Since 1 May 2026, the concept of a “fixed term” has effectively disappeared from English tenancy law. Every assured shorthold tenancy converted automatically to an assured periodic tenancy, and no new fixed terms can be created. For landlords who have run their letting business around fixed-term renewals for years, this is one of the biggest operational shifts in the Renters’ Rights Act — bigger, in some ways, than the abolition of Section 21, because it touches almost every property, not just the ones heading toward possession.
Here is what actually changes, in practical terms.
There is no renewal decision any more. A tenancy that used to come up for a twelve-month renewal simply continues indefinitely. You don’t sign anything, you don’t review terms at a fixed point, and there is no natural moment to reconsider the arrangement unless you create one deliberately.
Your tenant can leave whenever they choose. Two months’ written notice, at any point, for any reason. There’s no minimum term protecting you from an early departure, which means the assumption that a tenancy will run at least a year — baked into most landlords’ cash flow planning — no longer holds.
You cannot enforce a fixed term retrospectively. If your existing paperwork still references a fixed term, attempting to hold a tenant to it can attract a civil penalty. It’s not just unenforceable; it’s actively risky to try.
Break clauses are redundant. Any break clause in an older agreement has no practical function any more, since the tenant already has the right to leave on two months’ notice regardless of what the clause says.
Rent reviews follow a fixed rhythm now, independent of tenancy start dates. Rent can only increase once a year, using Form 4A, with two months’ notice — not whenever your old contract’s renewal date happened to fall.
Void planning needs a shorter runway. Where landlords used to budget on the assumption of at least a year’s occupancy, planning now has to account for a tenant who could leave in month two.
Maintenance scheduling loses its natural checkpoint. A lot of landlords used the changeover between fixed terms as a moment to catch up on non-urgent repairs or redecoration. That checkpoint doesn’t exist in the same way now, so maintenance planning needs its own independent schedule.
Re-letting can’t wait for a known end date. Because notice can land at any point, marketing a re-let earlier — as soon as notice is received — matters more than it used to, since there’s no long lead time to plan around.
Referencing standards matter more, not less. If tenancies may turn over faster on average, the cost of a poor referencing decision compounds faster too.
Safety certificate renewals need independent tracking. Gas safety, EICR and other statutory renewals were sometimes anchored to tenancy start dates as a memory aid. With no fixed tenancy calendar to hang them on, they need their own tracking system.
Insurance assumptions may need revisiting. Some landlord insurance products were priced or structured around minimum tenancy lengths. Worth checking whether a policy taken out under the old system still reflects how tenancies actually run now.
And if you ever need possession, it’s a Section 8 process from day one. There’s no fallback to a simple “the fixed term has ended” position — every possession claim, at any point in a periodic tenancy, needs a specific ground and the notice period that ground requires, up to four months in the most common cases.
None of these twelve changes is difficult in isolation. What catches landlords out is the number of them landing simultaneously, on every single tenancy, with no transition period to ease into the new rhythm. The practical fix is to treat this as a full process review rather than a series of small adjustments — go through your own tenancy management from marketing to renewal to possession, and check each stage against what’s actually true now rather than what was true before 1 May.
This article is general information about a legislative change, not legal advice on your specific circumstances. Property Lounge, Guildford — ARLA Propertymark accredited.
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