Renters’ Rights Act – letting agent says my old 1-month notice clause is now overridden by 2 months. Are they right?

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Hi all,

I’m in England and would appreciate a sense check on this because I’ve gone back and forth with my letting agent a few times and we seem to have reached a complete stalemate.

I’ve rented the same flat since 2019. My original tenancy agreement stated an initial term of six months. I’ve stayed there ever since and it has obviously been rolling for years.

The agreement has a definition which says:

“References to the term or the tenancy include any extension or continuation, or any statutory periodic tenancy which may arise following the end of the period set out in clause 1.9.”

There is then a specific additional clause headed “NOTICE DATES & TIMINGS” which says:

“When serving notice, the landlord would be required to serve TWO months notice and the tenant would be required to serve ONE months notice.”

The same section of the agreement also separately refers to termination “within the fixed term or in a periodic tenancy”, which is one of the reasons I thought the one-month provision was intended to carry on after the initial term rather than just being a break clause for the first six months.

Following the Renters’ Rights Act changes on 1 May 2026, my letting agent is saying that I now have to give two months’ notice. Their position is essentially that the new statutory provisions apply to the tenancy as it now exists, and that an old contractual provision cannot override legislation.

I completely understand that principle generally. What I’m struggling with is that I cannot actually find anything in the Act or Government guidance which seems to say that an existing shorter written notice period like mine is overridden.

The specific GOV.UK guidance for landlords with tenancies that started before 1 May 2026 says that where there is already a notice period in the agreement, the tenant may be able to give less than two months. For a fixed term which ended before 1 May 2026 it then says:

“If the tenancy agreement has rules in it about what would happen once the fixed term ended, the notice period in the tenancy agreement usually still applies.”

This is the page:

https://www.gov.uk/assured-tenancy-agreements-a-guide-for-landlords/if-the-tenancy-started-before-1-may-2026

The explanatory notes to section 20 of the Renters’ Rights Act also say that a shorter notice period is allowed if agreed in writing, and that this can be set out in the tenancy agreement:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/26/notes/division/7/index.htm

I then came across this Parliamentary written answer from the Housing Minister from 26 May 2026:

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-05-13/1088/

The answer specifically says that a tenant can give less than two months where there is “a shorter notice period already included in an existing tenancy agreement”.

That seems pretty directly relevant, but my letting agent still says two months applies. I’ve asked them a couple of times which actual section of the Act or transitional provision they believe overrides the one-month term in my particular agreement, but so far they haven’t identified one. They’ve basically said that this is their interpretation of the legislation and the basis on which they are administering the tenancy.

I have now given formal notice anyway because I am definitely moving out. I have said that, on my interpretation, the tenancy ends after one month. The agent has acknowledged the notice but says it will instead end after two months unless the landlord agrees voluntarily to the earlier date. They are asking the landlord whether they will agree, which may make the whole issue academic, but I would still like to know where I actually stand legally.

I’m also in the process of buying a house, so the difference between the two dates has a fairly significant practical impact when agreeing completion and potentially paying rent and mortgage at the same time.

Am I missing something in the Renters’ Rights Act here?

In particular, does the wording in my old agreement about the tenancy including any “extension or continuation, or any statutory periodic tenancy”, together with the express one-month notice clause, mean that the one-month period survives under the transitional guidance?

And does the Parliamentary answer above effectively confirm that an existing shorter contractual notice period can continue after 1 May 2026, or am I reading too much into it?

If the letting agent continues to insist on two months but cannot point to a provision which overrides the contract, what would be the sensible next step? Formal complaint to the agent, Citizens Advice/Shelter, a housing solicitor, The Property Ombudsman, or something else?

I’m not looking to avoid paying anything properly due — I just don’t want to pay an extra month’s rent if the written one-month notice period is actually still valid.

Thanks in advance.