Renters’ Rights Act: Part 1 — What Folkestone & Hythe Tenants Need to Know From 1 May 2026

From 1 May 2026, the Renters’ Rights Act starts changing how private renting works in England. For tenants in Folkestone & Hythe, the biggest shift is simple: a home you rent is meant to feel less like a temporary favour and more like a place you can actually live in.

For years, private renting has often come with a built-in sense of instability. You unpack the boxes, learn the boiler’s moods, work out which window sticks in winter, and just as life begins to settle, the old system can remind you that the ground under your feet was never all that solid. From 1 May 2026, that starts to change. Most existing assured shorthold tenancies in the private rented sector become assured periodic tenancies, and any new private tenancy starting on or after that date will be periodic from the start. In plain English, the old “fixed end date and then see what happens” model stops being the default.

That matters in a place like Folkestone & Hythe, where too many tenants already know what insecurity feels like. It is not just the worry of losing a property. It is the school run that might be disrupted, the bus route that suddenly no longer works, the doctor or support network that becomes harder to reach, the deposit hunt for the next place, and the grim knowledge that every forced move usually costs more than landlords and ministers pretend. The central theme of the Act is security, and that is why the abolition of section 21 no-fault eviction matters so much. From 1 May 2026, a private landlord who wants possession will generally need a legal ground and the right notice, rather than simply relying on the old no-fault route.

That does not mean eviction disappears. It means the basis changes. Landlords can still seek possession on specified grounds. They can still go to court. They can still recover a property in some circumstances. But the balance shifts. If a landlord wants a tenant out, they now have to say why. Usually that means a section 8 notice and, in many cases, around four months’ notice, though some grounds are shorter. That is a real change in power. It does not end conflict, but it does end the lazy old system where a tenant could be told, in effect, “nothing personal, just out you go.”

The second big theme is affordability, though this is where some of the political sales pitch needs translating into ordinary English. The Act is not classic rent control. It does not cap rents in the way many tenants might imagine. What it does do is force rent rises into a single legal process. From 1 May 2026, landlords generally cannot increase rent more than once a year, cannot do it in the first year of a new tenancy, and must use Form 4A with at least two months’ notice. Tenants can challenge a proposed increase if they think it is above the market rent. So the law is not freezing rents, but it is trying to stop the more casual and opportunistic forms of rent inflation.

That matters locally because renters here do not experience housing law as an abstract Westminster hobby. They experience it in standing orders, food bills, rail fares, council tax, childcare, and the monthly moment when the rent leaves the account and the rest of the budget winces. The new system will not magically make Folkestone & Hythe cheap. It will not stop landlords trying for the highest market rent they think they can get. But it should make rent rises slower, more formal and easier to challenge. For many tenants, that is not a revolution. It is still an improvement.

There is also a broader theme running through these changes: rebalancing power in the search for a home, not just once the tenancy exists. From 1 May 2026, landlords cannot ask for, encourage or accept rent before the tenancy agreement is signed. After signature, they can ask for no more than one month’s rent in advance for the new tenancy. They also cannot accept or encourage offers above the advertised rent. And they cannot refuse to let simply because a tenant has children or receives benefits. For a lot of households, especially families and lower-income renters, that is not a minor technical rewrite. It is Parliament finally spelling out that some of the “that’s just how the market works” excuses have worn thin.

The same goes for pets. This part of the Act has had a slightly fluffy public life, as though Britain has collectively decided the law’s main purpose is to help someone keep a spaniel. But underneath the headlines is a serious point about dignity and ordinary life. From 1 May 2026, tenants can ask in writing to keep a pet. A landlord cannot refuse without a fair reason, must consider the request case by case, and generally has 28 days to respond in writing. That is another example of the law moving away from landlord preference as the starting point and toward a more balanced idea of what it means to live in a home.

Then there is the less glamorous but very important theme of professionalising the private rented sector. Existing written tenancies generally do not need to be torn up and replaced, but landlords must provide the official government Information Sheet by 31 May 2026. Where a tenancy made before 1 May is based entirely on a verbal agreement, the landlord cannot just send the sheet and hope for the best; they must provide written information about the key terms instead, also by 31 May. For new private tenancies from 1 May 2026, key written information has to be given before the tenancy is agreed. That might sound dry. It is dry. But it matters, because “we never really wrote it down properly” has been one of the private rented sector’s favourite escape hatches for years.

So Part 1 of this story is the hopeful part. From 1 May 2026, private renting in Folkestone & Hythe is supposed to become more secure, less arbitrary and a bit less wild-west. Tenants get stronger footing. Rent rises become more controlled by process. Blanket discrimination is pushed back. Rental bidding is curbed. Pets move from “only if His Lordship permits” to something closer to a fair request. And landlords are expected to act less like a collection of informal one-off operators and more like participants in a regulated system. That is the promise. In Part 2 comes the harder question: what happens when that promise hits the real world?

The Shepway Vox Team

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