Can student tenants end a fixed term HMO tenancy early under new renters' rights rules?

[Bezaz]

Wasn't sure whether to put this in Property or in Higher Ed.
DD is renting a student HMO in her uni town. It was a fixed term 12 month tenancy which was signed last year to run between 1st Sept 2025 and 31st Aug 2026. However she and her housemates are all finished with uni by the middle of June, and keen to pack up and come home.
Under the new Renters Rights Act (which comes into effect on 1st May), can they, on that day, give two months notice of their intention to leave the house on 1st July, and thus save themselves two months worth of rent? Presimbaly any new tenants won't be moving in until 1st Sep 2026.
Any advice welcome!

Yes that sounds correct. So on 1 May 2026, they can serve notice that expires at the end of June 2026 / 1 July 2026. They would then be free to leave and stop paying rent from that point. The landlord cannot force them to stay or pay the extra two months.

This is as I understood it too.
But it's surely going to result in a lot of summer "void periods" for landlords renting to students?

I expect lots of student landlords will
put prices up to negate this issue.

And they’ll just put the rent up going forward if that becomes a pattern for students, so the 10 months will cover what they currently get for 12 months. Or in the future the lets will start on e.g. 1 July if they want the property - which is often the start date for student lets in at least one city I know.

Or they just won’t rent to students at all….

Is this only in England?

I’ imagine they’ll immediately put it back on the market for a short term Airbnb over the summer, or with a higher rent, to factor in voids. I doubt they’ll sit empty.

Wow that would be a very harsh thing to do and will ultimately lead to rents for students going up for everyone. My dad owns 2 student houses which he lets out for under market rate. Him and mum rely on that money to live. If the students did that he’d be forced to put up the rent for the following years to compensate.

Yes, it's a bit of a cunt move if you've signed up til 31st August imo. An agreement is an agreement.

From 1st May all leases become the new rolling leases which require two months notice. They can give notice on 1st May. I cant say any of the landlords who rented to my two children at uni were particularly philanthropic, so think many students will give this notice.

Lol! Airbnb users don't tend to like black mould, filthy carpets, broken kitchens and rodent infestations! Very unlikely the landlord would be able to rent it out in this way.

The law is the law! I agree about it pushing rents up eventually; they will look at what annual return they want and split it by 10 payments instead of 12

DCs yr 1-3 houses were all 1 Aug to 31 Jul for the full 12 months, but next years house is actually only 11 months starting mid Aug 26 (so to mid Jul 27) I would imagine as a PP has said most LLs will probably shuffle the start date forward and charge the annual amount for how ever many months the agreement is for.

Yes, I read an article about this today. It will lead to rent increases and landlords leaving the market.

My son is going to give notice in the 1st May as his tennancy is due to end on the 1st August. I don’t have any sympathy for his landlord - even if there hadn’t been issues (late running building work, leaking roof, unusable 2nd bathroom), they could have been more proactive. They knew they didn’t want to resign for another year so they should have offered them early release and relet the property with a start date of the 1st July.

That's unlikely in places where it's the student-led demand for accommodation which has got the landlord their tenants most of the time. Otherwise they are looking at becoming part of social housing.

If you just bump the start date forward to July 1st this would sort that out wouldn’t it (from the landlord’s pov)? As it’s unlikely students would want to leave by May 1st as that’s a bit too early, and you can’t move in 2 months late. So if they ran their contracts from July 1st to July 1st (or June 30) this wouldn’t be such an issue.

It will. So landlords in university towns will start charging rents that factor this in and charge the same across 9 months that they used to charge across 12, in the expectation of a 3 month summer void. There will be a couple of years where students like your DC get to benefit before the market adjusts.

Agree. They already get more for the house per month renting it out to students than if they were renting it out normally. I have no sympathy. When I was a student our landlord didn’t charge us over the summer (and we stayed in the same house for two years). We had to empty our stuff and not stay there but we didn’t have to pay rent for three months. IIRC that was normal.

I think it’s great. Too many students sign up by Xmas for the following academic year and then fall out with friends or leave the course and are stuck with a contract they don’t need. This will stop that. And it’s the landlords who fuel the panic over the early sign ups so again no sympathy. They tell everyone that there won’t be any houses left if they don’t sign up quickly.

Some people prefer to move their stuff in the end of the summer term. That's what my dd is doing. Her landlord won't have a void period as she's starting her tenancy the beginning of summer

Other dd has been in a house for three years and has always had to move her stuff out over summer (apart from under the stairs where she can keep stuff) as the landlady likes to do upkeep/decorating and cleaning etc. She's a good landlady. So it'll be no different for her. Dd doesn't pay over summer

This is what has happened at my DCs uni - rental terms are all from 1st July to the end of June.

I have very little sympathy for most student LLs. Rent is extortionate for what is often very poor quality accommodation. There’s nothing stopping LLs renting properties out on AirBnB for the summer months, it’s just too much like hard work for them.

(I am a LL).

Could you explain why it would stop the rush to sign up etc, I'm not following.

Surely there will still be (more or less) the same number of students trying to contract the same number of student houses?

Our DC signed up for a 10 month lease, priced accordingly. Property in good repair. I actually do think it is morally wrong to sign a contract priced for 12 months and then back track (if LL had not fulfilled their side of the contract, I understand those are different circumstances)

How will it help having start dates for tenancies in July as uni students don't start until September so they will still be paying two spare months won't they?