This is the first part of a short series of posts focusing on how the Renters Rights Bill will affect student lets.
Particularly those letting small shared houses rather than purpose-built blocks.
In this post, I will be focusing on the problems caused by the abolition of fixed terms
At the time of writing, the Renters’ Rights Bill is nearing the conclusion of its journey through Parliament and will shortly be receiving the Royal Assent. All landlords need to be thinking about how it affects them.
Student landlords, though, will be particularly adversely affected by the new rules. But not all student landlords. Purpose-built student accommodation and university accommodation will be less affected.
The real problem is with the smaller student houses and flats in the private rented sector. These are the landlords I am writing for in this series of posts.
Perhaps the most significant change for student landlords will be the abolition of fixed-term tenancies, which is what I want to look at first.
The abolition of fixed terms.
This is a key provision of the new regime. The Minister Matthew Pennycook has said many times that fixed terms have no place in the new tenancy regime that the Renters Rights Bill introduces.
The reason for this is to avoid the situation where a tenant signs up to a property but then finds, for example, that it is riddled with damp. Or maybe the landlord refuses to carry out repairs or other works which were promised.
At the moment, the hapless tenant is stuck with this situation and the obligation to pay rent for the rest of the fixed term. But when the Renters Rights Act comes into force, they will be able to leave on giving a two-month tenants’ Notice to Quit.
This notice can be given at any time, including the day that their tenancy starts. The notice period will be not less than two months, ending on the final day of a rental period (so will actually be between two and three months depending on when in the month it is served).
So how does this affect student lets?
At the moment (October 2025), a group of students will typically sign up to rent a shared house for a fixed term of one year.
If any of the student tenants decide to leave early – as inevitably some will do – the landlord is protected. All the tenants are legally liable for the rent for the full fixed term.
However, once fixed terms are abolished, one of a group of students can serve a tenant’s Notice to Quit (NTQ) at any time during the tenancy and so end it.
Granted, they can withdraw their NTQ (if all the other tenants and the landlord agree), but what if they don’t?
If a joint tenant serves a Notice to Quit
If the tenancy is a joint and several tenancy with several tenants having signed the same tenancy agreement, you will be left with the remaining tenants, but no tenancy. So you can:
- Require them all to leave, or
- Agree to let them stay, ideally with another tenant to take the place of the outgoing tenant and help with the rent.
Let’s take a look at these options.
1. If you want them to leave
If you want them to leave, bear in mind that if they refuse to leave, the only way you can FORCE them to leave is to get a court order for possession. This could easily take six months to a year to get through the court system, so it is not perhaps a viable option, at least for the short term.
Then, while they remain at the property waiting for you to evict them, you will want to get paid. But be aware that if you accept rent without qualifying this by saying it is accepted as ‘mesne profits’ without any intention to create a tenancy, you will create a tenancy.
2. If you agree to let them stay
As soon as you accept rent, this will automatically create a new tenancy (under s54(2) of the Law of Property Act 1925, which allows new tenancies of up to three years to arise without the need for a formal deed).
This will then bring in an obligation under the Renters Rights Act to give them a tenancy agreement or risk a fine of up to £7,000.
So you need to be careful how you deal with things. Ideally, you will want to be in a position to sign up the remaining tenants and a new incoming tenant at the end of the NTQ notice period.
At that time, as well as getting them to sign a new tenancy agreement, you will also need to
- Get the guarantors to re-sign their guarantee forms (assuming they are still willing to do this), as their original guarantee will no longer apply. This is because the tenancy they guaranteed (ie one with the outgoing tenant) no longer exists.
- Deal with deposit issues, and
- The inventory – as if the incoming tenant refuses to accept it, it may need to be done again
Those are the main problems you will face, although no doubt there will be others.
If a sole tenant serves a NTQ
Things may be simpler if you decide to rent out the student house on a room-by-room basis rather than to a group of students on a joint tenancy.
If one of these serves a NTQ it will end their tenancy of their room (and shared use of the common parts) but will not affect the other tenants.
You will just be left with the task of finding a replacement tenant.
The other tenants may be unhappy about the fact that they will be sharing with someone who is not their choice.
However, I suspect they may consider themselves lucky to have found anywhere to live at all (as many student landlords will be withdrawing from the sector).
I would advise, though, that in order to maintain harmony in the house and prevent others from leaving in a huff at your choice of a replacement tenant, you consult them about the new tenant. You could also ask them to help you find someone.
Joint tenancies v. renting rooms in a shared house
At the moment, I suspect most student landlords rent their properties on joint tenancies.
The main advantage of this, though, which is that all tenants will be liable for the rent for the fixed term, will, once the bill is in force, no longer apply.
So, in order to avoid the complexities and paperwork involved in dealing with one of the joint tenants serving a NTQ, you may want to consider the advantages of renting by the room. Landlord Law members will find a detailed FAQ on this here.
In the next post I will be looking at how the new rules on rent will impact on student landlords.
From my perspective, joint tenancies are still a better option. If one of a group leaves then the others are more likely to keep pressure on any leaving tenants as it puts them in a difficult situation finding somewhere and moving all their things if they need to stay on.
The chances of finding a tenant for the last two months of a tenancy in a marketplace where there is a glut of empty rooms for that period will be really low.
Also, what is the position of the new tenancy agreement. Given that a new notice period is necessary, won’t that potentially run into the new academic year and overlap any new agreements already signed with new groups?
As regards the new notice period, this will only be a problem if the tenants refuse to move out. My understanding is that this is rare.
However, landlords can (hopefully) protect their position when they sign up new tenants by making the new tenancy conditional upon the current tenants vacating.
Hi Tessa, Can we have more on this please “However, landlords can (hopefully) protect their position when they sign up new tenants by making the new tenancy conditional upon the current tenants vacating.”
I’ve never heard of this before? Is it a viable route? Do you have any wording? Could the supposed new tenants ask for compensation for being let down at the last minute?
thanks
It’s something I have had in my Landlord Law tenancy agreements for years. In fact, it is just stating what is in fact the law – if an existing tenant fails to move out, the new tenancy will fail.
My hope is that it will protect the landlord, and I don’t see why it shouldn’t, so long as it is given prominence (mine in on the first page) but I have to say that it has not been tested in the courts. But then, very few tenancy agreement clauses have.
But if the let-down tenants put in a claim for compensation, it could give the landlord a defence.