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May 1 2026 - Renters' Right Act Commencement Day

You have 0 days to:

Serve any final Section 21 notices

Stop accepting above-asking rent offers

Prepare for the rental bidding ban

Remove “No DSS” from adverts

Remove “No Children” from listings

Show one clear rent price

Stop using fixed-term agreements

Switch to periodic tenancy templates

Check which tenancies go periodic

Stop taking rent before signing

Take no more than one month’s rent

Move all evictions to Section 8

Train staff on new notice rules

Create Section 13 process flow

Add two months to rent reviews

File court claims for Section 21s

Update landlord move-in grounds

Update landlord selling grounds

Send the RRA Information Sheet

Create written terms where missing

Update How to Rent processes

Review tenant screening questions

Update pet request processes

Stop backdating rent increases

Discuss rent protection backbooks

Act now before it is too late...

Act now!

Data, Affordability, Tenants

One in five tenants need a guarantor to rent

Goodlord analysed 55,000 tenants who applied for a property through our platform and found that 20% cannot rent without a guarantor.

Freddy Bruce

May 10, 2019

Twenty percent of prospective tenants cannot afford to rent a property without using a guarantor.

Goodlord analysed 55,000 tenants who applied for a rental property through its platform in 2018, and found that a fifth of those tenants required a guarantor in order to proceed with their application.

In the majority of cases, requiring a guarantor is due to the prospective tenant failing an affordability test. Although there is no industry standard for affordability, Goodlord defines affordability as a prospective tenant’s yearly rent share being below 40% of their yearly earnings.

Renters aged between 20 and 30 are twice as likely to require a guarantor than someone over 30.

The overall proportion of renters requiring guarantors has remained steady compared to 2017.

Our analysis also found that the average renter in the UK spends 32% of their income on rent, a slight improvement on last year’s figure of 32.5%.

Londoners spend the highest proportion of their income on rent at 35%, while people in the Midlands spend the lowest proportion at 27%.

One in five tenants need a guarantor to rent

Further reading

Void periods down for five out of eight regions in February - Goodlord Rental Index

Average rent up in six out of eight regions in March - Goodlord Rental Index

Rents drop in five regions - Goodlord Rental Index

West Midlands the most affordable area for renters - Goodlord Rental Index

Void periods averaging three weeks throughout England and Wales - Goodlord Rental Index