How to Register on the Landlord Property Portal (PRS Database)

If you are getting ready for the Landlord Portal, the most useful thing you can do today is assemble everything you will need to register — because the registration itself will be quick, but tracking down a lapsed certificate is not. This guide is the practical preparation checklist: what details and documents the Landlord Portal will require, how the eventual step-by-step process is expected to work, and how to have everything ready before your area goes live.

TL;DR: The Landlord Portal (officially the Private Rented Sector Database, created by the Renters' Rights Act 2025) is the government's registration hub for every private landlord in England. Registration opens region by region from 15 December 2026, starting in the West Midlands, and every landlord actively letting property must be registered by 14 November 2027, per the government's announcement of 9 September 2026. You will need your landlord contact details, each property's details, and your current safety certificates (gas, EICR, EPC). It is not open yet — there is nothing to register on until your region's start date. For the wider what/when/who overview, see our guide to how to register as a landlord in England, and for the full compliance picture see Renters' Rights Act 2025: what landlords need to know. Each region now has a confirmed start date and a three-month window to register (see the regional timetable below) — so use the time now to get your certificates and property details in order.

What is the Landlord Portal, and when does it open?

The Landlord Portal — its formal name in the Renters' Rights Act 2025 is the Private Rented Sector Database — is a single, government-run register of who lets residential property in England and which properties they let. It was called the "property portal" while the Bill went through Parliament, and you will still see "landlord register", "Landlord Portal" and "PRS Database" used for the same system. On GOV.UK the service is called "Register your rental property". From here on, this guide uses Landlord Portal as the primary term, noting PRS Database as its official name where relevant.

Crucially, you cannot register on it yet. According to the government's announcement, the timeline looks like this:

Because the rollout is regional, your deadline depends on where the property is. Once a region opens, landlords with property there have three months to register, and the last regional window closes on 14 November 2027. For licensing obligations that sit alongside the Landlord Portal, see our guide to HMO licensing in England.

Can I register on the Landlord Portal yet?

No. As of late September 2026, the Landlord Portal is not live in any region, so there is nothing to submit today. Registration opens on 15 December 2026 in the West Midlands and reaches the last region, the South West, on 15 August 2027. Treat any guidance suggesting otherwise with caution — see the callout above.

Landlord Portal rollout timeline

The government's regional timetable gives each region a start date and a registration deadline three months later:

The deadline follows the property's location, not where you live — a landlord in London with a flat in Birmingham registers that flat in the West Midlands window. Note that 1 May 2026 was Section 21 abolition and the new tenancy rules, not the Portal opening.

Do I need to do anything yet?

There is nothing to submit today. But "wait and see" is the wrong approach, because the part that takes time is not the form — it is getting your compliance documents current. When the Portal opens, being registered is expected to become a condition of lawfully letting and of obtaining possession, so you want to register promptly, with certificates already in date.

The good news: everything the Portal will ask for is information you should hold anyway. Preparing it now means registration later is a copy-and-paste exercise rather than a document hunt.

What documents do I need? The pre-registration checklist

Based on the government's roadmap, expect to provide the following. The exact fields will be set in regulations, but the categories are clear. Use this as your pre-registration checklist — print it, save it, or keep it alongside your tenancy files so nothing is missing when your region goes live.

Your landlord details

• Your full legal name — as it appears on your ID or tenancy agreements (e.g. "Jane A. Smith") — and your date of birth
• Your company name and company number, if you let through a limited company (e.g. "Smith Lettings Ltd, Company No. 09876543") — see below on registering on behalf of a company
• A UK correspondence address for the service of legal notices
• A contact email and telephone number
• The same details for any joint landlords named on the tenancy

Property details (for each let property)

• The full address, including postcode (e.g. "14 Wellington Road, Leeds, LS6 3AB")
• The property type (house or flat) and number of bedrooms
• The number of households and residents, and whether it is occupied and furnished
• Tenancy and rent details — whether it is a licensed HMO, the rent and how often it is paid, and whether bills are included (listed in the government's registration guidance)

Safety and compliance certificates

This is the part that catches out landlords who have let their paperwork drift. For each property, have the reference numbers and dates ready for:

• Gas safety certificate (CP12) — the certificate number, date of issue, and expiry date (e.g. "Issued 12 March 2026, expires 11 March 2027")
• Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) — the report reference and outcome (satisfactory or unsatisfactory), and the inspection date — remember an EICR is valid for five years, so check yours isn't approaching that limit
• Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) — the Report Reference Number (RRN), a 20-digit code from the EPC register (e.g. "1234-5678-9012-3456-7890"), and the current rating band (A–G)

A registration fee

The government's registration guidance sets an annual fee of £65 per property, renewed each year, and says it will be pro-rated during the rollout so early registrants don't pay more. The draft PRS Database regulations still need Parliament's approval, so treat the figure as proposed until they are made.

For the full compliance picture alongside these certificates, see our landlord compliance checklist.

How to Register: Step-by-Step

While registration is not open yet, this is the sequence you will follow once it is — so you can prepare each step now.

1. Check every safety certificate is in date. Gas safety renews annually, EICR every five years, and your EPC must meet the current minimum rating. Renew anything close to expiry now — a re-inspection or remedial works can take weeks, which is exactly what delays registration.
2. Gather each property's facts. Full address, type, bedrooms, occupancy. Keep this with the tenancy paperwork so it is to hand.
3. Confirm your address for service. Decide the UK address where you will receive legal notices, and collect the same details for any joint landlords.
4. Keep it all in one place. Store certificates, references and property details together and current — see our guide to storing tenancy documents securely — so registration is a matter of copying details across.
5. Diarise your region's window. Check the table above for your property's region and register promptly once it opens, well before the three-month deadline and before you next need to re-let or serve notice.

What you'll need to register: quick checklist

• Your full legal name (or company name) and any joint landlords' details
• A UK correspondence address for service of legal notices
• A contact email and telephone number
• Each property's full address, type, bedroom count, and occupancy status
• Current gas safety certificate reference and expiry date
• Current EICR reference and outcome
• Current EPC Report Reference Number (RRN) and rating
• Budget for the annual per-property registration fee (£65 per property, as proposed)

A worked example shows why timing matters. Say you let a two-bed flat in Leeds. When Yorkshire and the Humber opens on 15 April 2027 (deadline 14 July 2027), entering your address for service and the flat's details is a few minutes' work. What holds landlords up is discovering an EICR expired months ago or an EPC that falls short of the tightening MEES standard — problems that take weeks, not minutes, to fix. Prepared landlords register smoothly; unprepared ones scramble.

Registering multiple properties is expected to work the same way for each one — you add a separate property entry per address, reusing your landlord details each time, so a portfolio of two or three properties should not take much longer than one.

Why registration will matter

Once the Portal is operational in your area, it is expected to carry real weight:

• Letting. A property is expected to need active entries for both the landlord and the property before it can be lawfully marketed or let.
• Possession. An up-to-date entry is expected to become a precondition for obtaining a possession order on most grounds — so an unregistered landlord could be unable to regain their property.
• Penalties. Failing to register, or providing false information, is expected to attract civil penalties under the Act — up to £7,000 for a less serious breach, rising to £40,000 for serious or repeated breaches. See our guide to landlord penalties under the Renters' Rights Act.

Using a managing agent does not remove the duty: the legal obligation sits with the landlord, even if an agent completes the process on your behalf. For a fuller breakdown of penalty levels across the Act, see our guide to Rent Repayment Orders, which explains how unregistered or non-compliant letting can expose landlords to tenant-initiated claims as well as council penalties.

Sources and further reading

• Renters' Rights Act 2025 — the primary legislation establishing the PRS Database
• Implementing the Renters' Rights Act 2025: implementation roadmap (GOV.UK) — the phased timeline and what the database will hold
• Stronger protections and greater confidence for renters (GOV.UK, 9 September 2026) — the 15 December 2026 launch and 14 November 2027 deadline
• Get ready to register (GOV.UK) — regional timetable, the £65 fee and what you will need
• Related guides: How to register as a landlord in England · Renters' Rights Act 2025: what landlords need to know · HMO licensing in England · Rent repayment orders