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Student Housing
#1 Student Lettings Agency
If you rent a student house from a private landlord, the rules governing your tenancy are about to change in a significant way. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 comes into force on 1 May 2026, and while most of the coverage so far has been aimed at landlords and letting agents, the changes actually hand students a meaningful set of new protections. Some of those changes are unambiguously good news. A couple of them are worth understanding carefully before you act on them. This post walks through everything that matters, in plain English.
That depends on what type of accommodation you live in.
If you rent a private student house or HMO from a landlord through a letting agent like us, yes, the Act applies to you. From 1 May 2026, your tenancy will be governed by the new rules.
If you live in university-owned halls of residence, the Act does not apply. University halls operate under licence agreements or common law tenancies, not assured shorthold tenancies, and the new legislation only affects the latter.
If you live in purpose-built student accommodation run by a private operator, the government has confirmed that PBSA is generally exempt from the new regime, though there are some transitional arrangements in place for the current academic year. This includes a number of properties we manage such as Lord Tennyson House, Laureate House, The Hide Out, Swan Mews, Lister Gate Apartments, The Old Bank and more.
For the vast majority of students renting through a private letting agent, the changes are coming, and it is worth knowing what they mean.
The biggest change: fixed-term tenancies are gone
For decades, the standard student tenancy has been a fixed-term assured shorthold tenancy. You signed a contract, it ran from a specific date to a specific date (usually 51 weeks), and that was that. Both you and your landlord were locked in for the duration.
From 1 May 2026, that structure no longer exists. Most existing assured shorthold tenancies will automatically become assured periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026, and if you agree a new tenancy agreement with a private landlord on or after 1 May, it will also be an assured periodic tenancy.
What that means in practice is that your tenancy runs on a rolling basis, typically month to month, without a fixed end date. There is no longer a date written into your contract after which the tenancy automatically concludes. If your tenancy agreement has an end date in it after 1 May 2026, that end date will no longer apply.
This is a fundamental shift in how student renting works, and most of the other changes in the Act flow directly from it.
Previously, landlords could use what was known as a Section 21 notice to end a tenancy without giving any reason at all, as long as they followed the correct procedure. For tenants, this created real insecurity. A landlord could simply decide they wanted the property back, serve notice, and there was little a tenant could do about it.
From 1 May 2026, you can no longer be evicted using the no-fault Section 21 process, even if your tenancy agreement says you can. If your landlord wants you to leave, they must now give you a specific legal reason, known as a ground for possession, and serve the correct notice using the prescribed forms.
The notice period is usually four months, though it can be shorter for some grounds. This is a genuine improvement in security for renters who previously had very little protection against arbitrary eviction.
The flip side of rolling tenancies is that you now have much more flexibility to end your tenancy when it suits you. If you want to end an assured periodic tenancy after 1 May 2026, you can do so by giving two months' notice in writing, either by letter, email or text, on the day when the rent is due or the day before.
For students who find themselves in a house that is not working out, or who need to leave the city for any reason, this is a significant new right. You no longer need to wait until the end of a fixed term or negotiate a complicated early exit with your landlord.
However, there is an important caveat for students in shared houses that we will come to shortly.
If you are currently a tenant and already have a written tenancy agreement, you will not need a new one. Instead, your landlord or their letting agent must give you a government-produced Information Sheet telling you about the changes to your tenancy before 31 May 2026. This document has been produced by the government and explains the key changes in accessible language. If you are renting through Student Housing, we will be ensuring all our managed tenants receive this on time.
If your landlord or agent fails to serve this document, they could face a fine of up to £7,000, so it is a legal requirement, not optional paperwork.
Your landlord can only increase the rent once a year and not in the first year of a new tenancy. They must use the correct form and give you at least two months' notice. You will be able to challenge a proposed rent increase that is above the market rent.
This matters because, under the old fixed-term system, some landlords would simply offer a new contract at a higher rent when the fixed term ended and leave tenants with little choice but to accept or move out. The new rules create a more formal process with a genuine right of challenge if you think the increase is unreasonable.
Your landlord cannot ask for, encourage, or accept a payment of rent before you have signed the tenancy agreement. When you have signed the tenancy agreement, you can be asked to pay a maximum of one month's rent in advance.
This is particularly relevant for students from overseas or those without a UK guarantor, who have historically sometimes been asked for several months' rent upfront as a condition of being offered a tenancy. That practice is now unlawful for new tenancies agreed from 1 May 2026.
You will be able to ask to keep a pet in the property, and your landlord must consider your request and should give you a reason if they refuse. This does not mean every landlord must allow pets, and there are legitimate reasons to refuse, but the blanket no-pets-under-any-circumstances approach that many landlords have historically taken is harder to enforce without explanation.
👉 Request a pet at your student house
Protection against discrimination
A landlord cannot discriminate against a tenant because of a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. They also cannot refuse to rent a property to a tenant who is on benefits or has children. www The Act strengthens existing protections and gives councils new powers to investigate landlords who break these rules.
Here is where it gets a little more complex, and it is important to understand this one clearly.
The Renters' Rights Act introduces a specific possession ground for student HMOs called Ground 4A. Under this ground, a landlord can still give you notice to leave at the end of the academic year so that they can re-let the property to new students for the following year. This exists because, without it, rolling tenancies could result in students simply staying indefinitely, which would effectively prevent landlords from re-letting to a fresh cohort of incoming students each September.
However, for a landlord to use Ground 4A, they must serve a written statement on tenants confirming that they intend to let the property to students, that they understand you to be a student, and that they intend to recover possession at the end of the academic year. For tenancies already in existence on 1 May 2026, the landlord will have to give the student this written statement on or before 31 May 2026. London
If your landlord or agent has not served this document, their ability to use Ground 4A may be affected. If you are renting through Student Housing, this will be handled correctly on your landlord's behalf.
This is probably the single most important practical point for students in shared houses, and it is one that is easy to overlook.
Under the new rules, if you are in a joint tenancy and one housemate decides to give two months' notice, that notice ends the tenancy for everyone. Not just for the person who gave notice. For the whole house.
This means that unless a replacement tenant is found and a new agreement is entered into, the whole letting will come to an end. Lester Aldridge This is arguably an unintended consequence of the legislation, but it is the reality of how joint tenancies work under the new periodic structure.
In practical terms, this means that if one of your housemates is unhappy and decides they want to leave, they could inadvertently trigger the end of the tenancy for everyone else in the house. It is worth being aware of this dynamic, particularly in group houses where tensions can arise mid-year.
If you are currently renting through a private letting agent and your tenancy started before 1 May 2026, the main things to be aware of are these. Your fixed end date no longer applies in the way it did before. You should receive an Information Sheet from your landlord or agent before the end of May. Your landlord should also serve a written statement on you if they intend to use Ground 4A at the end of the academic year. You do not need to do anything proactively, but it is worth knowing these documents should be coming.
If you are signing a new tenancy for 2026-27, it will be a periodic assured tenancy from the outset. There will be no fixed end date. The same rules around notice, rent increases, and Ground 4A will all apply.
If anything is unclear or you are not sure whether your tenancy is being managed correctly under the new rules, Shelter and Citizens Advice both have excellent housing advice services and can help you understand your position.
The Renters' Rights Act represents the most significant change to tenant protections in a generation. For students renting privately, it removes the uncertainty of no-fault eviction, gives you more flexibility to leave when you need to, and creates clearer rules around rent increases and advance payments. The trade-off is that the familiar structure of the fixed-term contract is gone, which introduces some new risks around joint tenancies that are worth understanding before you act on the new notice rights.
At Student Housing, we manage properties across Lincoln, Nottingham, and Hull, and we have been preparing for these changes for some time. If you are a current tenant with questions about how this affects your tenancy, or if you are looking for accommodation for 2026-27 under the new system, get in touch with the team and we will be happy to talk you through it.
This article is for general information purposes only and reflects the law as understood at the date of publication. It does not constitute legal advice. For advice specific to your circumstances, please contact Shelter, Citizens Advice, or a qualified housing solicitor.
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#1 Student Lettings Agency
Student Housing is a top-rated student lettings agency offering fully furnished, bills-included accommodation across Lincoln, Nottingham, and Hull. Run by former students, we provide hassle-free, transparent housing tailored for university life.
