One of the difficulties with the Renters’ Rights Act is that it changes the law without always making clear how existing tenancy agreements should be treated.
A good example concerns the notice period for tenants’ notices to quit where the tenancy agreement was signed before 1 May 2026. Another issue which has cropped up on our Landlord Law members forum.
This issue is about the notice period for tenants’ Notices to Quit. In particular, for tenancies that predate 1 May 2026. Thousands of assured tenancies created before the Act remain in existence. So this is not merely a transitional curiosity.
Tenancies commencing before 1 May 2026
Prior to that date, the majority of periodic tenancies were monthly periodic tenancies. The correct notice period for these was not less than one month, normally ending at the end of a period of the tenancy.
In fact, it would arguably have been a breach of the consumer law to expect tenants to give a longer notice period.
Under common-law rules, the minimum notice period was generally the same as the tenancy period. So
- Monthly tenancies required not less than one months notice
- Quarterly tenancies required not less than three months notice
- Weekly tenancies required not less than one weeks notice.
The notice period for weekly tenancies was amended by the Protection from Eviction Act section 5 (1)(b), which provided that in all cases the notice given must not be less than four weeks.
It was not unusual, and indeed was considered good practice, for tenancy agreements to inform tenants of the notice period they had to give.
Tenancies commencing after 1 May 2026
The Renters Rights Act 2025 amended the Protection from Eviction Act in this respect. The relevant provision (a new section 1ZA, now states that a tenant’s notice to quit must be as follows
5 Validity of notices to quit.
…(1ZA) A notice to quit satisfies this subsection—
(a) where it is given by a tenant in relation to premises let under an assured tenancy, if it is given—
(i) not less than any length of time before the date on which the notice is to take effect, not exceeding two months, that the landlord has agreed to in writing, or
(ii) in the absence of agreement under sub-paragraph (i), not less than two months before the date on which the notice is to take effect;
So the new notice period for tenants notices to Quit is two months unless the parties have agreed otherwise in writing.
The question is –
What happens to older tenancy agreements?
- Will clauses in pre 1 May 2026 tenancy agreements informing tenants of the correct notice period at that time, constitute the agreement by the landlord in writing to accept a shorter notice period after 1 May 2026, as required by section 5(1ZA)(a)(i) above? Or
- Did Parliament intend the new Renters Rights Act provisions to override any notice periods given in pre 1 May 2026 tenancy agreements?
The government guidance is unclear on this point and there are arguments both ways.
My feeling is that if tenants offer one month’s notice, landlords should accept this and let them go without requiring an additional month’s rent. Apart from the legal uncertainty, taking a hard line could easily prove uneconomic if the matter were ever litigated.
What do readers think? Have you come across this situation?
So two months applies – according to the law – but you don’t think landlords should enforce it lest they get shafted by…the law…?
I am swayed by the part that reads that if a landlord and tenant agree a notice period IN WRITING, if that WRITING was in an earlier AST, it has priority.
As everyone says, the courts will decide