Independent students need more support to manage the impacts of the Renters’ Rights Act

This blog was kindly authored by Niall Hignett, who is a campaigner for estranged and care-experienced students in higher education.

In May 2026, the long-awaited Renters’ Rights Act will begin taking effect. Despite the years of discussion, awareness of its implications among students remains low. Something that is perhaps unsurprising given the last-minute changes and lack of student facing information. Student awareness of housing issues is often low in general, for example 34% do not know what a guarantor is before being asked for one – there is therefore, a lot of work to be done.

The Renters’ Rights Act introduces a few key changes: fixed-term tenancies will be abolished; Ground 4A provides a new eviction grounds between June and September for student-only houses in multiple occupation (HMOs); the right of landlords to ask for upfront payments will no longer exist; and purpose built student accommodation has its own regime.

For independent students, (like care-leavers and estranged students), these changes may cause multiple problems.

First off, the switch from fixed-term tenancies to rolling tenancies under the ‘assured tenancy’ system means that any student in a joint tenancy is entitled to unilaterally end their tenancy for all tenants. As has been highlighted, there are some obvious issues with students leaving early when their housemates wish to remain. This issue is compounded by the rules surrounding Ground 4A. Landlords must give four months’ notice to exercise this power.

Say a group of four students share a house under a joint tenancy. One serves notice to quit in March to leave in mid-May, as that is when their exams end. One of the tenants is a care-leaver or estranged student who needs twelve-month accommodation. 

If they were to re-sign a tenancy with their landlord, it would not be possible for the landlord to use Ground 4A, due to the four-month requirement. Given that it is likely that the landlord would have re-let the property to another group of students, this creates an impossible situation. The landlord could not guarantee vacant possession before the next student group is set to begin their rental agreement. That means the most probable solution is to simply let the property sit dormant until the next student group moves in, to ensure vacant possession in advance of the next group of tenants moving in.

This may be mildly annoying for the students with homes to return to, as they may have to move back before they intended to. For the independent student who needs twelve-month accommodation, this is a disaster situation. They become homeless.

If none of the four students served their right to quit, but their landlord uses Ground 4A to evict them at the beginning of June, with the students’ next tenancy not commencing until July, the same issue presents itself.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) suggests that students should simply talk to their landlords about sticking around. As above, this is not how the student housing market nor the RRA operates. MHCLG has not conducted an impact assessment of the RRA on independent students, so it is unsurprising that this issue is not on their radar.

The Department for Education has said they are working with the working with MHCLG to ‘monitor the impacts’ of the RRA on independent students. They plan to encourage housing affordability through a ‘Statement of Expectations’, as announced in the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper. However, they are clear that there is nothing they can do to prevent this issue from rearing its head.

A plan to shut the gates after the horse has bolted, where the gatekeeper doesn’t seem to know about the plan to shut the gate, seems an oversight. Especially when your mechanism of shutting the gate is, effectively, politely asking someone else to do the heavy lifting for you.

It’s not just the issue of rolling tenancies and Ground 4A leaving students who need year-round accommodation in the lurch. The move to ban landlords from asking for upfront rental payments means guarantors are more likely to be needed. For those without a guarantor, it means costly guarantor schemes are more likely to be a requirement, adding around 10 per cent to monthly rental costs.

On the bright(er) side, there are ways independent students could navigate this system to mitigate adverse impacts.

On a basic level, ensuring students understand how the termination of tenancies under the assured tenancy system is pivotal. This would allow them to plan for the future. Merely understanding that a conversation is needed in advance of signing up for a property with prospective housemates on their housing plans and how Ground 4A operates could save independent students from homelessness.

The Unite Foundation has been calling on universities to guarantee 365-day accommodation –  which they can do in purpose-built student accommodation, as these can have common-law tenancies with fixed terms – and devise a personal housing plan for estranged and care-experienced students. Doing the latter at minimal cost would achieve the first aim of ensuring independent students understand the RRA.

Another quirk of the RRA is that whilst landlords cannot ask for upfront rental payments, students can offer them. So, if an independent student doesn’t have a guarantor, they can offer to pay in three installments when their maintenance loan is paid to (hopefully) avoid the need to use expensive private guarantor services.

Further, students in two-bed properties can evade Ground 4A entirely, meaning that, if two independent students live together, they can grant themselves housing security for as long as both agree, which is likely to prevent the issue of early termination, too. The same can be said for renting an individual room, particularly in a property which has a mix of students and professionals.

Of course, whilst not yet provable, it seems improbable that this won’t lead to greater costs for students needing year-round accommodation. With students likely to leave even a few weeks early, there are additional costs that landlords are likely to seek to offset. Additionally, two-bed properties and PBSA are more expensive than larger HMOs. So, even with these workarounds, independent students are likely to need more financial support to mitigate adverse impacts of the RRA.

Up in Scotland, which has had rolling tenancies since 2017, there are mitigations in place. The Scottish private residential tenancy system means rolling tenancies require the consent of all joint tenants to terminate. They also have specific loans for care-leavers to help with summer living costs, alongside targeted grants for estranged students. 

This offer seems eminently sensible, especially if the Government is serious about breaking down the barriers to opportunity. Care-experienced and estranged students have scandalous outcomes already, with lower attainment and higher attrition, driven by financial insecurity. Higher costs and housing insecurity are bound to make this worse, and the Government is refuting the suggestion that more specific, centralised financial support is needed.

Whilst we eagerly await the Government’s monitoring of the situation, it is vital that universities do more to ensure student awareness of the RRA is higher. Unipol’s quick guide is a great starting point; even sending this to independent students in an email marked important would help improve the chances of independent students successfully navigating the RRA.

We cannot allow poor forward-planning, largely due to the Government’s approach, to leave care-leavers and estranged students even poorer and plighted by even greater housing insecurity.