Renters' Rights Bill -

Landlord FAQ

Last updated: 28 November 2025

IMPORTANT: These changes are not in force yet. They will start coming into force from 1 May 2026

What landlords need to know about the Renters’ Rights Act

The Renters’ Rights Bill has now passed into law and is now the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. It is a set of changes to how tenancies work. The changes are not yet in force but will start taking effect from 1 May 2026 . The changes will therefore impact existing tenancies in the current 2025/2026 academic year as well as future tenancies.

The changes will affect most residential tenancies in England, but the rules relating to student tenancies are complicated. Not every tenancy will be affected and different landlords will be affected in different ways.

End of section 21 notices

Most students who rent from a private landlord have an ‘assured shorthold tenancy’ or ‘AST’ as their contract. This type of tenancy usually runs for a fixed term of six or twelve months.

After that, it becomes a ‘rolling’ or ‘periodic’ tenancy. A periodic tenancy runs from month to month, or week to week, without any fixed term. Sometimes there is a 'break clause' in the contract allowing the landlord or the tenant to end the fixed term early.

In an 'assured shorthold tenancy', a landlord can evict the tenants without giving any reason, as long as the fixed term has ended. They start that process by serving a ‘section 21 notice’ which tells the tenants that the landlord requires the property back after two months.

Once the Renters’ Rights Act comes into force, section 21 notices and 'assured shorthold tenancies' will be abolished. Instead, most tenants will have:

1. A fully assured tenancy. This means that the landlord has to give a reason to evict the tenant relying on one of the possession grounds.
2. All tenancies will be rolling contracts. This means tenants can decide when they want to end the contract.

Tenants can serve 2 months’ notice to end contract

Once the Renters’ Rights Act comes into force on 1 May 2026, a tenant will be able to terminate their contract by serving at least 2 months’ notice to quit on their landlord at any time. There are rules the tenant must follow for the notice to be valid. It must be in writing and expire at the end of a rental period. Tenants can withdraw a notice to quit before it takes effect if the landlord agrees to this.

 If tenants are on a joint contract, one tenant can give notice without the agreement of the other joint tenants. This will end the tenancy for everyone.

New type of notice for landlords to serve on students

The Righters’ Rights Act will take away a landlord's ability to give notice to tenants without a reason. However, the Government has agreed an exception to this for students. Landlords will be able to give a notice to require students to leave the property at the end of the academic year. This will be known as a Ground 4A notice.

This will only apply in some circumstances. It will only be available to a landlord who intends to rent the property to a new set of students in the next academic year. The notice will have to be given four months in advance, and specify a date in June-September when the landlord wants the students to move out. This will only apply to students living in an HMO (house in multiple occupation). It does not apply to tenancies let to one or two students or families. It will also only apply if the landlord has given the student a written statement of their wish to rely on Ground 4A and the tenancy has not been entered into more than 6 months before the tenancy start date.  

For tenancies already in existence on 1 May 2026, the landlord will have to give the student a written statement on or before 31 May 2026 and the 6-month restriction will not apply.

Students living in halls of residence

Students who live in university halls will not be affected by the changes to notices, or the new rolling contracts. That is because students living in halls have licence agreements. The new rules will only affect tenants with 'assured shorthold tenancies'.

The Renters’ Rights Act will change the law that applies to private halls or 'PBSAs'. Accommodation offered to students in private student halls will be exempt from the new tenancy rules if the companies managing these sites join an approved code of practice. We expect that most private landlords will not be eligible to for this exemption.

Other changes

The Renters’ Rights Act will make several other changes to the law governing residential tenancies. Most of these changes will only affect students who rent from a private landlord and who have an ‘assured tenancy’. Some of these changes will take effect later.

These are the headlines of other changes that are due to come into force on 1 May 2026:

• Ban on rental bidding. Landlords and letting agents will no longer be allowed to invite higher ‘bids’ to rent a property. Tenants can challenge the rent by asking for the rent to be assessed by the Property tribunal in the first 6 months of the tenancy.

• Ban on rent in advance. Landlords will be banned from demanding large payments of rent up front at the start of a tenancy. This might cause some concern to landlords renting to international students – but landlords will still be allowed to ask for a guarantor. Some international students will use a UK-based guarantor scheme. Students can still pay rent in advance voluntarily once the tenancy starts but cannot be required to do so by their landlord.

• Rent increases. Landlords will have to follow a set procedure to increase the rent including giving tenants 2 months’ notice of the proposed increase. This notice is called a ‘Section 13 notice.’ Rent review clauses in tenancy agreements will have no effect. Tenants can challenge the proposed rent increase in the property Tribunal.

• Written statement of terms. Landlords will have to give tenants a written statement of terms of their tenancy and any other required information. This will usually be in the form of a written tenancy agreement. For existing tenants, where there is already a written agreement, landlords will need to give tenants an ‘Information Sheet’ on or before 31 May 2026. This will be published by the government and will inform tenants about the changes made by the Renters’ Rights Act.

• Prohibiting rental discrimination. There will be tougher laws when landlords choose tenants to prevent discrimination against tenants with children and tenants receiving benefits.

• Renting with pets. Landlords will need to give a good reason if they say no to pets and follow a set procedure for dealing with tenants’ requests for pets.

• Rent repayment orders. Tenants will have increased rights to reclaim rent from their landlords who commit criminal offences. For example, not applying for an HMO licence, or harassing tenants.

• Enforcement and investigatory powers. Councils will get stronger legal powers to take on criminal landlords and civil penalties will be increased. (New investigatory powers for Councils will come into force earlier on 27 December 2025).

These are some changes that are due to take effect later:

• Private Rented Sector Database. Details about properties (including safety certificates) and landlords will be put on a public database. You will be able to check out any landlord you are considering renting from, in advance. The roll out of the Database is expected to commence from late 2026.

• Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman. Landlords will have to join a complaints scheme like agents already do. The government has said implementation of the Ombudsman will happen after the introduction of the Database. It is expected that mandatory membership of landlords will be in place in 2028.

• Decent Homes Standard. There will be a new minimum standard for safety and comfort in rented properties. Landlords will face fines if they breach this. There is no confirmed implementation timeline at the moment. The government has proposed a long-term deadline of either 2035 or 2037 with the expectation that landlords should start works to meet the new standard earlier.

• Awaab’s Law. This is named after a boy who died from illness caused by damp and mould in his home. Landlords will be required to start repairs according a specified timetable. Implementation timescales have not yet been confirmed for this.

For full details of the upcoming changes, please visit the official government campaign website: https://housinghub.campaign.gov.uk/renting-is-changing/