80% of Landlords Fear the Renters' Rights Act. The Tenant Data Says They're Wrong.

What the Landlord Data Actually Shows

Eighty percent. That's the share of UK landlords who told Pegasus Insight in Q1 2026 they are concerned about the Renters' Rights Act. Seventy percent expect it to negatively affect their lettings business. Seventy-seven percent think it will damage the wider private rented sector.

Those numbers come from Pegasus Insight's Q1 2026 Landlord Trends report, published as the first phase of the Act came into force on 1st March 2026. They're not cherry-picked — they reflect a genuine, widespread anxiety across the sector. I'm not dismissing that.

But here's where it gets interesting. Almost four in five landlords said the Act would make them more selective about tenants. Seventy-five percent of those planning rent increases cited the RRA as a contributing factor, according to the same Pegasus Insight research. And separate Goodlord data found 49% of landlords are planning to sell or reduce their portfolios within the next 12 months.

That is a significant behavioural shift. And it's happening before most landlords have dealt with a single dispute under the new framework.

The Tenant Data Tells a Completely Different Story

A split-screen infographic-style illustration showing two contrasting scenes: on the left, a worried landlord figure surrounded by paperwork and red warning icons in a dark office; on the right, a content tenant in a bright modern shared house kitchen, warm lighting, plants on the windowsill, calm and settled atmosphere, clean flat design aesthetic, no text or numbers visible

Pegasus Insight runs a separate Tenant Trends survey. And when you put the two datasets side by side, the disconnect is stark.

The typical renter in England has already lived in their current home for more than five years. Two-thirds of tenants plan to stay for a further 4.3 years on average. Only 3% of tenants reported being served an eviction notice in the past 12 months. And of those, just 0.6% contested it — as reported by [theintermediary.co.uk](https://theintermediary.co.uk/2026/05/landlords-brace-for-renters-rights-act-as-concerns-grow-over-market-impact-pegasus-insights/).

Read that last number again. 0.6%.

Mark Long, founder and managing director of Pegasus Insight, put it plainly: "Most renters are settled, they stay for long periods and relatively few tenancies end in dispute or eviction."

Daryl Norkett, director at Shawbrook, echoed the same view — noting that most landlord-tenant relationships are already working well. The data backs him up.

So we have landlords behaving as though mass eviction battles are imminent, when the actual eviction contestation rate among their tenant base is less than one percent. That is not a crisis. That is noise being mistaken for signal.

For HMO investors specifically, this matters even more. HMO tenants — typically young professionals or students — are often highly motivated to maintain a good tenancy record. The profile of the average HMO tenant does not map to the adversarial renter that landlord anxiety seems to assume.

The Real Risk Is Landlord Overreaction

Pegasus Insight flagged this directly in their Q1 2026 findings: if landlord caution leads to tighter tenant selection and higher rents, the behavioural response could have a more immediate impact on the sector than the legislation itself.

That's the part that doesn't get enough airtime.

SpareRoom's research — a survey of 4,484 tenants in England — found that only 9% of tenants being evicted were told the reason was directly linked to the RRA or incoming reforms, according to [propertyindustryeye.com](https://propertyindustryeye.com/renters-rights-act-not-primary-cause-of-evictions-tenants-report/). The primary driver? Forty-three percent of evictions were because landlords planned to sell. The RRA barely registers as a cause in practice.

Yet 75% of landlords plan rent increases partly because of the Act. Eighty-four percent say they'll be more selective about tenants. If that selectivity translates into longer void periods, reduced supply, and higher barriers to entry for renters — the market suffers. Not because of what the Act does, but because of how landlords are reacting to what they think it will do.

Aldermore's research, published in February 2026, found that 91% of landlords are worried about court backlogs for possession cases — and that's a legitimate concern. The shift from Section 21 to Section 8 grounds does mean court proceedings become the primary route for possession, and the court system is already under strain. I'll grant that. But 91% concern about a mechanism that currently affects 0.6% of tenancies? The maths doesn't hold.

The trade-off I'm making by taking this position: yes, court delays could worsen. Yes, a bad tenant under Section 8 could cost more to remove than under Section 21. Those are real risks worth preparing for. But they are not reasons to exit the market, raise rents pre-emptively, or screen tenants so aggressively that you price out good renters and extend your own void periods.

What HMO Investors Should Actually Do Right Now

Preparation beats panic. Every time.

Togal's compliance scorecard — launched ahead of the May 2026 go-live — found that 84% of landlords who self-assessed scored below compliance thresholds, with 58% in the high-risk category, according to [landlordtoday.co.uk](https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2026/04/84-of-landlords-not-ready-for-rra-survey/). The average score was 38%. That is a documentation problem, not a legislation problem.

James Ashford of Togal made the point clearly: "The Renters' Rights Act changes the burden of proof. It is no longer enough to say you sent a document or fixed a repair. You need to be able to demonstrate it with a clear, time-stamped trail."

For HMO operators, this is actually an advantage. Well-run HMOs already have systems — licence compliance, inspection records, safety certificates, written communication logs. If you're operating a professional HMO portfolio, you are better placed than most single-let landlords to meet the documentation standards the RRA demands.

Three things I'd prioritise right now:

First, audit your tenancy documentation against the five areas Togal identifies: communication records, safety compliance, tenancy documentation, maintenance tracking, and dispute readiness. If you haven't done this, do it this week.

Second, don't raise rents reactively. Seventy-five percent of landlords are considering it. If you're in a competitive HMO market, a reactive rent increase could push good long-term tenants out and leave you with voids. The data says your tenants want to stay. Let them.

Third, build your Section 8 knowledge now. The removal of Section 21 is real and permanent. Understanding the grounds, the notice periods, and the documentation requirements isn't optional anymore. Consider consulting a qualified solicitor who specialises in residential landlord-tenant law to review your standard tenancy processes.

The landlords who come out of this period strongest won't be the ones who exited or raised rents in a panic. They'll be the ones who treated the RRA as a systems upgrade, not a threat.

The Renters' Rights Act will reshape the private rented sector. But the data from Pegasus Insight, SpareRoom, and Aldermore points to the same uncomfortable truth: the sector's biggest short-term risk isn't the legislation — it's the industry's response to it. Landlords who make decisions based on the 80% fear figure rather than the 0.6% contestation figure are going to misallocate capital, lose good tenants, and hand market share to investors who kept their nerve. The Act is now live. The data is available. There's no excuse for making fear-based decisions when the evidence points somewhere else entirely.