PRS Database: What Letting Agents Need to Know

The government has announced the launch date for the Private Rented Sector Database, the new national register of landlords and rental properties in England.

With registration opening from December 2026, it's time to start thinking about how you'll support your landlords. Although the legal duty to register sits with them, they'll be coming to you for advice, and the certificates and tenancy details the service asks for.

In this guide, we'll explain what the PRS Database is and how you can start preparing your agency and your landlords for the changes ahead.

The PRS Database explained

The PRS Database is England’s first national landlord register, a digital record of every private landlord and every home they let. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 created it, and landlords will sign up through a GOV.UK service called ‘Register your rental property’.

The government’s aim is to give councils a clear view of who is letting what, and whether each property meets its safety requirements. Councils will use the database to spot landlords who haven’t registered or whose certificates have lapsed, and target enforcement at them. For compliant landlords and the agents who manage for them, a registration becomes a way to show the paperwork is in order.

Who must register for the PRS Database?

The duty to register belongs to private landlords in England who let under an assured tenancy or a regulated (Rent Act) tenancy.  Since assured shorthold tenancies converted to assured periodic tenancies on 1st of May 2026, that will cover almost every tenancy on your books. 

Registration will happen in two parts. First, the landlord registers themselves, which is free, and receives a Landlord Registration Number. They then register each property they let, paying £65 a year per property, and receive a Property Registration Number for each one. Joint owners each need their own entry but share one property registration.

A few groups sit outside the scheme for now. These include: 

• Lodgers 

• Social housing providers

• Supported exempt accommodation 

• Non-Housing Act tenancies, such as lets with rent over £100,000 a year

During the rollout, only properties that are let, or become let, need registering. An empty property doesn’t need an entry until a tenant moves in. The government plans to change this through further legislation, requiring registration before marketing, with both registration numbers shown on every advert. Once that rule takes effect, you won’t be able to list a property until it’s registered.

What landlords need to provide

The draft regulations set out a detailed list. For each property, the service asks for:

• Property details - These include address, property type, and whether it’s freehold, leasehold, share of freehold or commonhold. 

• Licensing - Covering any selective, additional or mandatory HMO licence and its number. 

• Occupancy - Meaning the number of households, the number of people living there, and the bedroom count.

• Rent - Including the amount, how often it’s paid, whether bills are included, and whether the property is furnished. 

• Gas safety record - Uploaded as a copy where the property has a gas supply or gas appliances 

• Electrical safety certificate - Uploaded as either an EICR or an EIC

• EPC - Which the service pulls from the national EPC register for confirmation. 

• Contacts - With names and email addresses for the freeholder, any superior landlord and the property manager.

Registration doesn't end on the day of submission. Any entry must be updated within 28 days of the information going out of date, so a gas safety renewal, a new EICR or a rent increase each means an update. Entries also expire after a year unless renewed, and the service aligns renewal dates across a landlord’s whole portfolio. 

Where letting agents fit in 

Each of your landlords must create their own landlord entry, as that step is tied to their personal GOV.UK One Login. Once they’ve done that, you’ll be able to provide information and upload safety certificates for their property entries. The government has promised specific guidance for letting agents before launch, and it has said bulk uploads and API access won't be available in the near term, so plan for property-by-property entry. 

Your role as a letting agent is to hold accurate records and act on them fast. Some details, like tenure and freeholder contacts, may only sit with the landlord, so find gaps in your data before a window opens. It’s also worth reviewing your terms of business, so it’s clear whether registration and ongoing updates fall within your management service. 

Regional rollout timeline for the private rented sector database

Deadlines follow the property's location, not where the landlord lives. A landlord based in London with a flat in Birmingham works to the West Midlands timeline. Each region gets a three-month window, and any landlord can register early from 15th December 2026, so clients with properties in several regions can register everything together.

If your branches cover more than one region, map your managed properties against the table now, so you know which landlords to contact first. 

Private rented sector database registration fees

Registering as a landlord costs nothing. Registering a property costs £65 a year, charged per property rather than per owner, so a landlord with five properties pays £325 a year. Landlords can’t set up a direct debit for renewals, because they must confirm that their details are correct each time. 

Penalties for non-compliance

Once a region’s deadline passes, councils in that region can start enforcement:

• Up to £7,000 in civil penalties for failing to register, or failing to keep an entry up to date.

• Up to £40,000, or prosecution, for giving false or misleading information, for leaving a breach unfixed after 28 days, or for a repeat breach within five years.

Landlords will feel the possession rules more than the fines. An unregistered landlord can’t get a possession order under section 8 on most grounds, with only the two anti-social behaviour grounds (7A and 14) still available. A tenant in serious rent arrears at an unregistered property leaves the landlord with no route to possession until the entry is fixed. 

Preparing your agency for the PRS Database

Most of the information the service asks for already sits in your property records. The work now is making sure it’s accurate and easy to hand over when each region’s window opens.

• Confirm the legal landlord for each property -  Individuals, joint owners, limited companies and trusts each register differently, and a client who owns some properties personally and others through a company will hold more than one Landlord Registration Number.

• Fill the gaps in your property data - Update bedroom counts, occupant numbers and licence references at your next inspection, and ask clients for tenure details and freeholder contacts where you don’t hold them.

• Check your certificates are current - Make sure every managed property has an in-date gas safety record and EICR, stored digitally and ready to upload.

• Build the 28-day update into your workflows - Every gas safety renewal, new EICR and rent review will need a matching update on the database, so add that step to your existing renewal and rent review processes.

• Contact landlords region by region - Use the rollout table to plan your outreach, starting with any West Midlands properties, so each client knows their deadline and what you need from them.

For the full list of obligations landlords face in 2026, see our landlord compliance checklist. 

Prepare your portfolio for the PRS Database with Veco Plus

Veco Plus gives your property managers one place to hold the records the PRS Database asks for:

• Compliance date tracking - records gas safety, EICR and EPC dates against every property and notifies your team before anything expires, so you can update the database well within the 28-day window.

• Inspection management - lets your team schedule and document inspections from any device, making it easy to capture occupancy and bedroom counts while on site.

• Workflow - builds the database update into your renewal and rent review processes, so your team follows the same steps every time.

• Automate Plus - handles repetitive client communication, so you can send registration reminders region by region without writing each email by hand.

We’re also developing new tools to identify which properties need registering, highlight missing information and record registration numbers and dates. As government guidance develops, we’ll keep you informed and explore integrating Veco Plus with the registration service.

Book a free demo with our team and see how Veco Plus keeps your compliance records ready before your region’s window opens.