Fixed-term new tenancies fell from 31.3% in October 2025 to 0.9% in August 2026. The tenure shift is complete. What has not followed it is the legal compliance overhaul most of those tenancy agreements urgently need.
What Has Happened?
Lendlord published tenancy data this week drawn from 5,235 UK landlords with a live tenancy currently in place. The headline finding: 79% run rolling tenancies exclusively. A further 5.7% operate a mix of rolling and fixed-term agreements. Just 14.5% reported using fixed-term tenancies only, and in England the bulk of that group will represent transitional tenancies that predated 1 May 2026.
The transition has been fast. Among new tenancies starting in October 2025, 31.3% were fixed-term. By August 2026, that figure had fallen to 0.9%. The Renters' Rights Act moved all assured tenancies onto a periodic footing from 1 May 2026. What was a mixed market of six-month and twelve-month assured shortholds is now, in practical terms, a single tenure: a rolling monthly arrangement where the tenant can give two months' notice at any point.
The second finding from the Lendlord data is the one that carries more financial risk for most landlords. 90% of those surveyed said their most recent tenancy agreement had not been reviewed by a solicitor. 45% obtained it from their letting agent. About one in four said having it reviewed would increase their confidence in the legal wording. That is a significant compliance gap in a market where the mechanism for recovering possession has just become substantially more document-dependent.
Why This Matters to UK Property Investors
A rolling assured periodic tenancy gives a tenant the right to serve two months' notice at any time. Under the old assured shorthold model, a twelve-month agreement implied a known income period. A tenant who moved in on a twelve-month AST in January 2026 could reasonably be expected to stay until at least July. Under a rolling tenancy, the same tenant can serve notice on 1 October 2026 and vacate on 1 December.
That changes the cashflow forecasting problem. A single-property landlord with a mortgage at 5.29% and rent at £750 per month has almost no buffer for a winter void. If the property needs two or three weeks of work between tenancies, that cashflow turns negative for the quarter.
Portfolio investors price in voids across a spread of units, so the mathematics is different. But the correlation risk is real. Three properties let at similar times in the same street, all on rolling tenancies, can see simultaneous notice in the same month. Diversification across locations matters more than it did under fixed-term regimes.
The document issue is the part most people are glossing over. Under Section 21, a defective tenancy could often be worked around by correcting the error and re-serving the notice. Ground 8 under Section 8, which requires three months of rent arrears to be outstanding both at the point of notice and at the court hearing, depends on a validly executed tenancy agreement and a properly constituted periodic tenancy. If the agreement is defective in its periodic tenancy clauses, the possession claim can fail at the county court. The landlord files again. The court queue starts over.
The Risks Investors Need to Understand
Court timelines are already stretched. Median claim-to-possession in London ran at 33 weeks in Q2 2026. Add a failed first attempt because of a document defect, and a refiled claim, and you are looking at 12 to 14 months before keys come back. On a property generating £900 per month rent in, say, Hackney, that is £10,800 in unpaid rent before legal costs. The numbers are uncomfortable enough that the solicitor review bill, typically £500 to £1,500 for a set of reviewed agreements, looks cheap by comparison.
Ground 1A is a specific risk that is not well understood by investors buying tenanted stock at auction or through off-market deals. Ground 1A lets a landlord recover possession to sell the property, but only after the tenancy has been running for twelve months. If you acquire a tenanted property where the tenant moved in after 1 May 2026 and you need to sell within the first twelve months, Ground 1A is not available. You cannot serve notice. That assumption of a clean exit within 12 to 18 months, which is baked into the acquisition price of a lot of tenanted stock, needs to be tested against the tenancy start date before you exchange.
Two months' notice from tenants also compresses the planning window. Under the old fixed-term model, reaching the end of a twelve-month AST was a natural moment to review the rent, refurbish, or re-market. Under rolling tenancies, there is no natural break. Section 13 rent reviews require a minimum of twelve months between increases and two months' notice. If you want the property back, the Section 8 grounds and their individual notice periods apply regardless of how long the tenancy has been running. The management overhead is higher, and the tolerance for document errors is zero.
Where the Opportunity Could Be
The compliance gap creates an acquisition angle. On any portfolio purchase from a selling landlord, tenancy documentation review is now on my standard due diligence list alongside EPC ratings, deposit compliance, licensing status, and Ground 4A eligibility. If the seller is running eight properties all on agent-supplied templates from 2023, none reviewed since the Renters' Rights Act passed, the acquisition price should reflect the cost of updating those agreements and the elevated possession risk in the interim. That is a negotiating point, not just a compliance note.
There is also a sourcing angle linked directly to the rolling tenancy shift. Landlords who were managing on fixed-term agreements, with predictable income and straightforward renewal cycles, are now finding the rolling model harder to run than they expected. The Propertymark RedBook Q3 2026 data showed continued landlord exits in the East Midlands and West Midlands at above-average rates relative to property stock. Nottingham, Wolverhampton, and parts of Birmingham are seeing tenanted terraces come to market from landlords who cannot be bothered with the new documentation and management requirements. That is stock. For a buyer who has the compliance sorted, it is a manageable acquisition.
Tenant selection becomes more important under a rolling regime than it was under fixed terms. Tenants in stable employment with a genuine local connection tend to give fewer short-notice exits. That is not a scientific rule, just 25 years of observation. The quality of initial tenant selection carries more weight when there is no contractual income floor.
Arsh's Investor View
The 90% solicitor-review figure does not surprise me. I have met landlords running seven properties from an agreement they downloaded from a website in 2018 and never updated. Under Section 21, that worked most of the time. The agreement might have been imperfect, but as long as the deposit paperwork was clean and the prescribed information was served on time, Section 21 gave you a reliable exit. That safety net is gone.
I updated my standard tenancy agreement three times between the Renters' Rights Act receiving Royal Assent and 1 May 2026. Once when the Act passed, once when the transitional guidance came out in February, and once in April when the NRLA published its post-May template incorporating the updated periodic tenancy clauses. That is not obsessive compliance. It is basic risk management in a market where every possession action is now document-dependent.
The rolling tenancy model itself does not concern me much. Two months' notice from a tenant also gives me planning flexibility I did not have under a fixed term. I can factor in a planned void for refurbishment without waiting for a break clause. But I can only take advantage of that flexibility if the underlying tenancy documents are solid.
My practical suggestion: if you have not had your tenancy agreements reviewed since April 2026, get it done before the winter. A possession claim arising from a November rent default will hit the county court in mid-2027. You do not want to discover the document problem then.
How Property Investor App Can Help
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Key Takeaways
- 79% of 5,235 UK landlords surveyed by Lendlord now run rolling assured periodic tenancies exclusively, following the Renters' Rights Act moving all assured tenancies onto a periodic footing from 1 May 2026. The proportion of new fixed-term tenancies fell from 31.3% in October 2025 to just 0.9% in August 2026.
- 90% of those landlords have never had their tenancy agreement reviewed by a solicitor, and 45% obtained their agreement directly from a letting agent. Under Section 8, which is now the only route to possession, defective tenancy documentation can cause a possession claim to fail at the county court, requiring refiling and adding months to an already stretched timeline.
- Ground 1A allows possession for sale but only after the tenancy has been running for twelve months. Investors buying tenanted properties with tenancies that began after 1 May 2026 cannot use Ground 1A within the first year. Acquisition pricing on tenanted stock needs to reflect the actual Ground 1A eligibility date, not an assumed immediate exit.
- Court median claim-to-possession in London was 33 weeks in Q2 2026. A failed first possession attempt due to a document defect adds a full refiling cycle. On a £900 per month property, 12 to 14 months of a disputed possession process represents over £10,000 in lost income before legal costs.
- Rolling tenancies create simultaneous void risk if multiple properties in a portfolio were let at similar times. Portfolio investors with geographically concentrated stock should factor in possible concurrent void periods when stress-testing cashflow.
- The compliance gap among smaller landlords running unreviewed agreements is an acquisition opportunity. Tenanted portfolios where documentation has not been updated post-Renters' Rights Act carry a quantifiable legal risk that can be used as a pricing lever in negotiation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Renters' Rights Act mean for landlord tenancy agreements in 2026?
The Renters' Rights Act, in force from 1 May 2026, converted all assured shorthold tenancies in England to assured periodic tenancies. There are no longer any fixed-term assured tenancies for new lets. All tenancies now run on a rolling basis, with tenants able to give two months' written notice at any time. Landlords must use Section 8 and specific statutory grounds to recover possession. The tenancy agreement document is now central evidence in any possession claim, so agreements that pre-date May 2026 or have never been reviewed by a solicitor post-RRA carry meaningful legal risk.
Can a landlord still evict a tenant for rent arrears in 2026?
Yes. Ground 8 under Section 8 applies where the tenant has at least three months' rent arrears at both the point of serving the notice and at the court hearing date. Notice period is two weeks. Court timelines add 6 to 11 months depending on the region, with London typically at the longer end. The possession order requires the tenancy agreement to be validly executed and the periodic tenancy clauses to be correctly constituted. A document defect can cause the claim to fail, requiring refiling. Investors should have their tenancy agreements reviewed by a solicitor before they need to use them in court.
What is Ground 1A and how does it affect investors buying tenanted property?
Ground 1A is the statutory basis on which a landlord can recover possession to sell a property with vacant possession. It is only available once the tenancy has been running for twelve months. For investors acquiring tenanted properties where the tenant moved in after 1 May 2026, Ground 1A cannot be used within the first year. This affects any acquisition strategy that assumes a clean vacant-possession sale within 12 to 18 months of purchase. The tenancy start date and the Ground 1A eligibility date should be confirmed as part of standard pre-exchange due diligence on any tenanted purchase.
How much does it cost to have a tenancy agreement reviewed by a solicitor?
A solicitor review of a standard assured periodic tenancy agreement typically costs between £150 and £400 per document. For a portfolio of ten agreements, expect £500 to £1,500 depending on complexity and the solicitor's hourly rate. Several NRLA-affiliated legal firms offer portfolio review packages at fixed fees. The cost is a small fraction of the potential loss from a failed possession claim, which can run to £10,000 or more in lost rent alone on a mid-range property. Prioritising document review on agreements that were last updated before April 2026 is the most cost-effective risk management step available to most landlords right now.
Does a rolling tenancy affect a buy-to-let mortgage application?
Yes, in some cases. A handful of lenders adjusted their ICR stress test wording after 1 May 2026 to reflect periodic tenancy income profiles, which carry higher theoretical void risk than fixed terms. The majority of specialist BTL lenders, including Paragon, The Mortgage Works, and Foundation Home Loans, have confirmed they accept rolling periodic tenancy income for ICR purposes, provided the agreement is correctly constituted. Where a lender has questions about the tenancy documentation, a solicitor-reviewed agreement with a clear periodic tenancy clause resolves most queries at the underwriting stage.
