Student HMOs: sign early, or wait to keep Ground 4A?

Student landlords often sign up next year's tenants many months in advance, sometimes before Christmas for the following September. The Renters' Rights Act adds a condition that affects this practice.

To use Ground 4A to recover a student HMO for the next academic year, one of the conditions is that the tenancy must be entered into no more than six months before the tenants are entitled to move in. Marketing and viewings can still happen as early as a landlord likes. It is the date the tenancy agreement is signed that matters, not the date the property was advertised or viewed.

If a landlord signs a tenancy more than six months before the move-in date, they will normally have given up the ability to use Ground 4A at the end of that tenancy, even if every other condition is met.

This affects landlords letting student HMOs in England, where Ground 4A applies under the Renters' Rights Act.

Landlords now face a choice for each property: sign early to secure a group of tenants and accept that Ground 4A may not be available later, or wait until within six months of the move-in date to preserve the option of using Ground 4A, with the risk that the tenants choose a property elsewhere that offers an earlier signing date.

The article suggests this choice may vary by university town and even between properties in the same portfolio.

• Work out the move-in date for each student tenancy and count back six months to see the window for signing if you want to keep Ground 4A available
• Decide, property by property, whether securing tenants early is worth giving up Ground 4A
• Check the other conditions for Ground 4A apply to your situation, and check with a solicitor before relying on it
• If you continue to sign well ahead of the six-month window, understand you may be doing so without Ground 4A as a fallback