Regaining possession of student properties
If you let your property to students, you may be able to regain possession each year using Ground 4A. This is designed to support the academic letting cycle, but it can only be used where specific legal conditions are met.
To rely on Ground 4A, all of the following must apply:
- The property must be a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO), or within a building that is an HMO. This means that there must be at least three tenants from two different households that share facilities such as the kitchen.
- All tenants must be full-time students, or you must reasonably believe they will become full-time students during the tenancy
- You must give the tenant a written statement before the tenancy begins confirming that:
- you may seek possession using this ground, and
- you intend to re-let the property to students.
If you use RentNow and click student let then we will take care of this for you.
- The period between the start of the tenancy and the date the tenant is entitled to move in must not exceed 6 months
- The date you need the property back must fall between 1 June and 30 September
- You must intend to re-let the property to students after possession
Important: If any of these conditions are not met, the court will not grant possession under this ground.
Serving notice
To use Ground 4A, you’ll need to serve a valid Section 8 notice on your tenant.
You can use the OpenRent Section 8 notice tool to help generate and send the notice, including selecting the correct ground and providing the required information. It’s important that all details are accurate, as the court will rely on the information provided.
Transitional rules
For tenancies that began before the new rules came into force, there is period of 1 month from 1st May 2026 to give the tenants the written statement confirming that you may seek possession using this ground, and you intend to re-let the property to students.
Good to know
- This ground only works where all tenants meet the student requirement — joint tenancies will not qualify if even one tenant does not
- The court must still be satisfied that the ground applies based on the facts provided