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!

DS is in Wales. There tenancy runs 1st July to 30th June. Instead of a deposit they pay the last 6weeks of rent up front. They have just organised the house for next year. This one requires a deposit but if they don’t move in until 1st of August they only pay 50% of the rent for July.
I assume that most landlords will just increase rent to offset the loss of rent for two months.
Some student lets in Wales only rent from September to end of July but this is reflected in the rent.
Landlords may market their properties as 9-10 month lets but this will be reflected in the rental cost.

Another good reason for not renting property and particularly to students. Next there will be a huge complaint that there isn't enough student accommodation. There is already a problem with family rentals because landlords have all these new regulations to cope with and many are giving up.

Except there is a special provision for students which gives Landlords an extra grounds for getting the property back at least at the end of August. Whereas it will be much harder to get rid of non-student tenants.

No, i didn’t say it will stop the rush to sign up. But that it will stop students who have signed up early being stuck with a house they no longer need if they have dropped out. Currently they’d have to pay for the whole year even if they left unless they find someone to take over.

They'll just increase the rent for future students to spread the lost couple of months in the middle. Your DD is in the small group lucky enough to have this rule in place, without the raised rent. So yes, make the most of it! Small wins!

The new renters rights act have been public knowledge for a longtime. Living of the rent of someone else is a luxury of unearned income and I do not feel sorry for any landlord - me included! The harddone by land lord can simply sell the property. More concern for landlords is being stuck with tennents and no section 21.

anyway in answer to the OP yes do it. Give notice early. Landlords knew far before September that new rules were coming . Many landlords are selling their properties. We have one as we didn’t sell ours in time to move into our new house so we decide to rent to secure our property. We need to sell it to reclaim stamp duty. Another friend had a property left to them in an inheritance and a third kept their first property purchase. All are selling due to new renters rights acts.

these right have been put in place for this reason so use them!

But if the student who is dropping out has rented with other people as a group, then if they decide they're going to give notice and end their tenancy early, that effectively ends the tenancy early for the rest of the group?

I wonder whether landlords will move to only offering individual room arrangements, which would solve great ptoblem of losing a whole houseful of tenants early if one wants to go? Are they able to do this easily, legally speaking? (DS2 is in a 'grown up HMO' like this, and we also live next door to a house let out as individual rooms - DS2's house has a communal kitchen area and shared shower rooms, the house next door shared shower rooms and laundry facilities, with individual cooking facilities).

@MarchingFrogs my friends who have kids at uni are all on individual room contracts in a hmo student house. So parents act as guarantors but only for their child. So I think some already do this.

Ah, see what you mean.

Although, won't that will shift the problem somewhere else? LL will have to cover mortgage/costs/make some return to make it worthwhile. So the other students will have to suck up the cost one way or another including for split bills, or get someone else they can all live with or have to take on board someone less than ideal - which really may not be the happiest or safest outcome

I don't see the lack of certainty for everyone else as a great benefit for students or LL's. In fact, it seems inherently unfair to allow people to be flaky about contracts they have signed in good faith and for everyone else to have to shoulder the consequences.

Sadly, I do think it will result in fewer 'houseshares' which was one of the benefits of going away to Uni. Now there seem to be more and more of those individual units where it is easy to miss the going away Uni experience because loads of people just stay in their rooms instead of having to work out where to rent together, how to split bills, how to split the cleaning, cook together, eat together etc.

Where Dd is renting they go Sept 1st to June 1st for her HMO. If they want extra weeks they charge at a slightly lower rate so some students stay all year or a few extra weeks and others just go home. They use the summer, cleaning painting and repairing replacing anything that needs doing. If it is Sept to sept, they have no time to do all this.
Nice that the rules are changing and students can finish and go home once they finish Uni.

Unlike in the past there will be little incentive for a landlord to agree a contract early, as people could give notice lo9ng before the tenancy came into effect.

I am a landlord, and if I were in that market I would not start marketing until I knew when the previous tenants were leaving. So they give notice in April to leave in June, I start marketing in May. Or they decide to use their full twelve months and leave in August. In which case marketing starts in June.

It may mean either flat hunting in the middle of first or second year exams or returning to the University town in the summer to look. The landlord should be able to reply on an increased demand arising from a reduced supply. London already works like this. Student tenancies will be more attractive because they can be ended, though students tend not to look after properties as well.

Selective licensing is contributing to a general decline in the number of shared properties available. I mainly let to new graduates starting their first job in London. With so much work from home I think it is a pity that this group are increasingly encouraged to live alone. Young people can become very isolated.

“…luxury of unearned income…”

Were your properties bestowed by the fairies?

Mine were not.

giggling a bit at the “luxury of unearned income. “

I think some PP are missing the point in referring 10/12 month tenancies. No tenancy (in England) will be for a fixed term after May 1st. They are all rolling contracts which come to an end on 2 months Notice by the tenant(s). Inherently uncertain for the landlord. Inherently uncertain for sharers if they don’t agree on when the tenancy should come to an end.

If a student gives notice to expire at or just after Easter (the scenario discussed in today's Sunday Times article) the landlord won’t be able to let (to students) for the months up to the start of the next academic year. So their options are try Airbnb (not many student lets sufficient quality for this I’d argue), increase rents to cover costs or get out of this market altogether. Two out of three of these options negatively impact students.

My understanding was that the 2 months notice only comes into effect after the contract term, so I think you will need to pay a full years rent.

No this is wrong. No fixed term tenancies are permitted and the tenant can serve notice at any time.

For any new tenancies, but my understanding is that tenancies created before 1st may only roll over to new terms at the end of the tenancy period, therefore new terms not applicable until current contract expires

No - all existing tenancies automatically become rolling on May 1st and subject to the new regime

https://www.nrla.org.uk/resources/renters-rights/existing-tenancies-renters-rights-act#:~:text=The%20Renters'%20Rights%20Act%20doesn,known%20as%20the%20commencement%20date.
I’m a landlord (not for students)

Student tenancies are different
https://www.nrla.org.uk/resources/student-lettings

Not in respect of the no fixed term tenancy /notice issues being discussed

Great. So the students of today are going to totally mess things up for the students of tomorrow. Very considerate.

A tad unfair to blame it on the students who are just taking advantage of the (ridiculous, misguided, full of bear traps) legislation passed by this government.

It’s a bit rich to blame current students - if anyone is to blame it is those thar have supported the legislation. Landlords will just have to adapt to working within the new law.

Re-entry might be more expensive next academic year, depending on the city

Rental income is classed as inearned but HMRC. It takes me very little to manage the property. My husband built it brick by brick. So I that terms he did earn it. But it still annincre of incredible privilege.

One colleague has three rental properties and has them all mortgaged and lets them to benefits tenants and earns an absolute bomb. She also has an air bnb. It’s definitely unearned . they are selling them.