It’s official: the Renters’ Rights Act (formerly known as the Renters Reform Bill) is law. For multi-branch leaders, that means major change is just around the corner.
The Act will transform the private rental sector, affecting nearly 11 million renters and 2.3 million landlords across England.
Designed to ‘improve the experience of private renting’, the reforms will end Section 21 evictions, cap rent increases to once a year, ban bidding above advertised prices, strengthen redress routes – and introduce a national landlord register.
As of 27th October, it received Royal Assent and has become law, with phased implementation from early 2026.
Why is the Act a major challenge for multi-branch agencies?
More branches means more risk, and potentially more problems. As a multi-branch leader, your risk under the new regulations is multiplied by every office and team under your control.
The bigger your agency, the more contracts, rent reviews, notices, repairs and complaints you’re responsible for – and the more chances there are for something to go wrong.
When you also consider the sharp rise in ‘stopover tenants’ – with nearly 1 in 3 agents reporting early exits – the pressure on multi-branch leaders to ensure compliance and efficiency becomes immense.
So what needs to change? Once the Act rolls out, clunky branch-by-branch workarounds won’t be enough.
You’ll need centralised, CRM-led control – and a multi-branch model that keeps every office compliant, efficient and audit-ready.
Here are the five things every multi-branch lettings director should do now.
1. Take control of contracts and notices across every branch
The end of fixed-term ASTs and Section 21 means all new tenancies will be periodic, with updated notice periods and legal grounds for possession. That requires consistent policy, process and documentation – across every branch.
Localised templates or hodge-podge processes won’t cut it. Directors need the ability to update contracts, notices and workflows centrally, and push those changes out network-wide.
With Alto, you can bulk-convert fixed-term tenancies to periodic, apply new settings only where they’re needed, and keep contract templates up to date in one central place.
As Christina Harris, Lettings Director at Cheffins, puts it: “Trying to run five offices without clear data was a nightmare. Alto gave us the tools to see what’s going on across the business. It’s saved us hours every week and given us the clarity we need to make faster, more confident decisions.”
2. Enforce controls to pro-actively prevent non-compliance
The Act limits rent increases to once per year and bans rental bidding above the advertised price. That means every branch needs to follow the same rules – with no room for error.
If one office applies an invalid increase or accepts an over-the-odds offer, the legal risk is serious – and, ultimately, it sits with you.
With Alto, you can set agency-wide controls that actually prevent non-compliant workflows.
This includes system reminders for review windows, UI safeguards to block out-of-scope increases and warnings when an offer goes above the listed rent.
More than just helpful tools, these features are like built-in guardrails, designed to protect you and your agency during this challenging time.
3. Establish evidence-grade records at every branch
With Section 21 on the way out, all evictions will need to be justified through legal grounds – and that brings greater tribunal scrutiny. The burden of proof is shifting to agents and landlords, making clear documentation more critical than ever.
That means certificates, payments, inspection notes, maintenance logs and communications all need to be captured, timestamped and stored securely – across every branch.
With Alto, you get centralised storage for every document, email and message, plus full audit trails and tribunal tagging so you can track exposure by case and by branch.
Every action is timestamped, and tribunal status tagging gives directors instant visibility of risk across every office, in one place.
4. Ensure consistency on repairs, standards and complaints
The expected rollout of the Decent Homes Standard to the PRS – along with stricter enforcement and Awaab-style repair deadlines – means maintenance and complaints handling will face much greater scrutiny.
Missed fixes, delayed responses or undocumented complaints could open you up to serious risk, especially if your SLAs vary from branch to branch.
With Alto, directors get a clear dashboard to monitor compliance risks across all offices.
Step-by-step workflows will guide your staff through the right process, while maintenance is ticketed and tracked, with alerts for anything overdue. Complaints are logged centrally, creating a clear audit trail.
5. Stay ahead with real-time reporting
When reform hits, you can’t afford to wait for end-of-month reports or manual checks to catch compliance issues. Directors need to know in real time where the risks are.
Alto provides up-to-date compliance reporting across your portfolio, helping you monitor notices, rent reviews, arrears and other key activity as it happens.
It’s easier to spot gaps, identify where processes aren’t being followed and support branches before issues escalate – all from one central dashboard.
Recap: Your multi-branch rollout plan
Use this simple checklist to get your agency rental-reform ready with Alto…
- Set the rules once. Create central templates, clause libraries and notice processes – with clear limits on what branches can change.
- Check your portfolio. Identify tenancies that need to shift to periodic and flag where rent reviews, notices or offers aren’t compliant.
- Build in safeguards. Use built-in checks to prevent errors like over-asking offers or early rent increases.
- Train everyone. Give staff guided workflows and in-system prompts so they follow the right steps every time..
- Measure and report. Track compliance in real time. Spot missed actions early and focus support where it’s needed most.
- Keep landlords aligned. Send consistent updates from head office and track exactly what’s been sent, when and by which branch.
Get ahead now
Once rental reform is rolled out, ‘mostly compliant’ won’t be good enough. All of your branches will need to tick every box, for every tenancy.
More than 6,000 agents are already prepared for the shift because they use Alto – the UK’s leading estate agency CRM. Now it’s your turn.
See how Alto helps multi-branch agents get ahead with a free demo.
