The Renters’ Rights Act and PBSA

What does the Renters’ Rights Act mean for student lets?

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 converts private assured tenancies in England into rolling periodic tenancies. The Act, which passed through Parliament as the Renters’ Rights Bill, received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 (legislation.gov.uk). Its tenancy reforms came into force on 1 May 2026 under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/421).

• Terms that make an assured tenancy a fixed term have no effect: the tenancy runs as a periodic tenancy with rent periods of a month or less (new section 4A of the Housing Act 1988).
• Section 21 no-fault possession ends, so landlords need a statutory ground to recover possession.
• New possession grounds are added, including Ground 4A for student lets in houses in multiple occupation.

For private landlords letting student houses, these changes remove the academic-year fixed term the student market has relied on, and tenants can end a periodic tenancy by notice. Enforcement sits with local housing authorities, whose new financial penalty and rent repayment order powers also started on 1 May 2026 (SI 2026/421). For purpose-built student accommodation, the Act carves out a separate route, set out below. The tenancy reforms apply in England. Scotland has its own regime, which already excludes purpose-built student accommodation let by a provider of at least 30 bedrooms from private residential tenancies (Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, Schedule 1, paragraph 5).

How is purpose-built student accommodation exempt?

The PBSA exemption works by taking qualifying student lettings outside the definition of an assured tenancy. Section 32 of the Act rewrites paragraph 8 of Schedule 1 to the Housing Act 1988 (lettings to students that are not assured tenancies). A tenancy granted to a student of a specified educational institution is not assured if either:

1. it is granted by that institution, another specified institution or a specified body, or
2. the person managing the tenancy or the building is a member of a specified housing management code of practice approved under section 233 of the Housing Act 2004.

The Student Accommodation (Miscellaneous Provisions) (England) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/327), in force from 1 May 2026, specify the codes. For private operators, it is the ANUK/Unipol Code of Standards for Larger Developments for student accommodation not managed and controlled by educational establishments, dated 27 February 2026. For universities, it is the ANUK/Unipol code for accommodation managed by educational establishments (5 September 2024) and the Universities UK/GuildHE Accommodation Code of Practice (11 March 2025). ANUK/Unipol guidance adds practical conditions for private buildings: at least 15 students, one code member controlling the whole building, and new buildings covered only once registered with the code. The new private code runs from 1 May 2026 to 31 December 2028 (ANUK/Unipol, April 2026).

An exempt letting sits outside the assured regime, so it can remain a fixed-term contract for the academic year, with rent set in the contract and no need for a statutory notice or a court order on a possession ground at the end of the term. Unipol, the Leeds-based student housing charity that administers the national codes, notes that students in exempt private PBSA will most likely sign a common law tenancy or a licence to occupy (Unipol, 2026).

What happened to student tenancies that existed on 1 May 2026?

The exemption applies only to tenancies granted on or after 1 May 2026. Existing student tenancies were treated differently, and existing students kept their rent and payment terms: assured shorthold tenancies already in place converted to assured periodic tenancies on that date (Unipol, 2026). That affected the whole 2025/26 academic year in PBSA let on assured shorthold terms.

The Act's transitional rules gave landlords a short window to protect possession: a written Ground 4A statement had to be given within one month of commencement (Schedule 6, paragraph 13). SI 2026/327 specifies the private ANUK/Unipol code for that transitional provision, and for code members' existing tenancies the HMO condition and the June to September window did not apply. SI 2026/421, regulation 6, also cut the notice period to two months for Ground 4A notices on existing tenancies served between 1 May and 30 July 2026. For 2026/27 lettings granted under the exemption, the fixed-term model continues.

What is Ground 4A for student houses in multiple occupation?

Ground 4A is a new mandatory possession ground that lets landlords of student HMOs recover possession each summer. It is aimed at the private student housing market outside the PBSA exemption. The conditions in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988, as amended, are:

• the property is, or is in, a house in multiple occupation;
• every tenant is a full-time student, or the landlord reasonably believes they will become one, when the tenancy is entered into;
• the landlord gives a written statement before the tenancy starts that it wishes to recover possession on this basis and intends to relet to students;
• the tenancy was entered into no more than six months before the tenant became entitled to move in;
• the relevant date falls between 1 June and 30 September in any year.

A notice relying on Ground 4A must give four months (Housing Act 1988, section 8, as amended). Ground 4A preserves the academic cycle for student houses, but landlords must serve notice correctly and, if students do not leave, obtain possession through the court. That adds process and risk that a code-managed PBSA scheme avoids.

What if a student housing scheme is not in an approved code?

A private sector student accommodation (PBSA) building whose manager is not a member of a specified code falls inside the Act. Each letting becomes an assured periodic tenancy (APT), with no fixed academic-year term and possession only on a statutory ground. Trowers & Hamlins notes that such operators also face rules that do not touch exempt PBSA, such as limits on rent in advance and the new landlord and property database (Knight Frank, Q1 2026).

Membership has to be maintained, not just obtained. The Act says that if a tenancy was exempt only because of code membership and, by the time the student is entitled to move in, the manager no longer qualifies, the tenancy becomes assured from that point (Housing Act 1988, Schedule 1, paragraph 8, as amended).

How are PBSA lenders and investors responding to the renters’ rights regime?

Code membership has become a finance condition for private landlords of student accommodation (PBSA). Lenders price PBSA on the assumption of fixed academic-year income and summer vacant possession for turnover. If a scheme lost the exemption, rent collection, voids, arrears and possession timing would all change, and on site operations would need new notice processes, so lenders and valuers now check it alongside planning and fire safety.

The Act may also support demand. Trowers & Hamlins argues that the loss of fixed terms and easier possession in private student houses adds to pressure on landlords to exit, which strengthens the case for PBSA (Knight Frank, Q1 2026). Their article for Knight Frank, titled "Renters Rights, rewritten", also stresses that the exemption can be adjusted by future regulations, so the details are worth monitoring. That is commentary, not a forecast. For how income type feeds into value and loan size, see our guides to nomination agreements and direct let and PBSA valuations, or our PBSA investment finance and refinance pages.