When the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 came into force on 1 May 2026, it brought the biggest change to private renting in England for more than thirty years. For ESOL practitioners teaching housing rights, it also created an urgent problem. Material that was accurate in April could now give learners the wrong advice.
Our six-session online course, ESOL Housing Rights and Responsibilities, supports refugee learners who need to navigate the UK rental market. Over the summer we reviewed every session against the new legislation. The aim was not to rewrite the course but to make sure each statement about the law was still true.
The most significant updates came in the first two sessions.
Later sessions needed lighter changes. We reworded our slide on ‘revenge eviction’ to reflect the stronger protection against retaliatory eviction. We added a new slide explaining that a valid Section 8 notice ending within 56 days means a tenant is “threatened with homelessness”, which triggers duties for the local council. We also softened our comparison between private and social housing, because the gap in security between the two has narrowed.
Out-of-date housing information is not a neutral mistake. A learner who believes a Section 21 notice is still valid might leave their home when they have no legal need to. A learner who does not know that a notice makes them “threatened with homelessness” might wait too long to ask the council for help. Refugee and migrant tenants are often unfamiliar with UK systems and reluctant to challenge a landlord, which leaves them especially exposed to these risks.
The changes also strengthen the language side of the course. Ideas such as “a legal reason” and “two months’ notice” are clearer and more teachable than the old patchwork of exceptions.
The law is still evolving. Reforms to social housing and the extension of Awaab’s Law to private renting are still to come, so we will keep reviewing the course as they arrive. For now, we hope practitioners revisiting their own housing materials find this a useful prompt.
The Language of Change