Renting to Students: Guarantors, Rent in Advance, Ground 4A

Finding Tenants • 11 May 2026, 15:01

Renting to Students: Guarantors, Rent in Advance, Ground 4A

Renting to students can be a great option if you’re after strong demand and solid yields, especially in cities like London.

That said, it does tend to be a bit more hands-on, with furnished properties and more frequent turnover to manage. And with the Renters’ Rights Act removing fixed terms and tightening rules around rent in advance, there is more to factor in.

This guide walks you through what you need to know, from guarantors and rent in advance to the new Ground 4A and how it actually works in practice.

New Ground 4A for full-time students in HMOs
Rent in advance and guarantors
Do you need to carry out Right to Rent checks for student tenants?
Handling council tax and bills when renting to students

Use Rent Now to automatically embed the mandatory Ground 4A terms straight into your periodic tenancy agreement.

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New Ground 4A for full-time students in HMOs

The Renters’ Rights Act has added a new Section 8 ground so you can regain possession of a student HMO if you plan to let it to a new group of full-time students.

With fixed terms now completely abolished and all tenancies running on rolling monthly or weekly cycles, this ground is intended to help you keep properties aligned with the academic year and continue managing student lets on a seasonal basis.

Serving a valid Section 8 notice using Ground 4A

Ground 4A is the “academic cycle” lifeboat for student landlords in England, but it’s quite specific. You need to meet a strict set of conditions to stay on the right side of the law.

The HMO requirement

First and foremost, the property must be a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) as defined by section 254 of the Housing Act 2004 (meaning at least 3 occupants from 2 or more households sharing basic facilities). This ground was designed exclusively for shared student houses; it cannot be used for self-contained one- or two-bedroom flats that don’t meet the legal criteria for an HMO, even if the occupants are full-time students.

The “student test”

You can only rely on this ground if your tenants were full-time students when the tenancy began, or if you reasonably believed at the time that they would become full-time students during the tenancy. This means the test is assessed at the start of the agreement. If a tenant later drops out, switches to a part-time course, or finishes their studies but remains in the property, you can still rely on Ground 4A, provided the requirement was met at the outset. Every tenant on the agreement must satisfy this student test.

The intent to re-let

You must intend to let the property to another group of full-time students for the following academic year.

Prior notice is mandatory

You must give your tenants a written statement confirming that you intend to rely on Ground 4A to regain possession in the future. For new tenancies, the notice must be provided at or before the start of the agreement. For existing tenancies that automatically converted into periodic contracts on 1st May 2026, you needed to serve this transitional notice by 31st May 2026 to preserve your right to rely on Ground 4A later on.

This wording is automatically included for any new Rent Now tenancy agreements created post 1st May 2026. You simply need to indicate that the property is being let as student accommodation.

Timing and notice periods for using Ground 4A

Because Ground 4A is meant to protect the traditional student calendar, the timing is non-negotiable:

Your notice can only expire between 1st June and 30th September each year.
Under the standard 2026 rules, you must give at least 4 months’ notice to your tenants.

You must also adhere to the strict “6-month rule”.You cannot use Ground 4A if the tenancy agreement for the upcoming academic year was signed more than 6 months before the tenant was entitled to move in.

This prevents landlords from pressuring students into signing contracts too early in the previous academic year. Note that this 6-month restriction doesn’t apply retrospectively to tenancies that were already active before 1st May 2026.

💡 Don’t get caught out by the HMO definition. If your property doesn’t meet the shared facilities or occupant count for a legal HMO, you cannot use Ground 4A.

Rent in advance and guarantors

Upfront payments have traditionally played a big role in student lets. Many students, especially those coming from abroad, cannot easily show income or pass standard credit checks, so landlords often relied on rent in advance to reduce risk.

That approach has now changed. The Renters’ Rights Act introduces clear limits on what you can ask for before the tenancy begins.

The new limits on rent in advance

England: You can now only require a tenant to pay one month’s rent in advance. Larger upfront payments, such as 6 or 12 months to cover the absence of a UK guarantor, as well as credit or rental history, are no longer allowed.
Wales: Similarly, under the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act, you cannot require a tenant to pay rent in advance that exceeds the amount of the first “rent period”. If they pay monthly, you can only ask for one month.

Are guarantors necessary for student tenancies?

With limits on rent in advance, guarantors have become a key part of how many landlords manage risk with student lets.

In a joint tenancy, it’s common to make guarantors jointly and severally liable. In simple terms, if one tenant doesn’t pay, another tenant’s guarantor could be responsible for covering the shortfall. This often catches parents off guard, so it helps to explain that it reflects how the tenancy itself works.

For international students, this becomes even more important. Without the option of large upfront payments, and with overseas guarantors being difficult to enforce through UK courts, many landlords now require a UK-based guarantor or use a professional guarantor service. These services step in as the guarantor for a fee paid by the tenant.

You must opt for doing proper checks. Don’t rely on a name and signature alone. Make sure you reference the guarantor and confirm they have a UK presence and enough income to cover the full rent if needed, not just one tenant’s share.

Do you need to carry out Right to Rent checks for student tenants?

Yes. If your property is in England, Right to Rent checks apply to student tenants in exactly the same way as any other tenant.

You must check every adult (18+) who will live in the property as their main home, even if they are not named on the tenancy agreement. Penalties for getting this wrong are quite steep, with fines reaching up to £10,000 per tenant for a first offence and up to £20,000 for repeat breaches.

Timing matters too. For students with a time-limited right to rent (which includes most international students), you need to carry out the check no more than 28 days before the tenancy start date. If you check too early, for example, months before a September move-in, the check won’t be valid.

If your property is in Wales, this doesn’t apply. There is currently no equivalent Right to Rent scheme, so you are not required to check a tenant’s immigration status.

You can no longer ask students for months of rent in advance. Use Rent Now to easily check your tenants and add a UK guarantor to your contract, if needed.

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Handling council tax and bills when renting to students

A property full of full-time students qualifies for a Class N exemption, but you do need to keep a close eye on things. If someone drops out of university mid-term or a non-student partner moves in, that exemption vanishes instantly, and you could face a nasty retroactive bill.

If your property is let as a room-by-room HMO with separate contracts, you are legally the ‘liable person’ on the hook for council tax, meaning factoring it directly into the rent is your only sensible bet. However, if they share a single joint contract, the tenants themselves hold the primary legal liability.

For bills like gas, electricity, and broadband, you can either let the tenants set up their own accounts (which happily keeps you out of any housemate squabbles) or go down the “bills-included” route.

If you choose to handle utilities yourself, you must make sure your tenancy agreement clearly explains how bills are charged. The contract should state whether utilities are included within the rent or charged separately, along with a clear breakdown of the arrangement.

If you use Rent Now, we help with this as part of the tenancy setup process by asking how utilities will be handled and automatically including the relevant wording in the agreement.

Just make sure your rolling agreement features a robust “fair usage” clause that carefully respects Ofgem’s maximum resale rules so you aren’t accused of overcharging.

Finally, remember that because any single joint tenant can now serve a valid 2 months’ notice to quit that legally terminates the entire tenancy for the whole house, a bills-inclusive setup can be completely destabilised overnight.