One of the most debated practical questions to emerge since the Renters’ Rights Act came into force has been deceptively simple:
How much notice does a tenant actually have to give?
The Renters’ Rights Act changed the rules around tenant notice, with tenants generally required to give two months’ notice to end a periodic tenancy.
But there was a complication.
Many tenancies that existed before 1 May 2026 contained contractual terms specifying a shorter notice period.
So which rule takes precedence?
For several months, this has been the subject of considerable debate amongst landlords, letting agents and legal advisers.
Even industry bodies have taken slightly different approaches.
The government has now provided clarification.
The starting point is always: what does the legislation say?
When dealing with changes brought about by the Renters’ Rights Act, there is an important principle to keep in mind:
Statute overrides contract, except where contractual terms offer a benefit to the weaker party — in this case, the tenant — in which case those contractual terms may prevail.
But there is a second question that is equally important:
What does your particular tenancy agreement say?
And this is where the recent government guidance becomes particularly relevant.
What happens if the tenancy started before 1 May 2026?
The government has now clarified that where a tenancy began before 1 May 2026 and the existing tenancy agreement specifies a notice period of less than two months, that contractual notice period can continue to apply.
In other words, the introduction of the new two-month notice requirement does not automatically mean that every pre-existing tenancy agreement should now be treated as requiring two months’ notice from the tenant.
The contractual terms matter.
This is an important distinction because it means there isn’t necessarily one universal answer that can be applied to every tenancy.
The answer depends, in part, on what the particular tenancy agreement says.
The government guidance can be found here:
Assured tenancy agreements: a guide for landlords — If the tenancy started before 1 May 2026
Why this caused so much confusion
The Renters’ Rights Act introduced a significant change to the structure of residential tenancies.
At the same time, thousands of existing tenancy agreements contained wording that had been drafted under the previous legal framework.
That created a situation where landlords and agents were having to consider both the new statutory provisions and the wording of the tenancy agreement already in place.
This is why simply asking:
“Is the tenant required to give two months’ notice?”
doesn’t necessarily produce a complete answer.
The better questions are:
What does the legislation say?
And then:
What does YOUR particular tenancy agreement say?
That is a useful approach to take whenever dealing with the practical application of the Renters’ Rights Act.
So what should landlords do?
If a tenant gives notice, don’t automatically assume that the answer is the same for every tenancy.
First, establish when the tenancy began.
Then look at the tenancy agreement.
Identify the notice provisions that applied to that tenancy and consider how those contractual provisions interact with the legislation and the latest government guidance.
And, importantly, keep a record of the reasoning behind the decision.
This is one of the reasons we believe professional landlords increasingly need access to good compliance advice.
The legislation itself is only one part of the picture.
The practical application often requires you to understand how the legislation interacts with the individual tenancy, the contractual terms and the circumstances of the situation in front of you.
We discussed this debate in our webinar
This issue was one of the areas we explored in detail during our Renters’ Rights Act Follow-Up webinar in July 2026.
We discussed why the debate arose, the differing approaches being taken across the industry, and what we are seeing in practice as landlords and agents navigate the issue.
We’ve also released the discussion as part of our Webinar Highlights series on The CEO Landlord YouTube channel.
Watch: 2 Months’ Notice – The Debate
The bigger lesson
The debate around tenant notice periods is a good example of something we’ve been saying throughout our Renters’ Rights Act webinars:
The legislation may be new, but the tenancy agreements already sitting in landlords’ files don’t simply disappear.
For landlords and agents, the challenge is learning how to navigate the two together.
And when the answer isn’t immediately obvious, the safest approach isn’t necessarily to find the loudest opinion online.
It’s to go back to the fundamentals:
What does the legislation say?
What does your particular tenancy agreement say?
And, where necessary, seek appropriate professional advice to understand how the two interact.
That’s becoming an increasingly important skill for landlords operating in today’s private rental sector.