Where can I find my landlord registration number in England?

Quick answer

You can't find your number yet, because landlord registration England-wide hasn't started and nobody has been issued one. The national system opens on 15 December 2026. When it does, you get your number by registering yourself as a landlord on GOV.UK's "Register your rental property" service, and each property then gets its own separate number, emailed to you after you pay the fee. Until the service is live, treat any website offering to issue a number as suspect.

If you own a rental home in England and you've been hunting for your landlord registration number, you can stop looking. It doesn't exist yet, and the system that will hand it out opens on 15 December 2026.

The rest of this post covers where the number will come from, when your property's window opens, and the parts that trip people up: joint owners, limited companies and letting agents. We're an independent letting agency in St Albans, so we've written it with owners in mind.

Why landlord registration in England has no number to look up

England is the last of the four UK nations to get a landlord register. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have run theirs for years. The English version comes from the Renters' Rights Act 2025, which calls it the Private Rented Sector Database. The government has named the service itself "Register your rental property", and most people just say landlord database. All three names point at the same thing.

The government confirmed the launch details on 9 September 2026. A small group of landlords beta-tested the service over the summer and were issued real numbers, according to one landlord who took part, which may be why you've seen people quote theirs. For everyone else, nothing has been issued.

Landlord registration England: how you'll get your number

Two numbers come out of this process, and they get muddled constantly.

The landlord registration number identifies you. You receive it when you register yourself. The property registration number identifies one rental home, so you collect a separate one for every property you let. That second step is where the £65 per property, per year fee lands.

Here's the order of play, based on the government's published guidance:

Open an account. You'll sign in with a GOV.UK One Login. A paper form will exist for anyone who'd rather not apply online.

Register yourself. Individuals give a name, date of birth, home address, phone number and email. A company gives its legal name, a contact address that isn't a PO box, and its Companies House number if it has one.

Add each property. Expect questions on the address, property type, ownership type, bedrooms, how many people live there, the rent, and your gas safety, electrical and EPC details.

Check, pay and submit. The property number is emailed to you once you submit, as the beta tester reported.

Where do you look afterwards? Start with your inbox, and save both numbers somewhere you can reach in seconds. The official screens for signing back in haven't been published, so nobody can tell you yet exactly where the service will display your landlord number. Check GOV.UK once registration is open for your area.

When your region opens

The date depends on where the property is, not where you live. You can also register any property from 15 December 2026 if you'd rather get it done early, as The Independent Landlord's guide explains from the government's own guidance.

Hertfordshire, where our St Albans office sits, falls in the East of England, so a rental here has until 14 April 2027. If you're unsure which region your council belongs to, Schedule 1 of the draft regulations lists every local authority.

Own homes in several regions? You can register the lot in one sitting from December. The government says the fee will be pro-rated during the rollout, so early registration shouldn't cost more.

Joint owners, companies and letting agents

Joint owners. Everyone who counts as the landlord registers separately and gets their own landlord number. The property itself has one entry and one £65 fee, whatever the number of owners. A couple who own a flat together need two landlord registrations and one property registration.

Limited companies. The company is the landlord, so the company registers and gets the number. If you hold some properties personally and others through a company, you'll have two landlord numbers. Several property companies mean several numbers. Our Renters' Rights database post lists what a company has to supply, including director details where there's no Companies House number.

Letting agents. An agent can't register you. The landlord starts and finishes the process and pays the fee, though the National Residential Landlords Association notes that limited exceptions exist for someone holding power of attorney or acting for a deceased landlord. Once you've started a property entry, you can authorise your agent to add certain details, such as certificates. If you let through us, our landlord page explains how we work with owners. If you use any agent, get in writing who supplies what.

What if I've seen a registration number from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland?

Those belong to separate schemes, and registering in one nation doesn't count in another. Scotland runs the Scottish Landlord Register, Wales has Rent Smart Wales, and Northern Ireland has its own Landlord Registration Scheme. A number from any of them won't work in England. An owner with properties on both sides of a border ends up in two schemes.

What happens if you don't register

Missing your deadline has teeth. Councils can issue a civil penalty of up to £7,000, and up to £40,000 for giving false information or carrying on in breach. The sharper problem for most owners is possession: while you're in breach, a court generally can't grant you a possession order, except on the anti-social behaviour grounds.

Sources disagree on timing for the rule that puts both numbers on every advert. Some say it applies once a region's window closes, while others report it will arrive later under further legislation. Check GOV.UK before you market a property.

One annual fee per property adds up. Osborne Clarke's analysis points out it weighs heaviest on larger portfolios. If you're wondering whether a particular property still earns its keep, a free rental valuation gives you the income figure to set against the cost.

Common questions

Is the landlord database live?

No. It opens on 15 December 2026, beginning with the West Midlands, and reaches the South West in August 2027.

Does registering cost anything?

Each property costs £65 a year and the registration renews annually. A portfolio of five costs £325 a year. Check GOV.UK when your window opens for the full fee details.

Can I search the Private Rented Sector Database for my number?

Not at the moment. The public search for tenants and councils is a later phase, and the government hasn't said what the public will be able to see.

I only have one rental property. Do I still register?

Yes. There's no minimum, and the rule covers assured and regulated tenancies, which includes the periodic tenancies that replaced ASTs on 1 May 2026.

Will tenants be able to check my registration?

Eventually. Tenants will be able to see whether a landlord is registered, but the full list of public information is still to be decided.

Your next step

Make a list of every property you let, with its postcode and the date your latest gas safety, electrical and EPC certificates were issued. Anything expiring before your window closes is a booking to make now. Questions about how this affects your own lets? Get in touch and we'll talk it through, or browse the rest of our blog for the latest on the Renters' Rights Act.

Read next: Can You Do Tenant Reference Checks Yourself? A Landlord's Guide to Tenant Referencing