy because the tenant must be an individual, and lettings for a holiday cannot be assured tenancies, so neither is on the database unless the government changes the rules by regulations.
Related guides
- Landlord database registration explained
- Deadlines by region
- The £65 fee
- The true first-year cost
- Letting agents and the database
- What you need to register
Sources
- Get ready to register: Register your rental property (official guidance, housinghub.campaign.gov.uk): who must register, empty properties, supported exempt accommodation
- Renters' Rights Act 2025, section 63: meaning of residential landlord, dwelling and relevant tenancy
- Renters' Rights Act 2025, section 82: marketing, advertising and the duty to keep active entries
- Draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 (legislation.gov.uk; not yet approved): regulations 3, 4 and 6, Schedule 3
- MHCLG answers to The Lettings Industry Council's questions, published on Property Tribes, 28 October 2026: joint landlords, adverts, void periods
- Housing Act 1988, section 1: assured tenancies (revised text, up to date to 27 October 2026)
- Housing Act 1988, Schedule 1: tenancies which cannot be assured tenancies
Not legal advice. If a let is unusual, check with a solicitor or your council before relying on this. Last checked 31 Oct 2026.