Stoke-on-Trent Landlord Forum: What Landlords Need to Know
On Thursday 15 October I was at Stoke Town Hall for the Landlords Forum on Renters' Rights, sitting in a room with Stoke-on-Trent City Council, local councillors, the DWP and a group of landlords who actually own and manage homes in this city. It was one of the most useful property events I have attended this year, and not because of the networking. It was because the council told us, plainly, what is coming and how they intend to enforce it.
The short answer: Stoke-on-Trent is at the front of the queue for the new landlord database.
Registration is expected to open in December 2026, with a closing date of 14 March 2027 for the region. The council has said it will not hand out warnings once it investigates. But it also has a dedicated team, Support to Let, that is there to help landlords keep tenancies going and get paid. Good landlords have very little to fear. Landlords who ignore this have a lot to lose.
Here is what I took away from the day, and what I think every landlord with property in Stoke should be doing now.
Who was in the room
The council brought its private sector housing team, who walked us through the Renters' Rights Act, the end of fixed-term tenancies and the new landlord database. Their housing enforcement officers covered evictions, harassment and what happens when things go wrong. Local councillors attended, as did a representative from the DWP and the council's housing needs team.
That mix mattered. For once, landlords were not hearing about policy second-hand from a newsletter. We were hearing it from the people who will actually be knocking on doors.
Stoke goes first on the landlord database
Stoke-on-Trent is among the very first areas in the country to go live with the new private rented sector database. Registration is expected to open in December 2026, and the closing date we were given for this region is 14 March 2027. Why the West Midlands first? Because it has one of the largest private rented sectors in the country.
The council set out the government's stated aims for the register. It is meant to:
Create a more accurate picture of the private rented sector
Help local authorities identify landlords and rented properties
Improve compliance with legal requirements
Support action against rogue and criminal landlords
Improve transparency for tenants
Raise standards across the private rented sector
The scale in Stoke alone is significant:
Stoke-on-Trent PRS Figure given on the day
Privately rented properties around 24,500
Landlords around 9,000
Council staff dedicated to the database 1 to 2 officers
What we learned about how it will work:
• Landlords register themselves. You will need a government login. An agent can help with
compliance, but the account is yours to set up.
• Company-owned property is registered to the company, and the directors or persons with
significant control will need to be verified.
• Registration is annual, but the council expects you to keep your entry up to date whenever
something changes, not just once a year.
I covered the national rollout in more detail in PRS Database Registration: How Landlords Prepare for 2026 and 2027.
Exempt accommodation: who does not need to register
The council ran a session explaining exactly what counts as exempt accommodation, and it cleared up a common misunderstanding. Exempt accommodation is not the same as a property let to tenants on Universal Credit.
The types of provider we were told are exempt include:
• Non-profit organisations
• Housing associations
• Hostels
• Refuges
Where a property is genuinely operated as exempt accommodation, the landlord was told they do not need to register it on the database. If you lease property to a supported or exempt provider, check the structure carefully rather than assuming you are in or out.
Enforcement: no warnings once the council investigates
This was the line that made the room sit up. Once the council opens an investigation, it has to enforce. If it does not, it risks judicial review itself. So there will be no friendly warning letter. The message was simple: do not let it get to the point where the council is involved.
The enforcement team was clear that the aim is not to catch people out. They walked through the lawful routes to possession available to landlords now that Section 21 has gone, and explained how they investigate illegal evictions and harassment. Repeat offenders are their real problem, not landlords who make an honest mistake and fix it.
Two further points worth noting:
• Prescribed information came up as an issue to get right before any tenancy starts.
• Decent Homes Standard: private landlords will need to comply by 2035. I wrote about preparing for that in Decent Homes Standard in the Private Rented Sector.
On anti-social behaviour, the advice was to look closely at the relevant possession grounds. My guide to Section 8 grounds after the Renters' Rights Act covers how to choose the right one.
Support to Let: the council on the landlord's side
This was the most pleasant surprise of the day. Stoke-on-Trent has a proactive department called Support to Let, and their stated job is to help landlords. Working alongside the DWP, their focus is on saving tenancies rather than ending them.
What they offer:
• Help getting paid where a tenant is on benefits, including working with the DWP to get rent to the landlord.
• Early problem solving, and they will knock on the tenant's door if the rent is not being paid.
• Financial support for landlords that replaces the old bond scheme, and the support is ongoing rather than time-limited.
• Tenant finding, so they can help fill your vacancies.
One detail many landlords will not know: councils are exempt from the tenant fee ban, so they can pay larger sums upfront where that is needed. For landlords with larger or older stock, it is worth finding out what the local housing benefit rate is for bigger houses and whether the numbers work.
The mood in the room, and who wasn't there
The round table discussions were honest. On one table, every landlord said they were selling, and they listed the reasons the Renters' Rights Act had pushed them there. Plenty of people were strongly against the database. Others were in favour, on the basis that it should finally separate good landlords from bad ones.
The question everyone kept coming back to was enforcement. How will the council make sure the database catches the bad operators, rather than simply adding admin for landlords who already do things properly?
What struck me most was who was missing. The social media property crowd, the deal sourcers, the rent-to-rent operators and the get-rich-quick landlords were nowhere to be seen. Only a handful of letting agents attended, and the big agents were absent. The people who turned up were the ones who have been investing in Stoke for years. It made me wonder how invested some of those voices really are in this city.
The questions from the floor were sharp too. Is anyone from planning here to talk about Article 4? How do we make sure people investing in the city are not penalised? And when a tenant is told to stay until the bailiffs arrive, how can landlords and the council work together to get that tenant into the right accommodation?
What Stoke landlords should do now
Set up your government login early. Do not leave registration until close to the 14 March 2027 deadline.
Check how each property is owned. Company-owned property needs the company registered and directors verified. Jointly owned and overseas-owned property may take longer to sort out.
Confirm whether any property is exempt accommodation, and get advice if you are unsure.
Build registration into your annual compliance calendar, alongside gas, electrical and
licensing renewals, and update it whenever something changes.
Review your tenancy paperwork, including prescribed information, so it is right before any tenancy starts.
Get to know Support to Let before you need them. A tenancy is easier to save early.
Start planning for the Decent Homes Standard now, rather than in 2034.
Final thoughts
I left feeling genuinely positive. Stoke-on-Trent is taking a proactive approach, and the council was clear it will always work with good landlords. The flip side is that it will enforce, and it will be looking for the landlords who are not playing by the rules.
Thank you to the council team for a brilliant, practical session. More of this, please. At Essential Property Options we are working through the registration process ourselves first, so we can guide our landlords through it step by step. If you have property in Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme or Crewe and want help getting ready, get in touch.
Comments