Fixed terms are gone: how periodic tenancies work under the Renters' Rights Act

General information only, not legal advice. Verify your specific position with a qualified solicitor or regulated letting agent.

On 1 May 2026, the roughly 4.7 million private rented households in England — about 19% of all households — woke up in a fundamentally different legal relationship with their landlords. Fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs), the bread-and-butter of UK lettings for three decades, were abolished. Every existing AST automatically converted to an assured periodic tenancy, and every new tenancy from that date starts as one too. No action was required and no new paperwork needed signing — the change happened by operation of law.

If you manage properties, or rent one out yourself, understanding what that means in practice is not optional. Here is what you need to know.

What actually changed on 1 May 2026

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 removed the concept of a fixed term from the private rented sector. Where tenants used to sign up for six months or a year, there is now one default tenancy type: the assured periodic tenancy, rolling month-to-month (or shorter, such as weekly or fortnightly, where rent is paid on that cycle).

Practically, this means:

• Fixed-term clauses and set end dates no longer apply — every tenancy is rolling
• Contractual rent review clauses cannot be used for increases after 1 May 2026 — rent can only rise via the statutory Section 13 process
• Break clauses are effectively redundant — tenants leave by giving notice, landlords need a valid possession ground
• Blanket pet bans are gone — tenants have a statutory right to request a pet (under s.16A of the Housing Act 1988) and landlords cannot unreasonably refuse

You do not need to issue a new tenancy agreement. However, landlords must give every tenant a written statement of the tenancy terms. Where a tenant has no written agreement or written record of their terms, the landlord was required to provide certain written information — including the government’s Information Sheet — on or before 31 May 2026. If you have not done so, do it now and document it.

How rent increases work now

This is where many landlords are caught off-guard. Under a periodic tenancy you cannot agree an informal increase or simply write a new figure into a letter. Every increase must follow the statutory Section 13 procedure:

1. Serve a Section 13 notice (Form 4A) stating the proposed new rent
2. Give the tenant at least two months’ notice before the increase takes effect
3. You can only increase rent once in any 12-month period, and not within the first 12 months of a tenancy

The increase must be no higher than the open market rent. A tenant who thinks the proposed figure is above market rate can refer it to the First-tier Tribunal, and the tribunal cannot set the rent higher than the landlord proposed — so a tenant who challenges has little to lose by trying.

The practical implication: if you used annual renewals as an informal rent-review mechanism, that lever is gone. You will need to serve Section 13 notices proactively each year. A thorough referencing process at the start matters even more now, because you are potentially in a relationship with that tenant for many years.

How to end a tenancy — the new Section 8 landscape

Section 21 “no-fault” evictions are abolished. To recover possession, landlords must use Section 8 and prove a statutory ground. Key reformed grounds include:

Ground	Type	Threshold / Trigger	Notice required
8 – Rent arrears	Mandatory	3 months’ rent (13 weeks if weekly/fortnightly), at notice and at hearing	4 weeks
10 – Some arrears	Discretionary	Any rent owed	4 weeks
11 – Persistent arrears	Discretionary	Repeated late payment	4 weeks
1 – Landlord/family moving in	Mandatory	Genuine intention to occupy	4 months
1A – Selling the property	Mandatory	Genuine intention to sell	4 months
7A – Serious ASB / criminal behaviour	Mandatory	Conviction, breach of an ASB order, or closure order	Apply to court immediately
14 – Antisocial behaviour	Discretionary	Nuisance or annoyance	Apply to court immediately

A few details that are easy to miss:

The 12-month rule on Grounds 1 and 1A. You cannot require a tenant to leave under these grounds within the first 12 months. A notice can be served earlier, but its expiry date must fall after month 12.

The re-letting restriction. If you gain possession using Ground 1 or Ground 1A, you cannot re-market or re-let the property for 12 months. Enforcement is tiered: a breach can attract a civil penalty of up to £7,000, while an offence — or a repeated or continuing breach — can reach up to £40,000.

Antisocial behaviour grounds. For Grounds 7A and 14 there is no minimum notice period before you can apply to court, but the court cannot make a possession order for at least 14 days.

Tenant’s notice. Tenants can end a periodic tenancy by giving at least two months’ notice in writing, timed to end on (or the day before) a rent due date.

The mindset shift: from “renewal” to ongoing management

For letting agents, the language is changing more than the paperwork. “When does the tenancy renew?” is no longer meaningful — there is no renewal, just an ongoing tenancy.

So annual lease-end conversations become annual tenancy health-checks: is the rent still at market? Is the property compliant? Does anything need inspecting? For agents managing large portfolios, the PropertyGoose referencing process is unchanged — but the framing shifts from “qualifying a tenant for a new term” to “managing a continuing relationship.” Self-managing landlords face the same shift: rent reviews, inspections and compliance checks now need to be scheduled deliberately, because a periodic tenancy does not prompt action.

What landlords and agents should be doing now

As of June 2026 the immediate obligations should already be met — but if there are gaps, close them:

1. Written terms and the Information Sheet — make sure tenants have their written statement of terms, and that the Information Sheet was provided where required.
2. Rent review calendar — diarise your Section 13 windows so you do not miss them.
3. Referencing records — keep documentation accessible; if you ever rely on a possession ground, your paperwork needs to be in order.
4. Familiarise your team with the Section 8 grounds — the dynamics differ enough from Section 21 practice that anyone handling landlord queries needs the new framework.

See how PropertyGoose compares against alternatives on referencing and tenancy management.

A note on what comes next

The Act is being implemented in phases. The next major step is the Private Rented Sector Database, with rollout beginning in late 2026 on a regional basis and continuing into 2027. Registration will become mandatory for landlords and will carry an annual fee, so it is worth getting your tenancy management in order now rather than scrambling later.

The transition to periodic tenancies is not a crisis — it is a structural change that rewards landlords and agents who are organised. The grounds for possession are workable and the rent-review process is straightforward if you plan ahead. What it does not reward is passivity.

Craig Ryder is co-founder of PropertyGoose, a tenant referencing and tenancy management platform built by ex-letting agents. Book a demo to see how PropertyGoose handles referencing, tenancy agreements and the compliance paperwork that periodic tenancies require.