What Information Will the PRS Database Require? The Full Landlord Checklist

What Information Will the PRS Database Require? The Full Landlord Checklist

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Landlords should seek independent legal advice for their specific circumstances.

The requirements are no longer a prediction. They are published.

On 9 September 2026, the government confirmed that the PRS Database, now named the "Register your rental property" service, will open on 15 December 2026, starting in the West Midlands and rolling out region by region over twelve months. The full list of information landlords must provide was published the same day, in the draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 laid before Parliament and the accompanying GOV.UK guidance.

If you are a landlord of an assured or regulated tenancy in England, you must register yourself and each of your properties. Registration costs £65 per property per year, renewed annually, with the fee pro rated during rollout so that landlords called forward first do not pay more. The one exemption is narrow: landlords of supported exempt accommodation, as defined in section 12 of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023, are outside the scheme.

Registration is not optional. Landlords who let or advertise an unregistered property face a civil penalty of up to £7,000, rising to up to £40,000 or criminal prosecution for serious or repeated breaches, and continuing breaches can expose a landlord to a rent repayment order. An unregistered landlord is also generally unable to obtain a possession order, with the exception of the anti social behaviour grounds (Ground 7A and Ground 14). The statutory framework sits in Chapter 3 of Part 2 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 and the draft Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026.

This checklist sets out every published data point, category by category, so you can have the file ready before your region is called forward.

When do you need to register? The confirmed regional deadlines

Deadlines follow the property, not the landlord. If you live in London but let a flat in Birmingham, you are in the first wave. When your region is called forward, you have a three month window, after which councils can begin enforcement. Voluntary early registration is open to everyone from 15 December 2026, so a portfolio spread across regions can be registered in one sitting.

Source: GOV.UK Housing Hub, "Get ready: Register your rental property service", updated September 2026.

Registration currently applies only to properties under let, or which become let during the rollout. Unoccupied properties come later, under future legislation, at which point registration will be required before a property can be marketed, and landlord and property identifiers will need to appear on adverts. Registration runs through a GOV.UK One Login, with offline routes available for landlords who need them.

Category 1: Landlord details

The published requirements for individual landlords are: full name, date of birth, residential address, telephone number and email address. The date of birth requirement is new to many landlords' expectations and worth noting.

Landlords operating through a company or other organisation must provide the organisation's name, its type of legal entity, an address that cannot be a PO Box, telephone number and email address, the Companies House registration number or charity number where applicable, and the details of the individual making the entry plus a nominated contact within the organisation. Where no Companies House number exists, the names, dates of birth and addresses of all directors, trustees, partners or members of the governing body are required. See our separate guide to registration for company and joint landlords.

Where someone registers in a special capacity, such as an attorney, personal representative, deputy or receiver, the service will also require certified evidence of their authority, for example the power of attorney or grant of probate.

Where LLCR helps: Every LLCR account captures landlord contact details and correspondence address at setup, structured and stored in a single place.

Category 2: Property and tenancy details

For each dwelling, the published list requires: the address, the name and a correspondence address in England and Wales for the residential landlord, ownership type, dwelling type, the number of bedrooms, whether the dwelling is currently under let, and the name and email address of any freeholder, superior landlord or property manager.

On the tenancy itself: the number of occupants, the number of households, whether the property requires an HMO licence, an additional licence or a selective licence, together with the licence numbers where available, and whether it is let furnished, partly furnished or unfurnished. The licensing requirement is now confirmed in the published list, so landlords should have licence numbers to hand.

The Regulations also introduce an ongoing duty: information held on the database must be kept up to date, with changes generally needing to be recorded within 28 days. Changes in occupancy, furnishing or licensing status will need to be reported promptly once the service is live.

Where LLCR helps: LLCR's property records capture address, property type, bedroom count, occupancy status, furnishing and licensing details, so this data is structured and ready to transfer rather than pulled together from scattered files.

Category 3: Rent information

This is the requirement that has received the least attention and may surprise the most landlords. The published list requires the rent charged and the frequency of payment, and whether the rent is inclusive of utilities and, if so, which ones.

In other words, landlords will be reporting their rents to a government database annually. The government has said the information made publicly available will balance landlords' privacy concerns against tenants' need to make informed rental choices, and that the list of publicly visible information will be published at a later stage, so the extent of what tenants will eventually see remains open.

Where LLCR helps: LLCR's tenancy records hold the rent, payment frequency and tenancy terms per property, alongside the compliance file.

Category 4: Safety certificates

The published list requires the certificates themselves, not just confirmation they exist.

Gas safety record. Where the dwelling has a gas supply, a copy of the gas safety record and its issue date. The underlying duty comes from the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, which require an annual check by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

EICR. A copy of the Electrical Installation Condition Report, or the appropriate Electrical Installation Certificate, together with its expiry date. The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020require a valid report renewed at least every five years, with remedial work generally required within 28 days of a report identifying it.

EPC. Information as to whether the landlord was required to give a valid Energy Performance Certificate to the current tenant, and if so, a copy of the most recent EPC. If the most recent EPC is no longer valid, the date the current tenancy started. Where the EPC rating falls below the minimum energy efficiency standard, details of any registered MEES exemption and the types of exemption that apply. Rental properties must currently meet a minimum rating of E, and government policy is to raise the standard to EPC C, or its equivalent under the reformed EPC metrics, by 2030.

Once certificate data sits in a national register visible to local authorities, gaps become far easier to identify. A lapsed gas record or expired EICR that might previously have gone unnoticed will be visible centrally, in a system councils are funded, partly by the registration fees themselves, to police.

Where LLCR helps: LLCR tracks gas, EICR and EPC certificates per property with expiry dates and automated reminders. Smart Document Capture extracts certificate details on upload, and the Compliance Defence Pack bundles them into a structured evidence file at one click.

Using a letting agent does not remove the duty

The guidance is explicit on this point. Landlords must start the registration process themselves. An agent or property manager can upload certain information on the landlord's behalf, and guidance for agents will be published before launch, but the landlord remains legally responsible for all information provided.

How the published requirements map to LLCR

Do not wait for your region to be called forward

When registration opens in your area, it comes with a deadline and a three month clock. Landlords who have their records in order will register in minutes. Those who do not will be assembling ownership details, licence numbers, rent records and certificates under time pressure, with civil penalties and a possession bar waiting on the other side of the deadline.

Every data point in the published list is something a well organised landlord already holds somewhere. The work is putting it in one retrievable place before December. Check your compliance status for free or track your first property free.

LLCR is a specialist compliance evidence platform built for self-managing landlords and letting agents in England. It tracks every certificate, deadline, and document the law requires.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. LLCR is a compliance management platform, not a law firm. For advice specific to your situation, consult a qualified solicitor.