Renters' Rights Act · England only

The landlord database: when you have to register

Officially it is the Private Rented Sector Database, the PRS database for short, and the service you use is called Register your rental property. Whatever you call it, every private rented home in England has to be on it, it costs £65 a property every year, and it arrives region by region rather than everywhere at once.

Dates and figures on this page were checked on 15 September 2026. Sources are at the bottom.

When the PRS database reaches you

The service opens in your region, and you then have three months to register. The West Midlands goes first. London is eighth of nine.

RegionService opensRegister by
West Midlands15 December 202614 March 2027
East of England15 January 202714 April 2027
East Midlands15 February 202714 May 2027
South East15 March 202714 June 2027
Yorkshire and the Humber15 April 202714 July 2027
North West15 May 202714 August 2027
North East15 June 202714 September 2027
London15 July 202714 October 2027
South West15 August 202714 November 2027

If you let in more than one region, each property follows the region it is in, not where you live.

What it costs, and what it costs to get wrong

Three numbers worth knowing before your region opens.

£

£65 per property, every year

Not a one-off. It renews annually and you pay again each time. Five properties is £325 a year, for as long as you let them.

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Two numbers, not one

You get a landlord registration number, and each property gets its own property registration number. Joint owners register the property once and each get their own landlord number.

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Up to £7,000, or £40,000

Up to £7,000 as a civil penalty for a single breach. Up to £40,000 where the information given is false or misleading, or where the breach keeps going.

What you have to hand over

This is the part people underestimate. It is not a name and an address, it is a picture of the tenancy and the paperwork behind it.

About you

The landlord

  • Your name
  • A correspondence address, and it cannot be a PO box
  • Whether you own the freehold, a leasehold, a share, or commonhold
  • Freeholder or superior landlord contact details
About the property

The home and its paperwork

  • House number and postcode, and the property type
  • Licensing status, including any HMO or selective licence
  • Bedrooms, households and how many people live there
  • Furnished or not, and the rent and how often it is paid
  • Gas safety record, electrical certificate and EPC

The last line is the one to plan for. If your gas, electrical and EPC records live in three different places, this form is where that stops being free.

If you are a letting agent

There is a duty here that lands on you rather than on your landlord.

After your region's deadline

You cannot market a property that is not registered

Both the landlord registration number and the property registration number have to be active before you advertise, and both have to appear in any written advertisement or listing. That applies to portal listings, your own website, and anything printed.

In practice that means checking two numbers for every property you take on, and carrying them through to every advert you publish. For an agency with a hundred properties across several landlords, that is a hundred pairs of numbers to hold and keep current.

Where ProPixa helps, and where it does not

We would rather tell you the shape of this accurately than sell you something that is not there yet.

Both numbers, on the property

Your landlord number and each property's own number are stored against the property itself, with the date you registered, so they are where you look rather than in an email.

The renewal, in the same calendar

The registration can sit in your compliance calendar next to gas, electrical and EPC, with an expiry date, so the annual renewal turns up alongside everything else that expires.

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The documents it asks for

Gas record, electrical certificate and EPC are already kept against the property with their expiry dates, which is most of what the form wants from you.

To be straight about it: ProPixa does not register your property for you. You do that with the government service when your region opens, and you enter the numbers it gives you. We hold the records, keep the renewal in front of you, and have the certificates ready when the form asks for them.

Questions landlords actually ask

Is this the same thing as the PRS database?
Yes. Its formal name is the Private Rented Sector Database, which the industry shortens to the PRS database, and the government service you actually use is called Register your rental property. Most landlords call it the landlord database. They are all the same scheme and the same £65 a year.
Does this replace my HMO licence?
No. The database sits alongside licensing, it does not replace it. An HMO in a licensed area still needs its licence, and the licence number is one of the things the database asks you for.
Is the £65 a one-off?
No. It is £65 per property and it renews every year. Two properties is £130 a year, ten is £650 a year, and it keeps coming.
What if a letting agent manages my property?
You still register. Your agent can supply the information on your behalf, but the duty to be registered is yours. After your region's deadline your agent also cannot advertise the property unless both numbers are active.
Does it apply in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland?
No. The Renters' Rights Act applies in England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own separate schemes and their own rules.
What happens if I miss my region's deadline?
A civil penalty of up to £7,000 for a single breach, rising to up to £40,000 where the information given is false or misleading, or where the breach continues.
Do I need software for this?
No. You can keep it in a folder and a diary. What catches people out is the annual renewal and having the gas, electrical and EPC records to hand when you fill the form in, which is the part software is genuinely good at.

Get the paperwork in one place before your region opens

Five pounds a property a month for agencies, from £7 a month for landlords. Tenants never pay anything. First month free.

Sources, checked 15 September 2026: The Independent Landlord, PRS database · Property Industry Eye, regional deadlines · NRLA, Register your rental property. Dates and fees can change. Check the government service before you act on anything here.