One sharer wants to leave: joint tenancies under the new rules

Updated September 2026 · Based on official gov.uk guidance · General information, not legal advice

Three tenants share a house. One gets a job in another city and hands in notice. The other two want to stay. Under the old fixed-term world this was usually handled with a deed of assignment or a quiet swap. Under the Renters' Rights Act the position is much blunter, and a lot of landlords are getting it wrong.

The reason this scenario is suddenly everywhere: section 1 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 inserts a new section 4A into the Housing Act 1988 providing that “terms of an assured tenancy are of no effect so far as they provide for a tenancy to be a fixed term tenancy”. Every assured tenancy is now periodic from day one — there is no fixed term standing between a sharer's change of mind and the rule below.

The core rule: one joint tenant's notice ends the tenancy for all of them. A joint tenancy is a single tenancy held by several people, not several tenancies. When one of them serves a valid notice to quit, the whole tenancy terminates on the expiry date — for the leaver and for everyone who wanted to stay. This is not new law invented by the RRA: it is the long-standing rule from Hammersmith and Fulham LBC v Monk [1992] 1 AC 478, that a periodic tenancy held jointly ends if even one joint tenant validly gives notice. What the RRA changes is how often it comes up — periodic tenancies used to be the exception once a fixed term ran out; now every assured tenancy is periodic from the start, so this rule is live from day one of every letting.

What a valid tenant notice looks like

Tenants can end a tenancy that runs from one rent period to the next — a periodic assured tenancy — by giving up to two months' notice (a shorter period can be agreed in the tenancy agreement, but not a longer one imposed on them). Gov.uk's own guidance confirms both halves of this: a tenant can end their tenancy by giving 2 months' notice, and “the end date of the tenancy will need to align with the end of a rent period” — so if rent falls due on the 5th of each month, the notice has to end on the 4th, not on some random date the tenant picks.

A notice that expires on the wrong date is not automatically fatal, and in practice most landlords accept it. But you are entitled to insist on a correctly-dated notice instead. Either way, the tenants owe rent until the tenancy actually ends.

The remaining tenants have no automatic right to stay

This is the part that causes arguments. When the tenancy ends, the tenants who wanted to stay have no legal entitlement to continue. If you want them to stay, you are granting a brand new tenancy, and you are entitled to refuse.

Treat it exactly as a new letting, because that is what it is:

Re-reference the remaining tenants on their own. Two people now have to cover a rent that three were sharing. Check they can afford it before you agree to a new tenancy.
New written agreement, new start date. Not an amendment to the old one.
Return the old deposit (less any agreed deductions) and take a fresh deposit for the new tenancy. Protect it and serve the prescribed information within 30 days. Do not "roll it over" — the old deposit was held for a tenancy that no longer exists.
Serve the required written information again for the new tenancy, to every named tenant.

The hidden cost of a new tenancy: the protected period resets. A brand new tenancy starts a fresh 12-month period during which you cannot use Ground 1 or Ground 1A to get possession to sell or move in. If selling within the next couple of years is on your mind, that reset is a real consideration — see the Ground 1A 12-month rule.

Replacing the leaver with someone new

Same answer: it is a new tenancy with all three named, referenced and signed up, plus a fresh deposit. Resist the temptation to just add a name to the existing agreement by hand — you end up with a document nobody can enforce cleanly and a deposit protected in the wrong names.

Practical approach that keeps everyone calm. When one sharer gives notice, write to all of them the same day. Confirm the tenancy will end on the expiry date, that this affects everybody, and that you are willing to consider a new tenancy for those staying subject to references. Give them a deadline to come back to you. That single letter prevents the "but I never gave notice" dispute that otherwise arrives six weeks later.

What you cannot do

You cannot charge the remaining tenants a fee for issuing the new agreement — the Tenant Fees Act restrictions still apply. You also cannot require a payment to "release" the leaving tenant: a tenant who has served valid notice does not need releasing. You can, of course, hold everyone to the rent until the tenancy properly ends.

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