Landlords Factsheet
As you may be aware, the Government have passed a new piece of legislation called the Renters Rights Act which will be changing the way in which we as your managing agent, work and operate within the rental sector.
The changes, some aspects of which have already come into effect, also change the rights and responsibilities of both tenants and landlord/agents. We have been provided with a fact sheet which can be downloaded from - The Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet 2026, this will give you the full understanding of what has been provided to your tenant(s).
To make sure that you are fully aware of the main changes coming into force from the 1stMay 2026, we have compiled some aspects that we believe are the most important for your immediate attention, as well as some information on what Rentlife are doing to ensure your interests are kept at the forefront of all of our plans.
Please do contact the Rentlife team should you need further explanations, all of the Rentlife team have been fully briefed on the changes and what Rentlife are doing to ensure your interests are best served.
Most notable changes from 1st May 2026:
To make sure that you have all the information to hand, our partners at Goodlord have compiled a 2-page ‘Must know’ information document that you can download hereand read through to be fully in the know of what’s going on and when.
Changes to the way Rentlife will be operating
As part of our commitment to making sure Rentlife stay a leading agency in the rental sector and maintain our ability to provide you the best service possible, we have already put various new policies into place to mitigate any potential negative aspects to the new legislation. These include (but aren’t limited to):
Stricter checks on new tenants being referenced to mitigate the risk posed to landlords.
We have partnered with the leading referencing agency in the sector to provide the best and most scrutinised reference reports to you for any potential applicant, reducing the risks of “bad tenants”.Goodlord have a very positive and award-winning team that fully integrates with our systems creating an effective and efficient workflow.
12-month rental reviews will replace the typical tenancy renewal process
As we now cannot ‘renew’ your tenancy agreement yearly or 6-monthly as was the process previously, we have configured our system to prompt for 12-monthly rental reviews in line with the requirement for section 13 notices being served. You will be contacted in the event of either; The rental market changing to warrant a rental increase (for tenancies without any rental increase in the last 12 months) OR where your tenancy is due to be reviewed for a rental increase with advice on either retaining the same rate or increasing in line with the market.
As the rental market has had significant changes over the last 2 years, internally, we do conduct tri-weekly market reviews to see what noticeable changes are happening, this is where our property management team also reflect this on current active rental properties to best inform you at the right time.
We will be unable to accept payments in advance, so guarantors will be required should tenants fail affordability/credit checks.
As we cannot ask any new tenants (or previous active tenancies) to pay rent in advance if they were doing so, we are more reliant on guarantors should prospective tenants fail referencing based on affordability checks conducted. Guarantors will then be put through more stringent checks with higher affordability criteria. Where tenants do not have a UK based guarantor, we have now partnered with RentGuarantor of which is a tenants insurance product to act as a guarantor in any event they cannot meet their rental obligations. Giving this option opens up the possibility for international students that may have previously relied on payments in advance or those used to paying up front that wouldn’t pass general affordability checks.
Our team have been trained to discuss and advise on the new changesshould tenants have any queries.
With the changes both to law and our own internal policies, all of our staff have undergone retraining to be able to discuss and advise as appropriate. Be that tenants or landlords, Rentlife are ready to assist!
Rent & Legal Protection as Standard
As part of the changes Rentlife are implementing, our partners at Goodlord have offered a much more inclusive Rent & Legal insurance product that is Renters Rights Ready. The policy includes:
To ensure that all of our landlords are covered in the eventuality that this happens, we will be operating an opt-out policy to rent and legal insurance whereby all properties will be covered unless we are instructed otherwise. Every landlord has the ability to opt out to this at any time.
Reposit (Deposit Replacement Scheme) offered first
Rentlife have been partnered with Reposit – a deposit replacement option for some time and since, have enjoyed the shared vision of providing landlords more cover for tenant deposits than the traditional deposit (TDS/DPS/MyDeposits) provide (5 weeks). To this end, we have extended that partnership to ensure all prospective tenants have the ability to take this option.
So what’s the difference?
Reposit cover your tenancy for 8 weeks’ worth of cover as opposed to the traditional 5 weeks. In our experience, Reposit, when used, have been more forthcoming with payments and adjudicating, with a more realistic viewpoint on costs compared to other providers.
We do still use traditional deposits via DPS (Deposit Protection Service), and this is still an option for all tenants that prefer to use this service, but to better protect your property, our partnership with reposit is another crucial step toward that goal.
For more information on this, please do speak to any of our staff that would be more than happy to discuss this!
More to come!
With the various changes happening throughout the sector, we’re proud to be continuously investing in both our people and our technology. From investing in a partnership with Street.co.uk which has dramatically enhanced our service ability, to investing in formal training for our staff and creating a team that is experienced, understanding and strive to promote Rentlife’s core values, we’re excited to say there is more planned for the near future which will further enhance our service to you. We will keep you updated on these announcements and what it means for you as we go!
The Rentlife Team
