You put your tenant on a 12-month fixed term, and now you are hearing that fixed terms are gone. So what is your tenant actually on? The short answer is an assured periodic tenancy. It is the single tenancy type left standing after the Renters' Rights Act 2025, and from 1 May 2026 every assured tenancy in England runs on it.
Here is what that means for the way a tenancy starts, rolls on, and ends.
What "periodic" means
A periodic tenancy has no fixed end date. Instead of running for a set block of months and then expiring, it renews automatically from one rent period to the next. It carries on, period after period, until either you or your tenant ends it in the way the law allows.
Before the reforms, most assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) started with a fixed term, often 6 or 12 months, and only became periodic if nobody signed a renewal. From 1 May 2026 that first fixed stage is removed. The tenancy is periodic from day one.
Why fixed terms disappeared
The change comes from the Renters' Rights Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and whose main tenancy reforms commenced on 1 May 2026. The Act abolished Section 21 "no fault" evictions and converted all assured tenancies into a single periodic type. You can read the government's overview on gov.uk.
Any fixed term you had running on 1 May 2026 converted automatically on that date. You did not need to re-paper anything for the conversion itself. If you served a valid Section 21 notice before 1 May 2026, it stays enforceable in court only until 31 July 2026, after which the no-fault route is closed for good.
| Before 1 May 2026 | From 1 May 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Tenancy shape | Fixed term, then periodic | Periodic from day one |
| Landlord no-fault route | Section 21 | Abolished (Section 8 grounds only) |
| Tenant leaving | Often locked in for the term | Two months' notice, any time |
| Rent period | Could match the term | Capped at one month |
Rent periods now run monthly
The "period" in a periodic tenancy is tied to how often rent is paid, but the Act caps it at one month. So:
- A tenant who pays monthly has monthly rent periods.
- A tenant who pays weekly has weekly periods.
- A period can never be longer than a month, even if rent used to be collected quarterly or termly.
There is a linked rule worth knowing: you cannot demand more than one month's rent in advance. If your old tenancy took a term's rent up front, that model no longer works from 1 May 2026. Check the current gov.uk guidance before setting your payment terms.
How a tenant ends the tenancy
This is the part landlords most often ask about, because it changes your void planning. A tenant on an assured periodic tenancy can leave at any time by giving notice in writing. Under the Act the tenant must give at least two months' notice, and the notice has to expire at the end of a rent period, not mid-period.
That second rule is easy to miss, so here is a worked example.
Worked example: when the tenant actually leaves
Say your tenant pays £1,200 on the 1st of each month, so their rent periods run from the 1st to the last day of the month. On 10 March they hand you written notice that they want to go.
- Two months from 10 March is 10 May.
- But the notice must end at the end of a rent period.
- The first period-end that falls on or after 10 May is 31 May.
So the tenancy ends on 31 May, and the tenant owes rent up to and including that date. Notice that the leaving date is nearly two months and three weeks away, not exactly two months. If you are modelling voids or lining up a new tenant, work to the end-of-period date, not the notice date. The gap between the two is where landlords misjudge re-let timing.
How you end the tenancy as a landlord
You no longer have a no-fault route. To regain possession you must rely on a ground under Section 8 and, where the ground is contested, prove it to a court. The grounds split into mandatory (the court must grant possession if the ground is made out) and discretionary (the court decides what is reasonable).
A few that matter in day-to-day letting:
- Selling the property, or moving yourself or a close family member in. As set out in the government guidance, this needs four months' notice and cannot be used in the first 12 months of the tenancy. Date-check this against current gov.uk guidance before you rely on it.
- Serious rent arrears, which have their own dedicated grounds, thresholds and notice periods.
- Anti-social behaviour and breach of tenancy, handled through their own grounds.
The practical takeaway is that your route to possession now depends on evidence rather than a two-month no-reason notice, so keep clean records of rent, communications and any breaches.
Rent increases under the new model
Because there is no fixed term to renegotiate at, rent rises go through one statutory route. You can raise the rent once a year using a Section 13 notice, giving the tenant at least two months' notice of the new figure (check the current gov.uk figure, as the procedural detail has been refined). The tenant can refer a proposed increase to the First-tier Tribunal, which cannot set the rent higher than the amount you asked for.
What to do now
- Treat every tenancy as month-to-month for planning, and expect that even a settled tenant can give notice with roughly two to three months' real-world lead time.
- Stop taking large rent-in-advance payments and move everyone to monthly (or their existing weekly) periods.
- Tighten your record-keeping so a Section 8 ground is easy to evidence if you ever need it.
- Diarise the 31 July 2026 cut-off if you are still relying on a pre-May Section 21 notice.
The shift from fixed terms to a single assured periodic tenancy is less about paperwork on day one and more about how tenancies end. Your tenant gains flexibility to leave, and you gain a grounds-based, evidence-led route to possession. Plan your voids and your records around both.
This is general information, not tax or financial advice. Rules and dates change, so check the current position on gov.uk or with a qualified adviser before acting.
