Be PRS Database Ready: The Compliance Records Every London Letting Agent Needs by October 2027

Quick answer The government's PRS Database, called the Register your rental property service on GOV.UK, opens on 15 December 2026. London's registration period runs from 15 July 2027 to 14 October 2027. Every registered property needs a gas safety certificate (where there's gas), an EICR or EIC and an EPC, with issue and expiry dates, within 28 days of registration, or the registration may be deactivated. The fee is £65 per property per year. Agents can't start registrations, but landlords can hand them each property to keep up to date.

For most letting agents in London, the database won't be a technology problem. It'll be a filing problem.

The service itself is a fairly simple online form. The hard part is having the right document, with the right dates, for every property on your books, and having it at the moment a landlord asks you to "just sort the registration out". If your certificates live in email threads, a shared drive and three engineers' WhatsApp chats, now is the time to fix that.

This guide covers what the government has actually published, what it means for agents managing compliance, and a practical way to get every property ready before London's window opens.

What the PRS Database is

The Private Rented Sector Database is a national register of private landlords and the properties they let in England. It comes from Part 2 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, and the government published full guidance for landlords and for letting agents on 29 October 2026.

Landlords register themselves once, then register each property. Each gets a reference number: a landlord number in the format L-XXXX-XXXX and a property number in the format P-XXXX-XXXX. Under the guidance, property adverts will need to show both.

For now, the government says landlord and property information won't be shared publicly, though some information may be made public in future. Councils will use it for enforcement.

The dates that matter for London

Registration opens region by region. You can register before your region's period starts, but you must have registered occupied properties by the end date for that region.

Source: GOV.UK, Register your rental property service: guidance for landlords (published 29 October 2026). The other regions fall in between.

During the rollout, the duty covers properties let on an assured periodic or regulated tenancy at the regional deadline, or let after it. Since 1 May 2026, almost every private tenancy in England is an assured periodic tenancy, so in practice that means nearly every let property on your books.

London is late in the queue. That gives agents time, but it also means landlords with properties outside London, say in the South East or the West Midlands, will hit their deadlines first and expect their London agent to know the process.

What has to go on the record

For each property, the service asks for:

• The address and property details, such as type and number of bedrooms
• Licence details, such as an HMO, additional or selective licence
• Who lives there: the number of tenants and households
• Whether it's furnished, part-furnished or unfurnished
• The rent and any bills included
• Compliance certificates with their issue and expiry dates:
  • a gas safety certificate, if the property has a gas supply
  • an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) or an Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC)
  • an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

That last group is where most agents will lose time. A registration can be submitted first, but outstanding information has to follow within 28 days. If it doesn't, the property's registration may be deactivated. Once registered, any change, including a renewed gas certificate, has to be updated within 28 days too.

So the database doesn't just ask whether you have a certificate today. It expects someone to keep it current, property by property, for as long as it's let.

Who does what: landlord versus agent

The guidance for agents is clear that the legal duty stays with the landlord.

1. The landlord starts the registration and pays. Each property registration has to be started by the landlord, and the landlord pays the fee.
2. The landlord can then hand it to you. The landlord enters the agency's email address, and the service sends a unique link for each property. You set a password the first time you use it.
3. You keep the record up to date. With the link, anyone at the agency can add or update licence details, occupancy, rent and compliance certificates for that property.
4. You're responsible for what you submit. Agents are responsible for the accuracy of the information they enter, and the landlord is notified of it.

Two practical points from the guidance are worth knowing early. Agents can't reset these passwords themselves. The landlord has to cancel the link and send a new one. And using the agent feature is voluntary: it's a service you can offer landlords, not something the database forces on you. Expect landlords to ask for it anyway. Most won't want to chase certificate dates every year.

Fees and penalties

• Fee: £65 per property per year, with no VAT. Landlord registration itself is free.
• Pro-rating during rollout: the first fee ignores any days before 15 November 2027. GOV.UK's own example is a property registered on 25 June 2027 costing £39.60.
• Failing to register: a penalty of up to £7,000.
• False or misleading information, or repeated breaches: a penalty of up to £40,000.
• Rent Repayment Orders: tenants can apply once the registration period for their area has opened.
• Possession: an unregistered landlord will find most possession grounds unavailable, with only narrow exceptions for anti-social behaviour.

That £40,000 figure is worth a second look if you're the one entering certificate dates. An expiry date typed in wrong, or an out-of-date certificate uploaded as current, is exactly the kind of error an agent will want to avoid.

Why "PRS Database ready" means clean records, not more paperwork

Most agents we work with already have their landlords' certificates. The trouble is that they're scattered. The database needs every certificate for every property, each with a correct issue and expiry date, uploaded within 28 days and kept current after that. For an agency managing 100 properties, that's around 300 documents (gas, electrical and EPC) to find, check and keep track of.

Being ready means you can answer three questions for any property, in under a minute:

1. Is each certificate valid today? A gas safety record within the last 12 months, an EICR within its inspection period (usually 5 years), and an EPC within 10 years and at band E or above.
2. What are the exact issue and expiry dates? These are what the database asks for.
3. Can I get the document right now, to upload it or send it to the landlord?

If any of those answers is "let me check", that's the work to do before July 2027.

A 6-step plan to get every property ready

1. Build a single property list. One row per property: address, landlord, gas (yes or no), licence type and number. This is the backbone of every registration.

2. Collect every current certificate. Gas safety record, EICR (or EIC for new installations) and EPC, saved against the right property. The certificate's issue date is printed on it. Take the expiry date from the document itself, not from memory.

3. Flag anything that won't last. A gas safety record issued before October 2026 will need renewing before London's deadline anyway. An EICR or EPC that runs out in 2027 is worth renewing early, so you only enter it once.

4. Book the gaps in batches. Grouping visits by building or postcode cuts disruption for tenants and lets one visit cover several certificates. Our landlord certificate bundles combine EICR, gas and EPC visits at a fixed price, with next-day appointments across London when you book by 5pm.

5. Agree with each landlord who will run the registration. Landlords start the registration and pay. Decide in writing whether they'll send you the property link and whether you'll keep the certificates updated. Put it in your terms of business.

6. Set reminders for renewals. The 28-day update rule means a renewed gas certificate has to go on the database within four weeks. A reminder 60 days before each expiry gives you time to book, inspect and upload.

How we help agents stay PRS Database ready

We built our free client portal for letting agents for this kind of job. Every property we certify appears in one place, with each certificate's issue and expiry dates, its result, and the PDF ready to download whenever you need to upload it or send it to a landlord.

• One view of every property. See which certificates are valid, due soon or missing across your whole portfolio.
• Add the properties we haven't certified. Upload certificates you already hold from other companies. We check the dates against the document before they count towards a property's compliance status.
• Request renewals in a few clicks. Choose the property, the certificates and the preferred dates, and we'll confirm the appointment.

If you'd like your portfolio set up before London's window opens, request portal access or book certificates online.

What comes after the database

The database is the first of several changes that will make clean compliance records essential.

• Awaab's Law sets legal timescales for investigating and fixing hazards such as damp and mould. It already applies to social housing, and the Renters' Rights Act allows the government to extend it to private rented homes. No start date has been confirmed for the private sector yet. See our guide to Awaab's Law for London landlords.
• The new Decent Homes Standard will apply to private rented homes for the first time. The government has set 2035 as the implementation date. See our guide to the Decent Homes Standard for private landlords.

Both will rely on being able to show what was checked, when, and by whom. An agency that already has every certificate in order, with dates, will find each change far easier than one starting from a pile of PDFs.

For a landlord-focused version of this guide, see the PRS Database explained for London landlords.

Sources: GOV.UK, Register your rental property service: guidance for landlords and guidance for letting agents and property managers, both published 29 October 2026; Renters' Rights Act 2025. Checked 6 November 2026. Dates and fees can change, so check GOV.UK before registering.

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