Joint tenancy or room-by-room? Student landlords need to look again
4 weeks ago | 10 comments
Are student tenancy renewals a thing of the past?
12:00 AM, 12th October 2026, 3 weeks ago
1
Categories:
Hello, Are student tenancy ‘renewals’ the latest gaping hole in the ongoing Renters’ Rights Act landscape?
You have a good group who like the house and you like them. Normally you would sign them up for a new term following the current tenancy.
Now under the new laws, we essentially agree with a wink and a handshake and hope that they remain in the property and that no tenant serves notice.
This may or may not work out but if the worst comes to fruition, and they serve notice next April, we are then scrabbling around trying to find a group to backfill the house.
Or are we better to sign up a new group because there is something firm for the following summer and serve a Section 4A on the current group.
No option really sits right with me so am I missing something obvious?
Can we legally draw up a new agreement for the next ‘year’ which at least would cover us for the summer months and disincentivises the students in looking for greener grass?
Thank you,
Ellen
Tags:
Ground 4A, Renters’ Rights Act, student landlords, Student Tenancies, summer void periods, Tenancy Renewals
1 comment on this article
Learn from your peers’ experience
A different perspective could help you spot an issue, avoid a mistake or find a better way forward. Read the comments and add your own views if you wish.
Related Articles
Ground 4A or sign early? Student landlords have a choice to make
1 month ago | 4 comments
Student rental market hit by Renters’ Rights Act
2 months ago | 7 comments
Member Since September 2026 - Comments: 22
11:49 AM, 15th October 2026, About 3 weeks ago
Hi Ellen,
You’re not missing anything obvious. The gap you’ve spotted is real, and it sits on the tenant’s side of the agreement rather than yours.
Worth being clear on one thing first: signing a new agreement now for next year won’t give you the firmness you’re after. Every assured tenancy is periodic from the day it starts, so whatever document the group signs, they can still serve two months’ notice whenever they like. A new term on paper is no more binding than the wink and the handshake, and the cap on rent in advance closes the other obvious route, so you can’t buy the commitment either.
That leaves Ground 4A as the only real lever, and it’s worth checking its conditions against your current agreement before you lean on it. The property has to be an HMO let to full-time students, the tenants must have been given written notice before the tenancy was entered into that the ground might be used, and it’s tied to the summer cycle rather than being available year round. The prior notice condition is where most people come unstuck, because agreements drawn up before the Act simply don’t contain it. If yours doesn’t, Ground 4A isn’t available for this group at all, which quietly removes the option you were weighing.
That’s also why the sign-a-new-group route is the riskier of the two. Committing to an incoming group before you have certain possession from the current one is the version of this that can genuinely hurt, because if the ground fails you’re holding two groups and one house.
What seems to work now is treating the renewal as a relationship question rather than a contractual one. Ask them early, around November, be straight that nothing binds either side any more, and keep the house quietly marketed in parallel so an April notice is an inconvenience rather than an emergency.
OJ