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 late 2026, per the government's implementation roadmap, and the database will not be fully operational until 2027. 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 today. 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. According to the government's implementation roadmap, no region has a confirmed go-live date yet — 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. 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 implementation roadmap, the timeline looks like this:

Because the rollout is regional, there is no single national registration deadline. You will register when the database goes live for your properties' area, and the government has said the detailed timetable will be confirmed in secondary legislation nearer launch. 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 mid-2026, the Landlord Portal is not live in any region, so there is nothing to submit today. Registration will open on a phased, region-by-region basis from late 2026, with full national operation expected in 2027. Treat any guidance suggesting otherwise with caution — see the callout above.

Landlord Portal rollout timeline

There is no single "go live" day for the whole country — check back on your region's status as the rollout progresses, and don't rely on a date you've seen quoted elsewhere without checking the official roadmap first.

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")
• 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

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 Renters' Rights Act provides for an annual registration fee, expected to be charged per property. The government has said the amount will be confirmed before launch, so no figure is fixed yet — budget for a modest per-property cost rather than a specific number.

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. Watch for your region's go-live. Because the rollout is phased, register promptly once the Landlord Portal opens for your area, 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 (amount to be confirmed)

A worked example shows why timing matters. Say you let a two-bed flat in Leeds. When Leeds goes live on the database, 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
• 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