Landlord database fee of £65 faces pushback over licensing overlap

England's new landlord database fee is £65 a year for every property let on an assured or regulated tenancy. The NRLA says licensed landlords will be paying again for information they already give their councils. The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) called the plans a "rip-off" in a statement covered by PropertyWire on 5 October 2026. Propertymark, the agents' trade body, wants local discretionary licensing schemes scrapped once the register is running.

Why does the NRLA call the £65 fee a rip-off?

The fee is set at £65 per property per year and must be renewed annually, according to the government's Register your rental property guidance. The NRLA's press statement applies that to 5,030,000 private rented dwellings in England, using MHCLG data. Its result is a minimum cost to the sector of £327 million a year, which it says renters will ultimately bear.

The NRLA also says the fee is almost seven times what ministers envisaged. Its notes cite the impact assessment (the government's cost estimate) for the Renters' Rights Bill, which assumed a £28.58 fee per property and re-registration every three years. On our arithmetic, that works out at about £9.53 a year, so £65 is roughly 6.8 times that figure.

Then there is the MOT comparison. The maximum fee for a car MOT is currently £54.85, the NRLA notes. Ben Beadle, the NRLA's chief executive, said landlords will "pay more to manually upload documents to a website" than mechanics may charge for an MOT. "What we have on offer is a costly mess," he added.

The government gives its own rationale. Its guidance says the fee balances "fairness and sustainability for landlords" with the cost of running the service and tackling non-compliance. Fees will also help fund council staff and skills to act on breaches of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, and the fee is pro-rated during the rollout.

Will HMO landlords pay for a licence and the register?

Yes. The NRLA's guidance on the Register your rental property service says you need to register and hold a licence, because the database is separate from licensing. That covers mandatory HMO (house in multiple occupation, a home shared by tenants from more than one household) licences. It also covers selective licensing (council schemes covering private lets in a designated area) and additional licensing (council schemes for HMOs outside mandatory licensing).

The overlap shows up in the form itself. Each dwelling entry asks whether the property needs an HMO, additional or selective licence, and for the licence numbers where available, according to the government guidance. It also asks for the number of occupants and households. Much of the database information "simply replicates" what licensed landlords already give their councils, the NRLA says.

The NRLA names Arun District Council as running the most expensive scheme in the country. Arun currently charges £2,347 for a three or four person house or flat in areas designated for an additional HMO licence, it says. The £65 database fee comes on top of that.

There is one detail in an HMO landlord's favour. The fee is per property, not per room or per landlord, so a six-bedroom HMO pays the same £65 as a one-bedroom flat, according to the NRLA's database FAQs. If a stack of fees is squeezing a deal, our free HMO valuation calculator shows how running costs feed through to a commercial valuation.

What is Propertymark asking for?

Propertymark says the government should ditch local discretionary schemes once the register is in force, to avoid duplication, The Negotiator reports. It wants councils to treat the national database as their primary source of landlord and property information. Landlords and agents should not have to resubmit the same documents, or be charged again for data already held nationally, it argues.

The cost case is familiar. Propertymark highlights selective licensing fees of more than £1,000 per property in several areas, with additional licensing charging more. For larger portfolios, it says, costs can run into tens of thousands of pounds. It also wants a national cap limiting initial administration to 20% of fee income.

Its enforcement evidence is the sharper point. Around two-thirds of councils in England had not prosecuted a landlord in the previous three years, despite an estimated 300,000 complaints about property conditions each year, Propertymark says. More than 84% of councils report difficulty recruiting environmental health professionals (the officers who inspect rented homes). We covered the wider findings in our report on Propertymark's call for councils to justify licensing fees.

"The priority must be enforcement," said Tim Thomas, Senior Policy and Campaigns Officer at Propertymark. For now, these are calls, not policy. The NRLA has also questioned the need for selective licensing once the database is live, but its guidance still says a licensed property must be registered.

What should a portfolio landlord prepare before registration opens on 15 December?

There is no bulk upload or bulk payment at present, so each property is registered and paid for individually, according to the NRLA's FAQs. On our arithmetic, a ten-property portfolio pays £650 a year at the full rate.

You can register any property from 15 December 2026, even if your region's requirement has not started yet (NRLA). The whole portfolio then renews on the anniversary of the first property you registered. Properties registered later, for example in another region, pay a pro-rata fee for their first year.

Your deadline follows the property, not you. If you live in London but let in Birmingham, you meet the West Midlands deadline of 14 March 2027, the government guidance says. Our earlier piece sets out every regional deadline for England's landlord register.

An entry can be opened without the property details, but all required information must follow within 28 days, according to the NRLA. You may wish to scan and file the gas safety record, the EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) and the EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) for each property now. Our guides on portfolio systems and record keeping cover how to build that kind of compliance file.

Key takeaways

• England's landlord database charges £65 per property per year, renewed annually, per the government guidance.

• The NRLA puts the minimum cost to the sector at £327 million a year, across 5,030,000 private rented dwellings in England.

• A licensed HMO still needs its own database entry: registration does not replace a council licence, the NRLA says.

• The fee is per property, not per room, so a six-bedroom HMO pays the same £65 as a one-bedroom flat.

• Propertymark wants local discretionary licensing scrapped once the register is in force; this is a call, not a change in the rules.