High-rent tenancies could be exempt from the upcoming PRS Database, which will require private landlords to pay £65 annually to register their properties. Glenfield Property Management indicates that non-Housing Act tenancies with annual rents exceeding £100,000 may not be subject to registration.
The database, now called the 'Register Your Rental Property' service, is set to launch regionally, beginning in the West Midlands in December. It will then be rolled out across other areas over the subsequent 12 months.
Yasmin Ulhaq, founder of Glenfield Property Management, explained that while most landlords of assured and regulated tenancies will need to register, some private tenancies may fall outside the current scope. She cited high-rent tenancies, such as a property rented for £15,000 a month, as an example that would generate an annual rent of £180,000 and sit outside the assured tenancy regime, thus potentially exempt from the database.
However, Henry Griffith, senior policy and campaigns officer at Propertymark, noted that the government has not yet confirmed which tenancies will be exempt. He cautioned against definitively describing these as exempt, as the government has powers to amend the scope through future regulations and further clarification is needed for some specialist tenancies.
Landlords will need to provide information including the property address, number of residents and bedrooms, amount of rent received, and copies of required certificates such as gas, electricity, and EPC documents. Future legislation may also require landlords to register unoccupied properties before marketing them for let, with registration numbers needing to be included on adverts.