PRS Database Fee: What the £65 Charge Costs Landlords and When You Pay

GOV.UK guidance published on 29 October 2026 sets the PRS Database fee at £65 per property per year, with no VAT. Registration opens region by region from 15 December 2026, and no fee is charged for any days before 15 November 2027, so a West Midlands property registered on opening day costs £5.34 for its first year.

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Landlords should seek independent legal advice for their specific circumstances. It describes the position in England.

How much is the PRS Database fee?

The fee is £65 per property per year, according to the MHCLG guidance Register your rental property service: guidance for landlords. The guidance states that the fee is not subject to VAT, and that there is no charge for the landlord registration itself or for updating landlord or property records.

The PRS Database, meaning the private rented sector database created by Chapter 3 of Part 2 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, is the register the government calls the "Register your rental property" service. Section 81 of the Act governs fees that regulations under sections 77 and 79 require for landlord and dwelling entries, and lets those regulations either fix the amount or leave it to the database operator by reference to costs. The draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 do not fix a figure; regulation 14 leaves the amount to the operator. The £65 figure therefore comes from the guidance, not from the face of the regulations.

The draft regulations were laid before Parliament under the affirmative procedure, so the dates and fee described here depend on them being approved. Landlords are advised to check the GOV.UK page for the final position before relying on any date.

When does each region have to register?

Each region has a three month registration window, and the deadline depends on where the property is, not where the landlord lives. The guidance sets out this timetable. Each period starts on the 15th and ends before midnight on the 14th of its third month.

The guidance says properties can be registered before their region's start date, but not after its end date. During the rollout, from 15 December 2026 to 14 November 2027, only properties that are let, or that become let during that period, have to be registered. West Midlands landlords can find the council areas and local licensing schemes in our West Midlands PRS Database guide.

How is the fee pro-rated during the rollout?

During the rollout, the fee is reduced so that no days before 15 November 2027 are charged. The guidance gives the formula as (fee ÷ year length) × (remaining days − free days), where remaining days are the days until the next renewal date and free days are the days before 15 November 2027. Year length is 365 or 366 days, and any result beyond two decimal places is rounded down.

The guidance gives two worked examples:

• A property registered on 15 December 2026, renewing on 15 December 2027, has 335 free days. The fee is (65 ÷ 365) × (365 − 335) = £5.34.
• A property registered on 25 June 2027, renewing on 25 June 2028, has 143 free days. The fee is (65 ÷ 366) × (366 − 143) = £39.60.

Applying the same formula to each region's opening day gives the first year fee for a property registered on that day. These figures are our own calculations using the GOV.UK formula, not figures published by the government.

The pattern matters more than the pennies. Whenever a landlord registers during the rollout, the first fee only pays for the period from 15 November 2027 to the renewal date. Registering early does not cost more; it simply sets the renewal date earlier.

When does the PRS Database fee renew?

The renewal date is one year from the date the landlord registers their first property, and every property registered afterwards shares that date, according to the guidance. A landlord with properties in several regions can register all of them on the same day, which gives one renewal date for the whole portfolio.

The guidance does not say in terms how a property added part way through the year is charged. The formula is based on the days until the next renewal date, which suggests a later addition would be charged up to the shared date, but this is not stated. Landlords adding properties mid-cycle are advised to check the amount shown at the point of payment.

The guidance also does not say what happens if an annual fee is not paid. It does say that a property registration may be deactivated if the required further information is not supplied within 28 days, and that a landlord registration is deactivated where no properties remain active.

What information do you need when you pay?

The fee is paid per property, and the property entry needs supporting information. The guidance lists the address, number of bedrooms, rental status, and a correspondence address in England or Wales, along with contacts such as managing agents, superior landlords and freeholders.

It also asks for the gas safety certificate where applicable, the electrical safety certificate, the Energy Performance Certificate, tenancy information including rent, and any licences such as an HMO licence. This information can be supplied with the property details or within 28 days. Our PRS Database information checklist sets out each item, and the step by step registration guide covers the process itself.

The guidance says the landlord must start the registration and remains responsible for meeting the requirements, even where a letting or managing agent supplies some of the information. It does not say whether an agent can pay the fee on a landlord's behalf. Company and joint ownership raise their own questions, covered in our guide to registration for company and joint landlords.

What does not registering cost compared with the fee?

The penalties are far larger than the fee. Under section 91 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, a local housing authority may impose a financial penalty of up to £7,000 for breaching the marketing, advertising and registration requirements in section 82(1) to (3), and up to £40,000 for an offence under section 92. The authority must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt, and the amount is for the authority to decide.

Section 90 inserts a new subsection (5ZC) into section 7 of the Housing Act 1988. Once in force, it prevents the court making a possession order while the landlord is in breach of section 82(3)(a), except on Ground 7A or Ground 14. The guidance also states that tenants may apply for rent repayment orders in certain cases, once the registration period for the property's area has opened.

Sections 91 and 92 were not among the provisions brought into force on 1 May 2026 by the Commencement No. 2 Regulations (SI 2026/421), so the enforcement provisions depend on further commencement. How each penalty applies is set out in our article on PRS Database penalties.

What should landlords do before their region opens?

1. List every property you let in England and note the region each one sits in.
2. Note each region's deadline from the table above, and decide whether to register all properties together to set one renewal date.
3. Gather the gas safety certificate, EICR, EPC, licence details and current rent for each property, so the further information can go in within 28 days.
4. Budget the first year fee for each property, and £65 per property per year from your first renewal.
5. Confirm with any letting agent who will supply which information, since the legal responsibility stays with the landlord.
6. Check the GOV.UK guidance shortly before registering, in case the draft regulations or dates change.

Keeping the registration information ready

The fee is the simple part. The harder part is having a current certificate for every property on the day you register, and keeping the entry up to date afterwards. The guidance says changes such as occupancy or safety certificates must be updated within 28 days.

The LLCR platform is built for that job. Compliance tracking records each property's gas safety, EICR and EPC expiry dates with reminders before they lapse, and the document vault keeps the certificates themselves against each property, so the information the database asks for is already in one place. LLCR is free for one property.

Not sure every property is ready to register? The free LLCR compliance checker takes a few minutes and shows which certificates and records are missing before your region opens.