The Renters' Rights Act for HMO landlords

The Renters' Rights Act applies to HMO landlords like any other private landlord in England: your tenancies are now periodic, section 21 has gone, and you need a Section 8 ground to get possession. Three things matter more for HMOs: Ground 4A for student houses, higher penalties and rent repayment orders for licensing breaches, and the rules on joint tenancies when sharers leave.

How the Renters' Rights Act affects HMO landlords

Area	What changed for HMOs
Tenancies	Every tenancy became an assured periodic tenancy on 1 May 2026; no fixed terms
Student lets	Ground 4A lets you recover a student HMO for new students, if you meet strict conditions
Licensing	Civil penalties of up to £40,000 (was £30,000); rent repayment orders of up to 2 years' rent
Enforcement	Ground 6B for licence refusal, revocation or over-occupation, with possible compensation
Sharers	One joint tenant's notice usually ends the joint tenancy for everyone
Letting rooms	One fixed rent per advert, no "No DSS", no more than a month's rent upfront

Student HMOs: Ground 4A

Ground 4A is a mandatory ground for recovering a student house so it can be let to new students. All of these conditions must be met:

1. The property is, or is in, an HMO.
2. Every tenant met the student test when the tenancy was entered into: a full-time student, or someone you reasonably believed would become one.
3. You gave a written statement before the tenancy that you may want to recover possession on this ground.
4. The tenancy was entered into 6 months or less before the tenants became entitled to move in.
5. The date in the notice falls between 1 June and 30 September.
6. You intend to re-let to students.

The notice period is 4 months. Without the written statement, the ground can't be used at all.

For tenancies that existed before 1 May 2026, the statement had to be given by 31 May 2026, and condition 4 doesn't apply. For "qualifying student tenancies", where the landlord or manager belongs to a specified code of practice, conditions 1 and 5 don't apply either.

Example. Raj agrees a tenancy of a 5-bedroom HMO with five full-time students on 10 May 2026, for a 1 September 2026 move-in, which is within 6 months. He gives the Ground 4A statement before they sign. To get the house back for next year's students, he picks 15 June 2027 as the date in the notice. With 4 months' notice, he must serve no later than 15 February 2027.

On the timing: for a 30 September notice date, the latest service date is 30 May, and for a 1 June date, the earliest is 1 February. A planned exemption for purpose-built student accommodation has not been confirmed in detail yet. For the wider options, see evicting student tenants.

Licensing: what changed

The licensing rules themselves are the Housing Act 2004 rules you already know:

• Mandatory HMO licence: an HMO occupied by 5 or more people in 2 or more households, meeting one of the statutory tests.
• Additional licensing: councils can designate areas where smaller HMOs need a licence.
• Selective licensing: councils can require most privately rented houses in an area to be licensed.

What the Renters' Rights Act changed is the cost of getting it wrong:

• Civil penalty of up to £40,000 for letting without a required licence, breaching licence conditions or the HMO management regulations, for conduct on or after 1 May 2026. The old cap was £30,000.
• Rent repayment orders of up to 2 years' rent for licensing offences committed on or after 1 May 2026, up from 12 months.
• Superior landlords can now be liable for licensing offences and rent repayment orders, which matters if you let a building to an operator who sublets rooms.

A valid licence application, or a temporary exemption notice, is a defence to the offence of letting without a licence, so apply before you let. Licence conditions still include an annual gas safety certificate to the council, safe electrics and furniture, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, a written statement of terms to occupiers and minimum bedroom sizes. See the HMO licence and fire safety guides.

Ground 6B: when enforcement forces a tenancy to end

Ground 6B covers cases where continuing a tenancy would conflict with enforcement action, including:

• a mandatory HMO or selective licence refused or revoked;
• the house over-occupied beyond the number allowed by its licence;
• an improvement notice naming overcrowding, or a prohibition order incompatible with occupation;
• a banning order or planning enforcement action.

The notice period is 4 months. The court can order you to compensate the tenant for loss caused by the order, taking the tenant's own conduct into account, so Ground 6B is not a cost-free fix for a licensing problem.

Joint tenancies and room-by-room lets

How you let the house changes how tenancies end.

One joint tenancy for the whole house:

• one tenant's written notice usually ends the joint tenancy for everyone;
• a shorter notice period only works if you and all the tenants agree it in writing;
• withdrawing a notice needs you and all the tenants to agree;
• if some sharers want to stay, you can grant them a new tenancy, which needs a new written statement before it is agreed;
• every joint tenant must be named on Form 3A and on Form 4A. See Section 8 notices for joint tenants.

A separate tenancy for each room: each tenancy has its own start date, its own notices and its own rent-increase timing. A Section 13 increase on one room doesn't reset the clock on the others.

Bills-inclusive rents

Many HMO rents include bills. The written statement for a new tenancy must list any bills included in the rent: what they cover, how much and when due. This applies to council tax, utilities, the TV licence, communications services and green deal charges only.

When you raise the rent with Form 4A, the form asks you to set out service charges and bills. Get the figures right: the effect of an error on validity isn't settled, so treat it as a risk.

Letting rooms under the new rules

• Adverts: one fixed rent per room. No ranges and no offers above it. See the rental bidding ban.
• Applicants: no blanket bans on benefit claimants or families.
• Pets: another tenant's allergy is one of GOV.UK's examples of a reasonable refusal.
• Database: under the draft regulations, each property entry will record the number of occupants and households and any licence.

What to do next

If you need a student house back for next year, check your Ground 4A statement and the June to September window now, then let our Section 8 notice builder work out the latest service date and fill in Form 3A. For licensing, start with your council's scheme and the HMO licence guide, and see the Renters' Rights Act hub for every other change.