Running an HMO under the Renters' Rights Act: what changed for room lets

Most of the landlords who have asked us about management since September own HMOs. Five-bed houses in HD2 and HD5, a seven-room house in Harrogate. Some of those landlords manage the house themselves. The conversation keeps ending up in the same place: how the Renters’ Rights Act works in a shared house.

The main tenancy reforms in the Act came into force in England on 1 May 2026. Our working guide to the Act covers the whole picture. This post is the HMO half of it, written for landlords letting rooms in Huddersfield and West Yorkshire. It is a working summary checked against gov.uk in October 2026, not legal advice. Some guidance is still moving, so check the current position before you act on any single point.

HMO room lets: room by room or joint tenancy

There are two ways to let an HMO. Room by room, where each tenant has their own tenancy for their own room and shares the kitchen and bathrooms. Or one joint tenancy for the whole house, where everyone signs the same agreement and is jointly liable for the full rent.

Private assured tenancies are now periodic. They roll on from one rent period to the next with no fixed end date, and that makes the choice between the two matter more than it did.

On a joint tenancy, one tenant giving valid notice can end the tenancy for the whole household. With fixed terms gone, any one of them can give that notice at any point. One person moving out for a new job can put the whole house back on the market.

On room-by-room tenancies each tenancy stands on its own. One tenant leaving doesn’t end anyone else’s. Arrears or bad behaviour from one tenant can be dealt with against that tenancy only, without touching the other four people in the house.

For most HMOs in Huddersfield, room by room is the better structure. If your house is on a joint tenancy, don’t rip it up overnight. Changing the structure means ending the existing tenancy properly, so take advice and plan it around natural turnover.

Plan for rooms coming free at any time

A tenant normally gives two months’ written notice to leave, ending in line with a rent period, though you can agree a shorter period in writing. You can no longer rely on a twelve-month term to tell you when a room comes free.

In practice that means having the re-let ready before you need it. Photos and a room description on file for every room. An asking rent set for each room. A way of booking viewings that doesn’t depend on you being free. When notice lands, the advert should go live the same week, so the room is filled for the day the old tenant leaves.

Bidding is now banned. You advertise an asking rent for each room and you can’t accept more than it. You can’t ask for or take rent before the tenancy is signed, and after signing the rent you can take in advance is capped at one month. So price each room accurately the first time. Our Huddersfield room rent ranges by postcode are a good place to start, and if rooms are sitting empty, this guide covers the usual reasons.

Huddersfield Narrow Canal, Queensgate campus. Photo: Rlwjones, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Student HMOs and Ground 4A

Huddersfield has a big student market around the university, and student landlords lobbied hard on this one. The result is Ground 4A, which lets you take possession of a student HMO over the summer so the house can be let to next year’s group.

It only works if every condition is met:

• The property is an HMO, or part of one.
• The tenants on that tenancy are all full-time students, or you reasonably believe they will be during the tenancy.
• You intend to let it to a new group of full-time students for the next academic year.
• The tenancy was agreed no more than six months before the tenants were entitled to move in.
• You told the tenants in writing, before the tenancy was signed, that you might use Ground 4A.
• You give four months’ notice, and the date you want possession falls between 1 June and 30 September.

The written notice is the one that catches people out. For tenancies that started before 1 May 2026, landlords had until 31 May 2026 to give it. If it wasn’t given in time, the ground isn’t available for that tenancy and you are back to the normal grounds. For any student let you agree from now on, put the statement in your sign-up pack so it is given before anyone signs.

Rent reviews: once a year, through Section 13

In-tenancy rent increases now go one way: a Section 13 notice, at most once a year, with at least two months’ notice. The tenant can ask the First-tier Tribunal to decide the market rent if they think the increase is too high.

On room-by-room tenancies each room has its own review date, set by when that tenancy started. Keep a simple list of every room, its rent and its next review date, and keep comparable evidence on file when you serve the notice: what similar rooms nearby are advertised at, with the same facilities and bills included or not. If a tenant does challenge the increase, that evidence is what the tribunal will look at. Our guide to the rent increase rules has the detail.

Problem housemates and arrears

This is where HMOs differ most from single lets. One tenant who doesn’t pay, or who makes the house miserable for everyone else, can empty the other rooms.

For antisocial behaviour there are two grounds. Ground 14 is discretionary, so the court decides whether possession is reasonable. Ground 7A covers more serious behaviour, such as certain criminal convictions. Under both you can apply to court as soon as you have served notice, though the court can’t make an order until 14 days after the notice date. Arrears are slower than they used to be. The mandatory arrears ground, Ground 8, needs at least three months’ rent owed (13 weeks if rent is paid weekly or fortnightly) both when you serve notice and at the hearing, with four weeks’ notice. Either way, evidence decides the case. Rent statements, a dated log of every complaint, written statements from the other tenants, copies of every letter you sent. Start the log on the first complaint, not the fifth.

Room-by-room tenancies help here. You are dealing with one tenancy and one tenant, and the other four tenancies carry on as normal.

West Street, Lindley. Photo: Peter Wood, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Licensing and the paperwork still apply

None of the existing HMO rules went away. In Huddersfield, Kirklees Council requires a mandatory licence when five or more people from two or more households share facilities. Kirklees runs no additional or selective licensing scheme as of October 2026, but check, because councils can change that. Our Huddersfield HMO licence guide and HMO fire safety checklist cover the standards an inspector will look at.

The Act added to the paperwork. Tenants on existing written tenancies should have had the government’s information sheet by 31 May 2026, and tenancies agreed only by word of mouth needed written terms instead. New tenancies need the written statement of terms. Penalties for breaking the new rules run up to £7,000 for a first breach and up to £40,000 for serious or repeat breaches.

Still to come is the national landlord database. Yorkshire and the Humber landlords must register by 14 July 2027, at £65 per property per year, based on the dates published as of October 2026.

HMO management in Huddersfield: doing it yourself

Plenty of landlords self-manage an HMO well. But the job has grown. Rolling notice on every room, a review date per room, a complaint log that might end up in front of a judge, and a compliance file that every possession route now runs through.

If you are self-managing and it is starting to take more evenings than it used to, that is the point to look at the numbers. HMO management with Livdin is 12% of the monthly rent plus VAT, published in full on our fees page. This guide works through what that looks like on a real five-room house.

What to do this month

1. Check whether each HMO is let room by room or on a joint tenancy, and take advice before changing anything.
2. Confirm every tenant on a written tenancy had the government information sheet, and keep proof of how it was sent.
3. Put every room, its rent and its next review date on one list.
4. For student lets, add the Ground 4A written statement to your sign-up pack.
5. Start a dated complaint and arrears log for each house, even if everything is quiet.
6. Check your HMO licence, gas, electrical and fire safety paperwork is in date.

If you would rather hand the lot to someone who does it every day, have a look at our HMO management in Huddersfield, or call 01484 981717 and tell us the address.

Cover photo: Mint Street, Marsh, by habiloid, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.