Government confirms letting agents can submit PRS Database information for landlords

Some welcome clarity from Westminster at last. The Government has confirmed that letting agents will be able to submit property information to the new Private Rented Sector Database on behalf of their landlords - something plenty of agents have been asking about since the Renters' Rights Act made registration mandatory.

The confirmation came from housing minister Matthew Pennycook in a written answer at the end of July, reported by Property118. In his words: "Letting agents will be able to support landlords with the registration of their properties on the PRS Database, providing certain property information on their behalf."

If you manage properties for landlords who barely look at their emails, let alone government portals, you'll understand why this matters. Here's what's been confirmed, what hasn't, and what we'd suggest agents do about it.

What exactly has been confirmed

Two things. First, agents will be able to provide certain property information on the database on a landlord's behalf, rather than every last field having to be entered by the landlord personally. For managed portfolios, that's the practical difference between a smooth registration process and months of chasing landlords for details you already hold in your management system.

Second, the minister confirmed that both landlords and letting agents have been involved in the digital design process for the database, helping to shape the user interface. Whether that translates into a genuinely user-friendly system remains to be seen - we've all used government portals before - but it's encouraging that the people who'll actually use it daily have had input.

What stays with the landlord

This is the bit not to gloss over when you're explaining it to your landlords. The registration is still legally the landlord's record. They'll need to provide their own details, authorise the listing of their properties, and they remain legally responsible for compliance. An agent can do the legwork; an agent cannot become the registered party in the landlord's place.

In other words, this is "agents can help", not "agents can take it off the landlord's plate entirely". If a landlord fails to register, it's the landlord who faces the consequences - and those consequences are not trivial.

A quick recap on the PRS Database

For anyone who hasn't been following it closely: the Renters' Rights Act introduces a mandatory national database of private landlords and their properties in England. It's expected to start rolling out from late 2026, with registration becoming compulsory as the duty is switched on. Key points:

• Every private landlord will need to register themselves and each rental property, and keep the information up to date
• There will be a registration fee per property - the amount hasn't been confirmed yet
• Unregistered landlords lose access to key possession grounds and face civil penalties starting around £7,000, rising to as much as £40,000 for repeat breaches
• Once the duty is in force, adverts and listings will need to carry a valid registration number - which puts agents and portals squarely in the compliance chain

That last point is worth dwelling on. Even before this confirmation, agents were always going to be involved, because you can't market a property without the registration number. The question was only ever how much of the registration process agents could handle. Now we know: most of the property information, but not the landlord's own identity and authorisation.

What agents should do now

Nothing needs submitting today - the database isn't live yet. But there's sensible groundwork you can do:

• Audit your landlord records now. If you're going to be submitting property information on their behalf, you'll want accurate, current data - addresses, ownership details, compliance certificates - in one place before the rollout starts
• Start the conversation with landlords early, especially the hands-off ones. They need to know that they'll have to register personally and authorise their properties, even if you're doing the rest
• Think about your fully managed service offering. Helping landlords through database registration is exactly the kind of task that justifies a managed service - and self-managing landlords may well come looking for help
• Keep an eye on the rollout timetable. The duty is expected to switch on area by area, and marketing a property without a registration number once it's live in your patch won't be an option

We'll keep covering the Renters' Rights Act as the implementation details firm up, as we have with Section 21 and periodic tenancies. And if you want to talk through how the changes affect your agency, give us a call on 01630 318181 - we're happy to share what we're hearing across the industry.