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Rent repayment orders, under Part 4 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016, are about to become far more dangerous for landlords. From 1 May 2026, when the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 is expected to come into force, RROs will cease to be primarily an HMO licensing issue and become a much broader enforcement tool.
Before the RRA, an RRO could be made where the landlord committed one of the offences listed in section 40 of the 2016 Act. In practice, that usually meant unlicensed HMOs or other licensed properties, illegal eviction or harassment, failure to comply with improvement or prohibition notices, violence used to secure entry, or breach of a banning order. The tribunal could order repayment of up to 12 months' rent, or the universal credit element of rent.
The RRA adds new qualifying offences.
The big one is misuse of possession grounds. New section 16J(1) of the Housing Act 1988 catches a person who relies on a ground for possession when they know, or are reckless as to whether, the landlord could actually get possession on that ground, if the tenant then gives up the tenancy without a possession order.
The Act also catches breaches of the restriction on re-letting or marketing after relying on the moving in or selling grounds, continuing breaches of some tenancy reform duties after a penalty, continuing breaches of landlord redress scheme duties, and false or misleading information, or some continuing breaches, tied to the private rented sector database.
(New 16J is inserted by s.15 RRA 2025, and the new RRO offences are inserted by s.98 RRA 2025. Also see s.104 RRA 2025 for limited companies).
The government's guide puts it like this:
“Strengthen rent repayment orders by extending them to superior landlords, doubling the maximum penalty and ensuring repeat offenders have to repay the maximum amount.”
The RRA amends sections 41, 44 and 45 of the 2016 Act so the application window and award period move from 12 months to 2 years.
That means a landlord can now face an order worth up to 24 months' rent. For many landlords, that will be the real shock.
The RRA does not just widen the list of offences. It widens who can be pursued.
A rent repayment order can now be made not only against the immediate landlord, but also against a superior landlord. For company landlords, directors and similar officers can also be treated as having committed the offence in some cases.
The Act is blunt:
“A rent repayment order made against more than one landlord must provide for the landlords to be jointly and severally liable for the amount due under the order.”
That matters in rent-to-rent arrangements. The person on the tenancy agreement may no longer be the only target.
Regulation 11 of the commencement order confirms the expanded RRO regime only applies to offences committed on or after 1 May 2026. For continuing offences that straddle the commencement date, the amendments only reach the portion falling after 1 May. Historic conduct is judged on the pre-reform rules, and superior landlords are not retrospectively exposed to orders for conduct that predates the Act.
One caveat: of the new RRO-qualifying offences listed above, the redress scheme and private rented sector database offences (sections 67 and 92 of the Act) are not commenced on 1 May 2026. They will come into force at a later date, along with the rest of the redress and database regime. The other new offences — misuse of possession grounds, re-letting/marketing breaches, and the tenancy reform duties — are live from 1 May.
Applications are still made by the tenant or the local housing authority. The change is mainly about who the order can be made against, and for what.
Do not misuse the new possession grounds. If you say you are selling or moving in, do so. Do not treat compliance failures as minor admin either. Database entries, redress membership, licensing, and post-notice marketing restrictions now fall under a much harsher enforcement regime.
The RRA makes RROs wider in scope and far more expensive. If your compliance is sloppy, this is where it will hurt.