Periodic tenancy

Once the exception, now the rule — since 1 May 2026 every assured tenancy in England rolls period by period rather than running to a fixed end date.

Are fixed-term tenancies gone completely?

For assured tenancies in England, yes. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 abolished fixed-term assured tenancies and assured shorthold tenancies, so that all tenancies under the Housing Act 1988 are now assured periodic tenancies. That change applied to new and existing tenancies from 1 May 2026. Some tenancy types outside the assured regime, such as certain company lets and long leases, are not affected.

What happened to my existing fixed-term agreement?

It converted. Existing assured shorthold tenancies became assured periodic tenancies under the new regime, with transitional arrangements for cases where a notice had already been served before 1 May 2026. Where such a notice was served, the tenancy converts once the court process ends or, if proceedings were not started by the relevant deadline, at that point.

How much notice does a tenant have to give?

Two months. Under the new regime a tenant can bring a periodic tenancy to an end at any point by giving two months' notice, which is a significant change from being locked into a fixed term until it expired. The notice must expire at the end of a rent period unless the tenancy agreement provides otherwise.

How much notice does a landlord have to give?

There is no longer a no-fault route: section 21 was abolished. A landlord must rely on a ground for possession under Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 as amended, and the notice period depends on which ground is used. Grounds such as the landlord or a family member moving in carry longer notice periods than grounds based on serious rent arrears or anti-social behaviour.

Does the rent period matter?

It does. The period of a periodic tenancy is normally set by how the rent is payable — monthly rent produces a monthly periodic tenancy — and that period governs when notices can expire and how rent increases operate. Under the new regime rent can generally be increased once a year using the statutory section 13 procedure, with the tenant able to challenge the proposed rent at the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).

Can a landlord ask me to sign a new fixed-term agreement?

A landlord can present any document they like, but an agreement cannot contract out of the statutory regime. An assured tenancy of a dwelling in England is periodic by operation of the Act, and a clause purporting to create a fixed term or to remove the tenant's statutory notice rights does not achieve that. If you are asked to sign something that looks like a fixed term, it is worth checking what it actually does before signing.

Renters' Rights · Glossary

Once the exception, now the rule — since 1 May 2026 every assured tenancy in England rolls period by period rather than running to a fixed end date.

Last reviewed: August 2026

Renters' Rights track

is a tenancy that continues from one rent period to the next with no fixed end date, ending only when one side gives valid notice or a court makes a possession order.

Where this comes from

Renters' Rights Act 2025, Part 1 Chapter 1

— abolishes fixed-term and shorthold assured tenancies.

— the framework the 2025 Act amends.

Commencement No. 2 Regulations 2026

— brings the new tenancy regime into force on 1 May 2026.

Implementation roadmap

— how and when each part of the Act took effect.

What changed, and when

For nearly forty years the standard private tenancy in England was the assured shorthold tenancy: a fixed term, usually six or twelve months, followed by a statutory periodic tenancy if neither side did anything. During the fixed term the tenant could not usually leave; after it, the landlord could recover possession without giving a reason by serving a

dismantled that structure. From 1 May 2026, fixed-term and shorthold assured tenancies were abolished and every assured tenancy became periodic. Section 21 went with them. The result is a single tenancy type that continues indefinitely and ends only by tenant notice, by agreement, or by a landlord establishing a statutory ground in court.

The change applied to existing tenancies as well as new ones, which is unusual and deliberate — a staged rollout would have left two parallel regimes running for years. Transitional provisions in the commencement regulations deal with cases where a notice had already been served before the switchover date.

How a periodic tenancy runs

What the shift means for a tenant

A tenant signed a twelve-month assured shorthold tenancy in October 2025 at £1,150 a month, with the fixed term due to run to October 2026. Under the old rules she could not leave before then without the landlord's agreement or a break clause, and from October 2026 the landlord could have served a section 21 notice and recovered possession without giving a reason.

On 1 May 2026 her tenancy became an assured periodic tenancy by operation of the Act. In June she is offered a job two hundred miles away. She gives two months' notice ending at the end of a rent period, and the tenancy ends in August — two months before the old fixed term would have expired, without penalty.

Had she stayed, the position from October would also have been different. The landlord could not simply serve a no-fault notice; he would have needed a ground under Schedule 2, such as intending to sell or to move a family member in, with the notice period that ground carries and the possibility of the tenant disputing the ground in court.

Security, flexibility, and the trade-offs

The periodic regime is usually described as increasing tenant security, and in the main it does: the removal of no-fault eviction means a tenant cannot be asked to leave simply because the landlord prefers someone else, and every possession route now requires a reason that can be tested. It also removes the fixed-term trap that kept tenants paying for homes they needed to leave.

It is not one-directional, though. A fixed term gave a tenant certainty of price and occupation for its duration; a periodic tenancy does not, and rent can be reviewed annually through the statutory route. The counterweight is the ability to challenge a proposed increase at the

, which can determine the open market rent rather than simply approving what the landlord asked for.

For landlords the change tightened the possession process considerably, and some of the new grounds carry restrictions on re-letting after possession is recovered — a safeguard against grounds being used as a workaround for the abolished no-fault route. Where a ground is misused, a tenant may have a remedy, and where a landlord recovers possession by deception the conduct can be relevant to enforcement action.

The practical advice for tenants is unglamorous but effective: keep the tenancy agreement, keep the rent records, keep written notice of anything the landlord serves, and check the notice period against the ground actually relied on. Most disputes about periodic tenancies turn on whether the right ground was used with the right notice, and those are documentary questions.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & further reading

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Last reviewed: August 2026.

References checked against the Renters' Rights Act 2025 and the Commencement No. 2 Regulations 2026 as in force on 17 August 2026.

This page is explanatory only and is not legal advice. Start My Claim is self-service software, not a law firm — its tools help you build and run your own case.