In one of the biggest upheavals of the rental market in a generation, assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) will be abolished in England from May 1, 2026, under the Renters\u2019 Rights Act and replaced with a single system of rolling periodic agreements. There will no longer be any fixed end dates, Section 21 no-fault evictions will be scrapped, and all possession must use statutory grounds and go through the court system. Landlords will, though, still be able to recover property and increase rents, but control shifts from contract expiry to legal process.<\/p>\n
Below is an overview of the main key changes.<\/p>\n
Six- and twelve-month ASTs abolished.<\/p>\n
A tenancy will start and continue indefinitely until notice is served. There is no expiry point and no renewals.<\/p>\n
In practice, that means:<\/p>\n
The default relationship is open-ended.<\/p>\n
The reform applies to current lets as well as new ones.<\/p>\n
When the Act takes effect:<\/p>\n
Older contracts do not preserve fixed terms beyond implementation. (THIS IS NOT VERY CLEAR)<\/p>\n
\u201cNo-fault\u201d evictions banned.<\/p>\n
All possession claims must run through the court system using revised Section 8 grounds. There is no quick route to regain a property once Section 21 ends.<\/p>\n
Landlords must rely on grounds including:<\/p>\n
Possession remains available, but it becomes procedural. Timing depends on statutory notice and court process rather than contract expiry.<\/p>\n
Tenants can leave mid-tenancy by giving two months\u2019 notice.<\/p>\n
For landlords, this creates:<\/p>\n
Income stability depends more on occupancy than contract length.<\/p>\n
With no renewals, rent reviews are formalised.<\/p>\n
Increases use of Section 13 notices, which are limited to once per year, and must give at least two months\u2019 notice. Tenants can challenge an increase through the First-tier Tribunal, which determines the market rent. Other rent review mechanisms are no longer permitted.<\/p>\n
The effect:<\/p>\n
Rent setting becomes a scheduled statutory process.<\/p>\n
The system removes the sign-renew-reset cycle.<\/p>\n
There are no renewal checkpoints to trigger administration. Management becomes continuous:<\/p>\n
Landlords cannot rely on contract milestones to force management moments.<\/p>\n
Most private student lets fall within the assured tenancy system and will move into the periodic framework.<\/p>\n
The Act introduces a specific possession ground for full-time student accommodation so landlords can recover property in line with the academic year. This ground must be declared at the start of the tenancy and is designed to protect the September turnover model used in the student market. (IS THIS RIGHT?- DOUBLE-CHECK)<\/p>\n
Purpose-built student accommodation remains outside the assured tenancy regime.<\/p>\n
Some landlords may see:<\/p>\n
Long-term tenant portfolios are likely to adapt more easily than high turnover strategies.<\/p>\n
The main concerns are predictability and control:<\/p>\n
Landlords dependent on fixed-term certainty will feel the impact of the changes most.<\/p>\n
The reform removes the fixed-term tenancy model and replaces it with a fully periodic system governed by statute. Landlords can still let property, recover possession and raise rents, but they must do so through statutory processes instead of relying on fixed contract end dates.<\/p>\n
The practical effect is a shift in how tenancies are managed. Income forecasting, exit timing and tenant retention become more important because there is no built-in contract breakpoint. The period before May 2026 is the preparation window for operating under those new rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, what are the new periodic tenancies and how do they work? In one of the biggest upheavals of the rental market in a generation, assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) will be abolished in England from May 1, 2026, under the Renters\u2019 Rights Act and replaced with a single system of rolling periodic agreements. There will… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4233,"featured_media":14046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,2,759],"tags":[775],"class_list":["post-6102129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-expert-advice","category-buy-to-let-landlords","category-uk-rental-market","tag-periodic-tenancies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6102129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4233"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6102129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6102129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6102129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6102129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6102129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}