On the commencement of the Renters Rights Act 2025, expected on 1 May 2026, all assured fixed-term and assured shorthold tenancies will convert to assured periodic tenancies.
This is a big change. One is the abolition of section 21 discussed here.
However, the loss of fixed term tenancies also has big implications for both landlords and tenants.
Note incidentally that existing fixed terms at commencement will end. They will not (as some landlords have optimistically suggested) be allowed to run their course.
Here are my tips:
My first tip – landlords must amend their tenancy agreements
For all tenancy agreements issued after 1 May 2026 – not only will an end date in your tenancy agreement be ineffective, it will also make you liable for a penalty fine of up to £7,000. The government’s guidance for Local Authorities is that the fine should be in the region of £4,000.
So you need to be really careful to ensure that any new tenancies granted after commencement do not give an end date for the tenancy. Or imply in any way that its term is fixed.
Note that fixed terms in tenancy agreements which started before commencement on 1 May 2026 are not a problem. Provided you serve on tenants the government information form within one month of commencement (the form should be published in January 2026).
There will be no need to issue a new tenancy agreement for existing tenancies.
My second tip – landlords should adjust their mindset
After commencement, the length of time a tenant lives in your property will be up to the tenant. Not you.
Any tenant, upon moving into your property, can, if they find it is not what they want or is not as advertised, serve a two-month tenant’s Notice to Quit and move out.
So this means that if you want tenants to stay, you need to be nice to them. For example
- Make sure that any promised works are done, ideally within the first month of the tenancy
- Do any repair works needed promptly
- Be polite and respectful towards them
If you want them to stay long-term.
If they want to leave, you can’t stop them or expect rent for any longer than their notice period.
My third tip – advice for tenants, this is for your benefit!
Yes, really!
Some tenants, on learning that they will lose their fixed term and that their tenancy will henceforth run from month to month, may panic.
But this needs to be taken in the context that section 21 no-fault evictions have gone! Your landlord can only evict you if he has a proper ground to base his claim on, AND he is able to prove that ground at court.
So this should give you more security in your property.
However, you will no longer have the security that a long (say, 3-year) fixed term would have given you. So if, after a year, your landlord decides he wants to sell up (or use the property for his family), he has that right.
You will be given a four-month notice, though, and if you can’t move out immediately after that, you have the right to stay until your landlord has a possession order and bailiffs appointment. This will probably take him between six months to a year to obtain under the current court system.
The really good aspect of this for tenants, though, is that your landlord cannot compel you to remain living in (and paying rent for) a property if you want to leave.
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