England’s new Renters’ Rights Act has a notice trap – what renters should know
Key Points
- The Renters' Rights Act 2025 requires tenants in England to give at least two months' notice to end a rental
- Notice must be timed to expire at the end of a tenancy period, not the day it is served
- All assured tenancies moved to monthly periods from 1 May 2026, with longer or irregular periods automatically converting
- Tenants can give shorter notice only with written landlord agreement, or if a shorter period was already in the tenancy
- Fixed-term tenancies that transitioned on 1 May 2026 now run on monthly periods
Tenants in England must give at least two months’ notice to leave a rental and align that notice to expire at the end of a tenancy period, the government has confirmed.
The confirmation came in a written answer from Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook to Liberal Democrat MP Joshua Reynolds, who asked how rental periods are determined for tenants giving notice when rent was paid in advance under a previous agreement.
The rules sit within the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, which moved all assured tenancies in England onto a single periodic system from 1 May 2026.
Under the Act, the tenancy period and the rent period must be the same, and neither can run longer than one month.
Tenancies that were mid-period on 1 May 2026 transferred to the new system but kept their existing period until it ended.
Once transitioned, a tenancy retains its original period length if that was one month or shorter. Periods longer than one month, including irregular arrangements, automatically convert to monthly once the period straddling 1 May completes.
Fixed-term tenancies that transitioned on the same date now also run on monthly periods.
The two-month notice requirement is paired with a period-end alignment rule. A tenant who serves notice mid-period must still wait at least two months, but if the two-month point falls mid-period, the notice extends to the next period end, pushing the effective wait beyond two months.
Tenants can give shorter notice only if the landlord agrees in writing, or if a shorter notice period was already written into the existing tenancy agreement.
“From 1 May, under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, the tenancy and rent periods of an Assured Periodic Tenancy must be the same and cannot be longer than one month,” Pennycook said.
He directed tenants and landlords to government guidance published on gov.uk for more information.
