HMO Staggered move out dates would make repossession impossible?

I would advise to rent the property out as a ‘whole’ under one joint tenancy

An agent I work for used to manage a property like yours, they evicted everyone then rented the property out to sharers under a joint tenancy

Surely with the stupid RRB doing away with fixed term tenancies, this 12 month period will not need to exist? I would however follow the advice above and try to do all lets under one contract. Plus that does away with your liability to council tax.

Joint tenancies are a nightmare.
Who in their right mind would sign something that makes them jointly and severally liable with multiple random strangers? How many earn enough to clear referencing for a joint tenancy?
Who wants to be part of something where if one tenant gives notice the entire household has to move out?
How many landlords are happy about having to give 24 hours notice to access an HMO at all? Access to communal areas at all times allows the landlord to fulfil their HMO management obligations.

The downside is the house is never going to be simultaneously vacated by all tenants. Is that really a big deal? Gaining possession has always been problematic if the tenant can’t or won’t leave on the date you request.

One of the risks of operating HMOs.

Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 08/07/2025 – 11:04
Respectfully, it’s not a risk now – but it will be after RRB.

Reply to the comment left by Julian Lloyd at 08/07/2025 – 10:25I might not have explained it very well, so let me put it another way.
I’m not referring to problems getting just one tenant out. I’m referring to super-long delays in getting them all out, come the day that I want to sell up.
In an HMO with rolling tenant changes, every *new* tenancy resets that 12-month clock — and you won’t be able to evict the whole household unless every single tenant has reached the end of their 12-month protected period. That could indeed take years.

Any large-HMO landlord who isn’t truly shocked by the RRB hasn’t understood it (I’m beginning to realise I didn’t understand it!).

Under RRB it’ll take AT LEAST TWO YEARS to regain vacant possession on a large HMO — either that or massive voids.

Here’s a realistic scenario:

I’ve got a six-bed HMO in London with five good long-term tenants and one vacant room. On 1st January 2026, a new tenant — let’s call him Paul — moves into the vacant room under a RRB tenancy. Paul is immediately disruptive. He’s not Section 8 material, but he annoys his housemates — and me — to the point where I decide I want to sell the HMO and exit the landlord game.

Under the RRB, Paul’s earliest move-out date is 1st May 2027
• Add five months for marketing and conveyancing: realistic date for exchange and completion on the sale is October 2027

That’s 21 months from Paul’s move-in to recouping my equity.

But it gets much worse. There are five other tenants to think about.

Four months into Paul’s tenancy, one of my other long-standing tenants — Ringo — decides he’s had enough of sharing with Paul and moves out. That leaves me with two bad options:

⸻

Option 1: Leave Ringo’s room empty for a painfully long time
– This avoids triggering a new 14-month protected period,
– But it means keeping one room vacant from May 2026 to May 2027 (when Paul finally goes) so ~12 months of lost rent of Ringo’s room.
– Earliest sale date still: October 2027

Option 2: Replace Ringo
– Let’s say new tenant George moves in to Ringo’s old room on 1st May 2026
– Now, for selling the house, the 14 month clock starts again
– George doesn’t have to leave until 1st September 2027
– Add 5 months to sell: February 2028

That means ~25 months of putting up with Paul before I get my capital back.

Meanwhile, other tenant John is watching all this unfold and realises that his bargaining power shoots up every time someone moves out. Let’s hope John is nicer than Paul.

If you’re running a larger HMO with rolling tenancies and want to sell, the RRB effectively means either:

• Two years to get your capital out, or
• Sustained rental losses to keep the clock from resetting every time someone moves in.

Right now, I could get vacant possession in eight weeks. After RRB: two years.

We’re going to see lots of rooms kept deliberately empty, from landlords exiting.

Have I got this wrong? Hoping you’ll say yes.

There will be eviction grounds for landlords who want to sell and for landlords who want to move into the property. They’re not available during the first 12 months of a tenancy, so when that time comes you’d have to stop taking new tenants and wait until the most recent one reaches 12 months. To be honest that’s not so different from now, especially with evictions taking about a year. There has always been a winding down period with HMOs, waiting for fixed terms to expire. Anyone considering buying one should factor the cost of closing down into their total return on investment calculation.
As I’ve always said, when all the hidden costs of an HMO are taken into account the profits are not much different to regular family lets.

Reply to the comment left by DPT at 09/07/2025 – 18:28
You’re exactly right to say to that HMOs are easier for an investor to get into than get out of.

But I think it’s now going to be ridiculously hard to get out of HMOs.

I always thought HMOs (licensed and non-licensed) were for lodgers and as Lodgers they are not tenants.