Landlord register fees explained, including pro-rating

The fee for England’s landlord register is simple once the rollout is over: £65 per property per year, with no VAT. The first year is more complicated, because the government has pro-rated the fee so that landlords who register early do not pay more than those who register later. This guide explains how it works, with GOV.UK’s own worked examples and a table by region.

The fee at a glance

Item	Cost
Registering yourself as a landlord	Free
Registering each property	£65 a year (pro-rated in the first year during the rollout)
VAT	None. The fee is not subject to VAT
Updating your landlord or property details	Free
HMO with a licence	One registration for the whole property, so one fee

GOV.UK says the fee pays for running the service and for tackling non-compliance in the private rented sector. It also says the fee is tax-deductible. Check the HMRC guidance when you do your tax return.

One renewal date for all your properties

Your renewal date is one year after you register your first property, and every property you register after that shares it. GOV.UK’s example: if you register a second property two months after the first, it renews on the same date as the first.

In practice, a property added part-way through the year is charged up to that shared renewal date, not for a full year. The formula below uses “days until the next renewal date”, which is how it handles this.

How the rollout pro-rating works

Not everyone can register at the same time, because regions open one by one between December 2026 and August 2027. To be fair, the fee ignores any days before 15 November 2027, the date from which every landlord must be registered.

GOV.UK publishes the formula:

(fee ÷ year length) × (remaining days − free days)

• fee is £65
• year length is the number of days between renewal dates (365, or 366 if the year includes 29 February)
• remaining days is the number of days until your next renewal date
• free days is the number of days until charging starts. During the rollout, that means any days before 15 November 2027

The result is always rounded down to the nearest penny.

GOV.UK’s worked examples

Registered	First renewal	Year length	Free days	Calculation	You pay
15 December 2026	15 December 2027	365	335	(65 ÷ 365) × (365 − 335)	£5.34
25 June 2027	25 June 2028	366	143	(65 ÷ 366) × (366 − 143)	£39.60

Put simply, you pay only for the days between 15 November 2027 and your first renewal date.

What a single property costs by region

This table uses the GOV.UK formula for a landlord’s first property, registered on the first or last day of each region’s window. We worked these out ourselves; they are not government figures. If you register earlier than your region’s opening date, the first-year fee is lower but your renewal also comes round sooner.

Region	Registered on opening day	First-year fee	Registered on deadline day	First-year fee
West Midlands	15 Dec 2026	£5.34	14 Mar 2027	£21.31
East of England	15 Jan 2027	£10.86	14 Apr 2027	£26.81
East Midlands	15 Feb 2027	£16.38	14 May 2027	£32.14
South East	15 Mar 2027	£21.48	14 Jun 2027	£37.65
Yorkshire and the Humber	15 Apr 2027	£26.99	14 Jul 2027	£42.97
North West	15 May 2027	£32.32	14 Aug 2027	£48.48
North East	15 Jun 2027	£37.82	14 Sep 2027	£53.98
London	15 Jul 2027	£43.15	14 Oct 2027	£59.31
South West	15 Aug 2027	£48.66	14 Nov 2027	£64.82

After the first year, each property costs £65 a year at renewal, unless the government changes the fee. The draft regulations let the database operator set fees by reference to its costs.

Worked example: a small portfolio

Say you own four properties: two in Coventry (West Midlands) and two in Leicester (East Midlands).

• You register the first Coventry property on 15 December 2026. It costs £5.34, and your renewal date becomes 15 December 2027.
• You register the other three on the same day. You can register East Midlands properties before that region opens. Each costs £5.34, so £21.36 in total for the first year.
• On 15 December 2027 you renew all four at once: 4 × £65 = £260.

Had you registered the Leicester pair later, on 15 February 2027, our reading of the formula is that they would still cost £5.34 each. They share the 15 December 2027 renewal date, and only the 30 days from 15 November to 15 December 2027 are charged. The service will show the exact amount before you pay.

Does registering early save money?

Not really. Registering earlier means a smaller first payment, because more of the year falls before 15 November 2027. But your renewal comes round sooner, at the full £65. Over two years, timing makes little difference. The best reason to register early is to finish before your deadline with time to spare, not to save a few pounds.

What happens if I don’t renew?

The draft regulations say an entry becomes inactive the day after the renewal date unless it is renewed (and the fee paid) by then. A let property without an active registration puts the landlord in breach. See penalties.

Our fee is separate

Register-Ready’s founding price (see pricing) is for preparing and checking your information. It does not include the government fee, which you pay directly on GOV.UK when you register each property. We never take payment on the government’s behalf.

Check your region’s dates with the deadline checker.