What is a periodic tenancy as defined under section 1 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025?

Section 1 of the RRA 2025 inserts a new section 4A into the Housing Act 1988, requiring that every assured tenancy granted on or after the commencement of the relevant Part be periodic with a rent period not exceeding one month. The pre-2026 distinction between 'contractual periodic' (a tenancy expressly granted as periodic from the start) and 'statutory periodic' (an AST that fell into a periodic phase at the end of its fixed term under section 5 of the Housing Act 1988) has effectively collapsed. From 1 May 2026 every new assured tenancy is periodic by force of statute, and existing fixed-term ASTs convert to periodic by the saving provisions in SI 2026/421 regulation 2. There is no remaining route to grant a new assured shorthold tenancy or a new fixed-term assured tenancy in the open-market PRS.

Did the 1 May 2026 conversion require any documentation between landlord and tenant?

No. The conversion is automatic under the saving provisions. SI 2026/421 reg.2 provides that existing fixed-term ASTs in place immediately before commencement continue as assured tenancies with periodic form. The rent figure in force on 30 April 2026 carries forward, the deposit amount carries forward, the named parties carry forward, and the original tenancy agreement remains the operative contract on its surviving terms. What does change is the legal characterisation: the fixed-term end date in the original agreement becomes a dead letter, and the tenancy continues until terminated either by the tenant (under the 2-month notice right) or by the landlord (on a substantive Section 8 ground).

What rent-period rule applies now, and what happens to a 6-monthly or annual rent agreement?

Section 1 of the RRA 2025 caps the rent period at one month. Tenancies that previously charged 6-monthly or annual rent periods have to revert to a monthly cycle from 1 May 2026 forward; the contractual provision for the longer period is no longer enforceable. The most-cited practical issue is in student lets where annual upfront rent payment was common: under the new rules, advance rent for more than the first month is also prohibited under sections 8 and 9 of the RRA 2025, so the annual-upfront model is doubly closed off. The monthly period applies even where the property is let to a corporate or institutional tenant in the standard PRS, although the small list of regulated exceptions to the assured-tenancy regime (see the carve-outs section) preserves the older models in those narrow categories.

Did the 1 May 2026 conversion change the deposit, the rent figure, or any other contract amount?

No. The conversion operates on the tenancy form, not on the contractual amounts. The deposit registered under the existing tenancy protection scheme remains in place at the same amount with the same scheme. The rent figure in force on 30 April 2026 continues until the landlord serves a Section 13 rent-increase notice under the new procedure (covered on the C4 rent-increase page). The named tenants remain the same; the same guarantors remain liable (subject to the guarantor agreement's own surviving wording, which sometimes requires review). No re-protection or re-issue of the prescribed information is required by reason of the conversion itself.

What is the landlord-side compliance checklist at the 1 May 2026 conversion point?

Five items form the operational checklist. First, gas safety certificate current; copy provided to tenant. Second, EICR current (5-year cycle); copy provided to tenant. Third, EPC current (10-year cycle); minimum E rating. Fourth, deposit protected in an approved scheme; prescribed information served on the tenant (no re-service required by the conversion itself, but the file should evidence the original timely service). Fifth, RRA Information Sheet served on the tenant by 31 May 2026 (the transitional deadline for existing tenancies). The Information Sheet is the prescribed form under SI 2026/421 setting out the new rights and obligations under the periodic regime. Failure to serve the Information Sheet by the deadline can attract a civil penalty up to £7,000 under the lower band of the RRA penalty scale.

Are there tenancies that did NOT convert on 1 May 2026?

Yes. The assured tenancy regime never applied to all rented housing, and several carve-outs preserve their pre-2026 characterisation. Fixed-term tenancies of 7 years or more (long leases) are outside the assured tenancy regime under paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 to the Housing Act 1988 and continue under their fixed-term form. Business tenancies (where the property is let for use as a place of business and the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 Part II regime applies) are outside the assured regime and continue under the 1954 Act framework. Company lets (where the named tenant is a company, not an individual, and the property is occupied by an individual nominated by the company) sit in a separate non-assured category and similarly do not convert. Holiday lets, lets to lodgers in the landlord's home, and certain accommodation tied to employment are also outside the assured regime. A landlord uncertain about whether their tenancy converted should look at the named tenant and the use, not at the tenancy agreement title.

Does my BTL mortgage condition that required an assured shorthold tenancy still bind me?

The clause survives but is no longer literally compliable. Most mainstream BTL mortgage products written before 2025 require the landlord to let on an assured shorthold tenancy as a condition of the mortgage. Post-1-May-2026 there is no route to grant a new AST in the open-market PRS, so the literal condition has been overtaken by statute. Lenders have moved or are moving their conditions to require 'an assured tenancy on the standard terms of the Renters' Rights Act 2025' or similar updated wording. Where a lender has not yet updated its conditions, the borrower's obligation in practice is to comply with the statutory regime (which the lender cannot contract out of) and to notify the lender of the tenancy form on the next renewal or remortgage. A handful of buy-to-let products contained accelerated-possession-based covenants that referenced the Section 21 procedure; these covenants are also overtaken by statute and similarly need a lender-side update. Brokers report few practical issues so far; landlords should make sure correspondence with the lender records the position before any tenancy-form question becomes contested.

Does my rent guarantee insurance still cover the periodic tenancy that replaced the AST?

Conditionally. Rent guarantee insurance policies typically include a definition of the insured tenancy that referenced 'an assured shorthold tenancy' as a precondition of cover. Insurers have updated policy wording since 2025 to refer to 'an assured tenancy under the Housing Act 1988 as amended by the Renters' Rights Act 2025', but landlords on legacy wordings should check whether the cover continues automatically on the converted periodic tenancy or whether a wording amendment is required at next renewal. The other change worth noting: rent guarantee insurance underwriting often required compliance with deposit protection and gas safety certification as a condition of claim payout; the addition of the RRA Information Sheet (and, when the database is commenced, PRS Database registration) to the underwriting requirements is likely on next-policy-cycle renewals.

What about lets to international students, lets to people on relocation packages, and other tenancy types that previously sat on annual fixed terms?

All converted to periodic on 1 May 2026 if the underlying tenancy was an assured shorthold tenancy. The fact that the tenant is an international student, a relocating employee, or has an external sponsor does not change the assured-tenancy characterisation. The practical impact: the tenant retains the 2-month notice right at any point in the tenancy, the landlord cannot bind the tenant to a 12-month minimum stay, and any contractual minimum-term clause is unenforceable to the extent it conflicts with the statutory notice right. Landlords letting to international students should now build their commercial position around the tenant's incentive to stay (a deposit refund commitment, a referee letter, a smooth-exit pathway) rather than around a contractual minimum-stay obligation.

Can I still grant a contractual periodic tenancy with a longer notice period built in?

No, to the extent the contractual notice period is longer than the statutory 2-month tenant-notice right. Section 1 of the RRA 2025 makes the 2-month tenant-notice right statutory, and any contractual provision purporting to require a longer notice from the tenant is unenforceable under section 11 of the RRA 2025 (anti-contracting-out provisions). The landlord's contractual notice obligations in the agreement are similarly subject to the statutory Section 8 ground notice periods (4 weeks for Ground 8 arrears, 4 months for Ground 1A landlord sale, etc.) rather than to any agreement-specific period. The drafting space for differentiation between standard PRS tenancies is therefore narrower than it was pre-2026; the contract sits within a substantially more prescribed statutory framework.

Do I need to issue a new tenancy agreement at the 1 May 2026 conversion?

No, but it is good practice for new tenancies starting on or after 1 May 2026. The existing AST agreement remains operative on its surviving terms; the conversion does not invalidate the contract, it simply removes the fixed-term characterisation. For tenancies that started before 1 May 2026, the cleanest approach is to leave the original agreement in place, serve the RRA Information Sheet by 31 May 2026 (and retain proof of service), and update the file to record the conversion event. For tenancies starting on or after 1 May 2026, the new agreement should be drafted on the post-RRA template (the C8 tenancy-agreement-clause-template page covers the practical drafting points). A wholesale re-papering exercise on every tenancy in the portfolio is generally not necessary and is a significant operational cost for limited practical benefit.

How does the conversion affect tenancies that are mid-way through a fixed-term lock-in clause with a break clause and a deposit-deduction-for-early-exit clause?

Both clauses are likely overtaken in different ways. The fixed-term lock-in clause (the requirement to stay for the agreed term) is overtaken by the statutory 2-month tenant-notice right; the tenant can serve 2 months' notice at any point and the lock-in provision is unenforceable to the extent it conflicts. The deposit-deduction-for-early-exit clause (where the landlord retains all or part of the deposit if the tenant leaves before the end of the fixed term) is unenforceable because the deposit is held by reference to specified statutory grounds (damage, unpaid rent, breach of the tenancy) and not by reference to the early-exit. A landlord facing a tenant who serves 2-month notice in May 2026 having moved in only in March 2026 cannot deduct from the deposit on the basis of the original 'minimum 12-month stay' clause. The tenant nonetheless remains liable for any rent owing up to the end of the notice period and for any genuine damage or breach.

Are conversion-related professional fees, e.g. legal review of guarantor agreements or insurance wording, tax-deductible?

Yes, generally. Legal fees for reviewing existing tenancy documentation, guarantor agreements, and insurance wording in response to the statutory change are an incidental cost of operating the rental business and pass the wholly-and-exclusively test under ITTOIA 2005 s.272 for an existing property business. They are revenue rather than capital because they relate to the ongoing administration of the lettings, not to the acquisition or disposal of the underlying asset. The deductibility position aligns with the treatment of other regulatory-compliance professional fees (gas-certificate inspection, EICR engineering fees, deposit-scheme administration), all of which are revenue-deductible against rental income.

Landlord Tax Essentials

From Fixed-Term to Periodic: How Existing ASTs Converted on 1 May 2026

22 May 2026 · Property Tax Partners Editorial Team · 10 min read

Section 1 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 made periodic tenancy the structural default for every assured tenancy in England, and section 2 abolished the assured shorthold tenancy regime altogether. The Commencement No. 2 and Transitional and Saving Provisions Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/421) appointed 1 May 2026 as the day on which existing fixed-term ASTs converted automatically into periodic assured tenancies. No new agreement was needed, no tenant signature was needed, and the conversion did not change the rent figure in force, the deposit amount, or the parties; it changed the tenancy form. This page is the operational reference on what the conversion did, what stayed the same, what the landlord checklist looks like at conversion, and where the carve-outs sit (7-plus-year fixed-term leases, company lets, business tenancies).

Overhead view of monthly calendar pages, representing the monthly default rent period that became the new statutory norm on 1 May 2026

For the 4.6 million households in the private rented sector in England, the tenancy form changed on 1 May 2026 without any party signing anything. Every existing fixed-term assured shorthold tenancy that was in place immediately before commencement converted automatically into a periodic assured tenancy under the saving provisions in SI 2026/421 regulation 2, paired with the substantive abolition of the AST regime by section 2 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 and the new periodic-default rule in section 1. The conversion did not need a new agreement, did not need a new deposit registration, and did not change the rent figure in force; it changed the legal characterisation of the tenancy form, which in turn changed the notice rules, the rent-period rules, and the possession route available to the landlord.

This page is the operational reference on the conversion. It is the structural sibling to our Section 21 abolition possession guide (which covers what the landlord can now do on the possession side) and to our civil-penalty defence guide (which covers what happens when something goes wrong). The focus here is the tenancy form itself: what changed in the legal characterisation, what carried forward unchanged, and what landlords needed to do at the conversion moment.

The two statutory anchors

Section 1 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 inserts a new section 4A into the Housing Act 1988 requiring that every assured tenancy granted on or after commencement of the relevant Part be periodic with a rent period not exceeding one month. Section 2 of the RRA 2025 abolishes the assured shorthold tenancy regime. SI 2026/421 regulation 2 appointed 1 May 2026 as the day on which both came into force, and the regulation's transitional and saving provisions extended the periodic-default rule to all fixed-term ASTs in place immediately before commencement.

The structural effect: from 1 May 2026, no new assured shorthold tenancy can be granted in the open-market PRS, every new assured tenancy is periodic by force of statute, and every existing fixed-term AST has the periodic form imposed on it without needing a fresh agreement. The pre-2026 distinction between a 'contractual periodic' tenancy (one expressly granted as periodic in the original agreement) and a 'statutory periodic' tenancy (one that fell into periodic form at the end of its original fixed term under the old section 5 mechanic) has effectively collapsed. There is now only one kind of assured tenancy on the open market: a periodic one.

What the conversion did and did not change

The conversion is narrower in scope than landlords sometimes assume. Five things stayed the same on 1 May 2026: the rent figure in force on 30 April 2026 (continues until the landlord serves a Section 13 rent-increase notice under the new procedure); the deposit amount (continues at the same figure in the same approved scheme); the named tenants (no transfer or assignment is triggered by the conversion); the named guarantor (subject to the surviving force of the guarantor agreement on its own terms, discussed below); and the property itself (no change of address, leasehold interest or freehold).

Four things changed. The fixed-term end date in the original agreement became a dead letter (the tenancy no longer ends on the date the original agreement specified). The tenant gained a statutory 2-month notice right exercisable at any point in the tenancy. The landlord lost the Section 21 no-fault possession route and now has to plead a substantive Section 8 ground. The rent period defaulted to monthly maximum, with 6-monthly or annual rent periods no longer permitted.

The monthly-maximum rent period rule

Section 1 of the RRA 2025 caps the rent period at one month. The rule is straightforward in application: any contractual provision setting a longer rent period is unenforceable from 1 May 2026 forward, and the tenancy operates on a monthly cycle. The two practical contexts in which this matters most are student lets (where annual upfront rent payment was the historic norm) and corporate or premium lets (where 6-monthly upfront was sometimes used as a creditworthiness substitute).

The student-let context is doubly closed: not only is the rent period capped at one month under section 1, but sections 8 and 9 of the RRA 2025 prohibit demanding or accepting advance rent beyond the first month. The institutional student-housing model based on annual upfront payment cannot lawfully continue in the new regime, and a number of student-specialist landlords have moved to a monthly direct-debit model paired with the international-student route that uses the parent guarantor or institutional guarantee instead. The premium-let context is more flexible because the section 9 advance-rent prohibition contains a narrow set of regulated exceptions for diplomatic and certain regulated tenancies that allow upfront payment in specific circumstances; standard PRS premium lets do not benefit from those exceptions and must run on a monthly cycle.

The landlord checklist at conversion

Five operational items needed action by the conversion date or shortly afterwards.

Gas safety certificate current; copy provided to tenant on initial occupation and within 28 days of each annual renewal.
EICR current on the 5-year cycle; copy provided to tenant.
EPC current on the 10-year cycle; minimum E rating under the PRS minimum energy efficiency standards.
Deposit protected in an approved scheme; prescribed information served on the tenant within 30 days of original receipt. No re-protection or re-issue of prescribed information is required by reason of the conversion itself, but the file should evidence the original timely service.
RRA Information Sheet served on the tenant by 31 May 2026 (the transitional deadline for tenancies existing immediately before commencement). The Information Sheet is the prescribed form set out in SI 2026/421 explaining the new periodic regime and the tenant's rights under the Act. Failure to serve the Information Sheet by 31 May 2026 can attract a civil penalty of up to £7,000 under the lower band of the RRA penalty scale; serious or repeated breach can attract the higher £40,000 band.

The 31 May 2026 Information Sheet deadline is a one-time exercise with a hard cutoff. Landlords with multi-property portfolios should batch-serve the Information Sheet via the same channel (email or letter) as the rent demand, and retain proof of service against each tenancy. A spreadsheet or property-management system note recording the date served and the channel used is normally sufficient evidence for any subsequent enforcement enquiry.

The carve-outs: what did NOT convert

The assured tenancy regime under the Housing Act 1988 never applied to all rented housing, and the carve-outs preserve their pre-2026 characterisation through the conversion.

Fixed-term leases of 7 years or more are outside the assured tenancy regime under paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 to the Housing Act 1988. Long residential leases (most leasehold flats held by owner-occupiers) and 7-plus-year fixed-term private rental arrangements continue under their fixed-term form.
Business tenancies (premises let for use as a business, with the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 Part II regime applying) are outside the assured regime and continue under the 1954 Act framework with its own renewal and termination rules.
Company lets (the named tenant is a company, not an individual; the property is occupied by an individual nominated by the company, often a relocation employee or a serviced-letting arrangement) are not assured tenancies (because section 1 of the Housing Act 1988 requires the tenant to be an individual occupying as their only or principal home). They sit in a separate non-assured category and did not convert.
Holiday lets (short-term accommodation not used as a principal home) are not assured tenancies and continue under their own legal framework.
Lets to lodgers in the landlord's home (the landlord lives in the same dwelling) are excluded from the assured regime under paragraph 10 of Schedule 1 to the Housing Act 1988 and continue under their pre-2026 form.
Tied accommodation linked to employment in certain regulated categories (police, military, certain agricultural workers) continues under its own framework.

A landlord uncertain about whether a particular tenancy converted should look at the substantive characterisation: who is the named tenant (individual vs company); what is the use (principal home vs business vs holiday); and what is the original term (under 7 years vs 7-plus). The form of the tenancy agreement (AST template vs bespoke wording) is less relevant than the substance.

The guarantor question

Guarantor agreements survive the conversion in most cases but the surviving wording needs review. The drafting question turns on whether the guarantor agreement is tied to the fixed-term of the original tenancy or to the tenancy as continuing.

A guarantor agreement that expressly references the fixed-term (typical wording: 'the Guarantor guarantees the obligations of the Tenant under the Tenancy Agreement for the duration of the fixed term of 12 months from 1 September 2025') is likely to expire when the original fixed term would have ended, even though the underlying tenancy continued in periodic form. The guarantor's contractual exposure is read narrowly because guarantee obligations are not favoured at law and are construed strictly against the creditor (the landlord).

A guarantor agreement that uses open-ended wording (typical wording: 'the Guarantor guarantees the obligations of the Tenant under the Tenancy Agreement, including any continuation, renewal or holdover thereof, until the Tenant has vacated the Property') generally survives the conversion and continues to apply for the duration of the periodic continuation. The boundary case is wording that references 'any statutory continuation under section 5 of the Housing Act 1988', which now points at a section that has been overtaken by the RRA 2025 amendments; sessions advising on a contested guarantor question with this wording should escalate to specialist housing counsel.

The conservative approach for landlords with material guarantor exposure (typically multi-tenant student lets and HMOs where the guarantor is a parent or institutional sponsor) is to assume the original guarantor's exposure is capped at the original fixed-term end date and ask the guarantor to sign a fresh open-ended replacement agreement covering the periodic continuation.

The lender and insurer side

Most mainstream BTL mortgage products written before 2025 require the borrower-landlord to let on an assured shorthold tenancy as a condition of the loan. Post-1-May-2026 there is no route to grant a new AST, so the literal clause has been overtaken by statute. Lenders have moved or are moving their conditions to require 'an assured tenancy on the standard terms under the Housing Act 1988 as amended by the Renters' Rights Act 2025' or similar updated wording. Most landlords will find that their next renewal or remortgage application uses the updated wording; landlords mid-cycle should record the position in correspondence with the lender and proceed on the basis that compliance with the statutory regime is sufficient.

Rent guarantee insurance is a similar story. Policy definitions that referenced 'an assured shorthold tenancy' as a precondition of cover have been updated by most insurers for new and renewing policies, but legacy wordings continue in force until renewal. Landlords on legacy wordings should check at renewal that the cover continues automatically on a periodic assured tenancy. The underwriting questions on next-cycle renewals are also likely to include the new RRA-compliance items (Information Sheet served, periodic tenancy correctly characterised).

Worked conversion scenario

Mr and Mrs Reid let a two-bed flat in a regional town. The original tenancy began on 1 October 2024 as a 12-month fixed-term AST at £1,200 per calendar month. Deposit £1,200 protected in the DPS scheme. Annual gas safety certificate in place since 2024. EICR last inspected 2023, due for renewal 2028. EPC issued 2020, rated D, valid to 2030. The original tenancy agreement has a 'minimum 12 months' clause and a 'tenant must give 1 month notice' clause.

On 1 May 2026 the tenancy converts automatically to a periodic assured tenancy. The 'minimum 12 months' clause is unenforceable from that date forward; the 'tenant 1 month notice' clause is overridden by the statutory 2-month tenant-notice right under section 1 of the RRA 2025. The rent remains £1,200 per calendar month, deposit remains £1,200 in the DPS scheme, and the named tenants (Mr and Mrs Patel and their two adult children, all named on the original agreement) remain the same.

Mrs Reid's checklist actions in the four weeks from 1 May 2026: serve the RRA Information Sheet on the tenants by 31 May 2026 (sent by email on 12 May with read receipt); confirm gas safety certificate is current (renewed 5 March 2026, valid to 4 March 2027); confirm EICR and EPC dates (in place); confirm deposit protection status (DPS certificate dated 1 October 2024, prescribed information served on 5 October 2024, still on file). No tenancy re-papering exercise. No new deposit registration. No new prescribed information. Total operational cost of the conversion: 90 minutes of administrative time + £0 in third-party fees.

Tax-side note

The conversion itself has no direct tax implications. The rental income continues to accrue at the same monthly amount; the deductions framework is unchanged; the property continues to be assessed on the same basis. Where conversion triggers ancillary professional work (legal review of guarantor agreements, insurance-wording amendments, deposit-scheme administration), those fees are an incidental cost of operating the rental business and are revenue-deductible against rental income under ITTOIA 2005 section 272. Sessions writing on landlords with material guarantor portfolios (typically student-let or HMO landlords) should expect to see a modest deductible legal-fee bump in the 2026/27 tax year covering the conversion-driven document review.

Adjacent reading: our RRA tax-implications page for the wider tax interaction; our complete deductions list for the revenue-versus-capital boundary on professional fees; our first-time landlord pillar for the operating framework into which the new tenancy form fits.

Frequently asked questions

What is a periodic tenancy as defined under section 1 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025?: Section 1 of the RRA 2025 inserts a new section 4A into the Housing Act 1988, requiring that every assured tenancy granted on or after the commencement of the relevant Part be periodic with a rent period not exceeding one month. The pre-2026 distinction between 'contractual periodic' (a tenancy expressly granted as periodic from the start) and 'statutory periodic' (an AST that fell into a periodic phase at the end of its fixed term under section 5 of the Housing Act 1988) has effectively collapsed. From 1 May 2026 every new assured tenancy is periodic by force of statute, and existing fixed-term ASTs convert to periodic by the saving provisions in SI 2026/421 regulation 2. There is no remaining route to grant a new assured shorthold tenancy or a new fixed-term assured tenancy in the open-market PRS.
Did the 1 May 2026 conversion require any documentation between landlord and tenant?: No. The conversion is automatic under the saving provisions. SI 2026/421 reg.2 provides that existing fixed-term ASTs in place immediately before commencement continue as assured tenancies with periodic form. The rent figure in force on 30 April 2026 carries forward, the deposit amount carries forward, the named parties carry forward, and the original tenancy agreement remains the operative contract on its surviving terms. What does change is the legal characterisation: the fixed-term end date in the original agreement becomes a dead letter, and the tenancy continues until terminated either by the tenant (under the 2-month notice right) or by the landlord (on a substantive Section 8 ground).
What rent-period rule applies now, and what happens to a 6-monthly or annual rent agreement?: Section 1 of the RRA 2025 caps the rent period at one month. Tenancies that previously charged 6-monthly or annual rent periods have to revert to a monthly cycle from 1 May 2026 forward; the contractual provision for the longer period is no longer enforceable. The most-cited practical issue is in student lets where annual upfront rent payment was common: under the new rules, advance rent for more than the first month is also prohibited under sections 8 and 9 of the RRA 2025, so the annual-upfront model is doubly closed off. The monthly period applies even where the property is let to a corporate or institutional tenant in the standard PRS, although the small list of regulated exceptions to the assured-tenancy regime (see the carve-outs section) preserves the older models in those narrow categories.
Did the 1 May 2026 conversion change the deposit, the rent figure, or any other contract amount?: No. The conversion operates on the tenancy form, not on the contractual amounts. The deposit registered under the existing tenancy protection scheme remains in place at the same amount with the same scheme. The rent figure in force on 30 April 2026 continues until the landlord serves a Section 13 rent-increase notice under the new procedure (covered on the C4 rent-increase page). The named tenants remain the same; the same guarantors remain liable (subject to the guarantor agreement's own surviving wording, which sometimes requires review). No re-protection or re-issue of the prescribed information is required by reason of the conversion itself.
What is the landlord-side compliance checklist at the 1 May 2026 conversion point?: Five items form the operational checklist. First, gas safety certificate current; copy provided to tenant. Second, EICR current (5-year cycle); copy provided to tenant. Third, EPC current (10-year cycle); minimum E rating. Fourth, deposit protected in an approved scheme; prescribed information served on the tenant (no re-service required by the conversion itself, but the file should evidence the original timely service). Fifth, RRA Information Sheet served on the tenant by 31 May 2026 (the transitional deadline for existing tenancies). The Information Sheet is the prescribed form under SI 2026/421 setting out the new rights and obligations under the periodic regime. Failure to serve the Information Sheet by the deadline can attract a civil penalty up to £7,000 under the lower band of the RRA penalty scale.
Are there tenancies that did NOT convert on 1 May 2026?: Yes. The assured tenancy regime never applied to all rented housing, and several carve-outs preserve their pre-2026 characterisation. Fixed-term tenancies of 7 years or more (long leases) are outside the assured tenancy regime under paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 to the Housing Act 1988 and continue under their fixed-term form. Business tenancies (where the property is let for use as a place of business and the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 Part II regime applies) are outside the assured regime and continue under the 1954 Act framework. Company lets (where the named tenant is a company, not an individual, and the property is occupied by an individual nominated by the company) sit in a separate non-assured category and similarly do not convert. Holiday lets, lets to lodgers in the landlord's home, and certain accommodation tied to employment are also outside the assured regime. A landlord uncertain about whether their tenancy converted should look at the named tenant and the use, not at the tenancy agreement title.
What happens to a guarantor agreement when the underlying AST converted to periodic?: The guarantor agreement survives the conversion in most cases, but the surviving wording needs review. A guarantor agreement that expressly references the fixed-term of the original AST (for example 'the Guarantor guarantees the obligations of the Tenant under the Tenancy Agreement for the duration of the fixed term of 12 months from 1 September 2025') may, on its terms, expire when the original fixed term would have ended. A guarantor agreement that uses open-ended wording (for example 'the Guarantor guarantees the obligations of the Tenant under the Tenancy Agreement, including any continuation, renewal or holdover thereof') generally survives the conversion and applies to the periodic continuation. The drafting question is fact-specific; landlords with material guarantor exposure on multi-tenant or HMO student lets should review each agreement and, where the wording is tied to the fixed term, ask the guarantor to sign a fresh open-ended replacement agreement. The conservative position is to assume the original guarantor's exposure is capped at the original fixed-term end date and re-paper accordingly.
Does my BTL mortgage condition that required an assured shorthold tenancy still bind me?: The clause survives but is no longer literally compliable. Most mainstream BTL mortgage products written before 2025 require the landlord to let on an assured shorthold tenancy as a condition of the mortgage. Post-1-May-2026 there is no route to grant a new AST in the open-market PRS, so the literal condition has been overtaken by statute. Lenders have moved or are moving their conditions to require 'an assured tenancy on the standard terms of the Renters' Rights Act 2025' or similar updated wording. Where a lender has not yet updated its conditions, the borrower's obligation in practice is to comply with the statutory regime (which the lender cannot contract out of) and to notify the lender of the tenancy form on the next renewal or remortgage. A handful of buy-to-let products contained accelerated-possession-based covenants that referenced the Section 21 procedure; these covenants are also overtaken by statute and similarly need a lender-side update. Brokers report few practical issues so far; landlords should make sure correspondence with the lender records the position before any tenancy-form question becomes contested.
Does my rent guarantee insurance still cover the periodic tenancy that replaced the AST?: Conditionally. Rent guarantee insurance policies typically include a definition of the insured tenancy that referenced 'an assured shorthold tenancy' as a precondition of cover. Insurers have updated policy wording since 2025 to refer to 'an assured tenancy under the Housing Act 1988 as amended by the Renters' Rights Act 2025', but landlords on legacy wordings should check whether the cover continues automatically on the converted periodic tenancy or whether a wording amendment is required at next renewal. The other change worth noting: rent guarantee insurance underwriting often required compliance with deposit protection and gas safety certification as a condition of claim payout; the addition of the RRA Information Sheet (and, when the database is commenced, PRS Database registration) to the underwriting requirements is likely on next-policy-cycle renewals.
What about lets to international students, lets to people on relocation packages, and other tenancy types that previously sat on annual fixed terms?: All converted to periodic on 1 May 2026 if the underlying tenancy was an assured shorthold tenancy. The fact that the tenant is an international student, a relocating employee, or has an external sponsor does not change the assured-tenancy characterisation. The practical impact: the tenant retains the 2-month notice right at any point in the tenancy, the landlord cannot bind the tenant to a 12-month minimum stay, and any contractual minimum-term clause is unenforceable to the extent it conflicts with the statutory notice right. Landlords letting to international students should now build their commercial position around the tenant's incentive to stay (a deposit refund commitment, a referee letter, a smooth-exit pathway) rather than around a contractual minimum-stay obligation.
Can I still grant a contractual periodic tenancy with a longer notice period built in?: No, to the extent the contractual notice period is longer than the statutory 2-month tenant-notice right. Section 1 of the RRA 2025 makes the 2-month tenant-notice right statutory, and any contractual provision purporting to require a longer notice from the tenant is unenforceable under section 11 of the RRA 2025 (anti-contracting-out provisions). The landlord's contractual notice obligations in the agreement are similarly subject to the statutory Section 8 ground notice periods (4 weeks for Ground 8 arrears, 4 months for Ground 1A landlord sale, etc.) rather than to any agreement-specific period. The drafting space for differentiation between standard PRS tenancies is therefore narrower than it was pre-2026; the contract sits within a substantially more prescribed statutory framework.
Do I need to issue a new tenancy agreement at the 1 May 2026 conversion?: No, but it is good practice for new tenancies starting on or after 1 May 2026. The existing AST agreement remains operative on its surviving terms; the conversion does not invalidate the contract, it simply removes the fixed-term characterisation. For tenancies that started before 1 May 2026, the cleanest approach is to leave the original agreement in place, serve the RRA Information Sheet by 31 May 2026 (and retain proof of service), and update the file to record the conversion event. For tenancies starting on or after 1 May 2026, the new agreement should be drafted on the post-RRA template (the C8 tenancy-agreement-clause-template page covers the practical drafting points). A wholesale re-papering exercise on every tenancy in the portfolio is generally not necessary and is a significant operational cost for limited practical benefit.
How does the conversion affect tenancies that are mid-way through a fixed-term lock-in clause with a break clause and a deposit-deduction-for-early-exit clause?: Both clauses are likely overtaken in different ways. The fixed-term lock-in clause (the requirement to stay for the agreed term) is overtaken by the statutory 2-month tenant-notice right; the tenant can serve 2 months' notice at any point and the lock-in provision is unenforceable to the extent it conflicts. The deposit-deduction-for-early-exit clause (where the landlord retains all or part of the deposit if the tenant leaves before the end of the fixed term) is unenforceable because the deposit is held by reference to specified statutory grounds (damage, unpaid rent, breach of the tenancy) and not by reference to the early-exit. A landlord facing a tenant who serves 2-month notice in May 2026 having moved in only in March 2026 cannot deduct from the deposit on the basis of the original 'minimum 12-month stay' clause. The tenant nonetheless remains liable for any rent owing up to the end of the notice period and for any genuine damage or breach.
Are conversion-related professional fees, e.g. legal review of guarantor agreements or insurance wording, tax-deductible?: Yes, generally. Legal fees for reviewing existing tenancy documentation, guarantor agreements, and insurance wording in response to the statutory change are an incidental cost of operating the rental business and pass the wholly-and-exclusively test under ITTOIA 2005 s.272 for an existing property business. They are revenue rather than capital because they relate to the ongoing administration of the lettings, not to the acquisition or disposal of the underlying asset. The deductibility position aligns with the treatment of other regulatory-compliance professional fees (gas-certificate inspection, EICR engineering fees, deposit-scheme administration), all of which are revenue-deductible against rental income.

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From Fixed-Term to Periodic: How Existing ASTs Converted on 1 May 2026

The two statutory anchors

What the conversion did and did not change

The monthly-maximum rent period rule

The landlord checklist at conversion

The carve-outs: what did NOT convert

The guarantor question

The lender and insurer side

Worked conversion scenario

Tax-side note

Frequently asked questions

Need help with your property tax?

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The two statutory anchors

What the conversion did and did not change

The monthly-maximum rent period rule

The landlord checklist at conversion

The carve-outs: what did NOT convert

The guarantor question

The lender and insurer side

Worked conversion scenario

Tax-side note

Frequently asked questions

Need help with your property tax?

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