Renters’ Rights Act preventing extension of tenancy?

“Extending the term” means granting a new tenancy. You should consider the transitional provisions in RRA and HA 1988, as amended, *very* carefully, as well as the limitations on how early in a tenancy you are allowed to serve a s21 notice, as they are not easy to understand.

Reply to the comment left by Julesgflawyer at 19/03/2026 – 09:58
If you now grant a new tenancy you will bot be able to served a s21 notice. before the RRA removes s21 and makes the tenancy periodic. Unless you want out of the letting business – I assume not or else you would not be asking – you will just have to suck it up as the rest of us will have to.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 19/03/2026 – 11:33
I am exiting the landlord business. I wanted to retain my right to use S21, instead of having to go the more expensive s8 route.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 19/03/2026 – 11:33
Also, if I change the terms of the tenancy I then cannot get my property back under s8 for a year in order to sell it!

Your terminology here is unclear. What I think you mean is that your tenants want to stay beyond your notice period expiry date on their s21 notices. That isn’t an “extension” of their tenancy. They are not in a fixed term, just month to month and if they don’t leave on the expiry date of their notice period their tenancy doesn’t end until they either do leave or they are evicted.

The question is when does your 6 months from service expire?

I’m going to assume you have time, you are just concerned about the deadline for the abolition of s21. You have until 31st July to start proceedings, but you can’t actually prevent your tenants from staying beyond their notice expiry.

What I personally would do is one of the following two things.

1) Tell my tenants that 31st of July is a firm deadline and if they are still in the property on that day and you haven’t received the keys and a signed deed of surrender of the tenancy by noon on that day you will be submitting the court documents and they will be liable for those costs which will be claimed back from their deposit even if they leave after that date, but before going to court. Your second tenant may be fine with that if they have a new tenancy signed but it can’t commence until September. The extra cost would be minimal and presumably you can withdraw a court application before it goes before a judge.

2) The alternative is that you can tell your tenants if they want to leave on a later date of their choosing, you will agree not to start legal proceedings if they were to serve you with a formal notice to quit giving their preferred date in accordance with the terms of their tenancy agreement. You should then accept the notice in writing. This will actually end a tenancy on the given date and if the tenant doesn’t leave they are considered to be holding over. You will then still have the option to take them to court without using a s21 and you can be sure of getting your property back in that instance.

You can check this advice with a legal professional.

Reply to the comment left by Ryan Stevens at 19/03/2026 – 13:09
Welcome to the exodus

Reply to the comment left by Kate Mellor at 21/03/2026 – 09:03
Obviously, you may want to roll the deadline forward for option one, leaving it until noon on the final day is probably unwise, but you get the idea.

From 1 May as we know the legalisation changes. All fixed term tenancies change to rolling tenancies with no end point. There is no extension to be granted post 1 May as there is no fixed end point. If you want vacant properties post 1 May, and you still have tenants living in them, and have issued section 21 before 1 May, you will need to have sought court possession by 31 July 2026, and the tenancies must have come to end under this current legislation by then too. Anything else you will need to use the new section 8 (moving back in or selling). Be prepared as well that courts tend to favour tenants, it’s unlikely that any court fees will be passed to tenants, and also you can not reclaim that back at all from deposit. Prepapfe that you will need to show evidence of that you are really looking to sell the properties (emails to agents to value/ valuations, sales preparation and / or listings etc) and / or evidence of moving you or family back in.

Reply to the comment left by Kate Mellor at 21/03/2026 – 09:03
Landlords can’t claim legal costs for possession from deposits – and be prepared courts will judge in favour of tenants – aka tenants to not pay landlord court costs in basic possession. If there is evidence in writing of landlord stating to tenants to take court costs from deposit this could be used against landlord as evidence of haressment – be careful.

A tenant choosing not to leave the property under the terms of the agreement are in breach of contract (unless they can show that the s21 wasn’t legally enforceable, in which case the landlord would not have been awarded possession).

Most good ASTs allow for the landlord to reclaim costs of recovering the property in that instance.
In the example given, the tenants intention is to move out in September, so the commencement of action is purely to protect the landlords option to reclaim the property in the event that the tenant does not move out as promised. S21 is entirely a formality if properly issued so there is no element of a judge “favouring” anyone. You’re likely correct that the court costs can’t be reclaimed under the deposit without the agreement of the tenant (which I haven’t looked into). If the tenant reneges on the agreement you would need to apply for a CCJ for the funds and a third party repayment order which you can then provide to the deposit scheme, at which point you would be able to reclaim the cost. This is all purely worst case scenario, and the cost of the original court action will be more than covered by the extra few months rent the landlord received by the tenant to staying on, so fairly inconsequential in the scheme of things and really not worth pursuing if push came to shove.

I doubt written evidence of the tenant negotiating with the landlord for a longer notice period could realistically be considered harassment, but obviously one should always assume anything you put in writing can and will be used against you in court.

What he can say is that if they choose to remain past X date you will be forced to submit the court application, which costs X amount and they will be liable for those costs (and any potential further bailiffs costs if they remain up to the point of eviction). You can tell them that you don’t object to them remaining until September but you will be forced to commence proceedings (I’m sure the landlord has made them fully aware of his reasons). That is pretty straightforward and the cost and hassle of the submission is hopefully compensated by the additional rent.

Essentially it’s all a hassle, but you always feel obligated to do your best by your tenants. It’s a lot more hassle for them having to move home.