So a single household, including stepdaughters or stepsons, is not an HMO, and it’s larger HMOs that need a license from a council, which wouldnt be the case here
best
Houses in multiple occupation
Your home is a house in multiple occupation (HMO) if both of the following apply:
at least 3 tenants live there, forming more than 1 household
you share toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities with other tenants
Your home is a large HMO if both of the following apply:
at least 5 tenants live there, forming more than 1 household
you share toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities with other tenants
A household is either a single person or members of the same family who live together. A family includes people who are:
married or living together - including people in same-sex relationships
relatives or half-relatives, for example grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings
David, I don’t get your post… I’m not disagreeing with your point about relatives. I’m saying that if you rent to 3 adults, you MUST get proof that they are related if they say so. That is, there is a need to enquire about their status.
Anyone can claim to be a “son” or “spouse” but without proof, you risk creating an HMO.
Now he’s claiming his “father” is a “stepfather” and unless you have proof that the woman is really his mother and that she’s actually married to the “stepfather”, you have zero proof of any relationships at all.
So you do not have a HMO situation at the moment and up until 14th August but you might end up with one after if Stepfather stays put and gets several ?1,2,3 mates from work to live in.
Presume you did full OpenRent Referencing on the adults at the same time as R2R checks ? these checks become irrelevant after the 14th.
think maybe at cross purposes - you referred to needing R2R which is different.
Anyway… if you get proof mother is married to father [marriage certificate], and that son was born to mother [birth certificate] that’s all you need to establish it’s a single household for HMO purposes. In that example, the marriage cert and birth cert may or may not suggest father is a stepfather or a biological father [father may or may not be on the birth certificate] and you dont need to know for any reason. So perfectly possible to have done the checks needed and only find out 2 years later the father is a stepfather.
Learn fast! Property letting is an unforgiving world now and even simple mistakes can lead to eye-watering civil penalties. Trying to manage a complex situation from abroad without a managing agent is practically impossible. If you’re going to be away for any extended period then I would suggest finding an agent who will offer full management.
Can you confirm that the tenants notice is valid?
A clear date on which the tenancy will end
the date is either the end of a tenancy period or the day after
The notice is at least 1 calendar month
If so, it may be valid, but if the father-in-law seeks advice he may to be told to challenge it as the Courts haven’t yet ruled on whether a notice period specified in the pre-RRA AST can carry forward to the APT that they have from 1 May. I assume you served the RRA Information Sheet?
You usually have to give your landlord 2 months’ notice if you want to leave.
You could give less than 2 months if either:
your tenancy agreement says you can give a shorter notice
your landlord agrees to a shorter notice in writing"
.
The AST terms are carried forward from before RRA unless they are in some way illegal under RRA (fixed terms of 6m, automatic cpi rent increases etc). There’s nothing in RRA saying notice periods of 1 month arent allowed. So why wouldnt it carry forward.
And even if it didnt, the shorter notice can be agreed by the two departing tenants with LL if tenant agrees with LL and LL confirms in writing. They dont need father in law’s agreement as its a periodic tenancy.
As per my contract, The Tenant must give notice of no less than one month, such notice to expire the day before a Rent Payment Day or on the final day of the Initial Term.
Rent Payment Day is: 15th of each month
So the tenant has served the 14th August 2026. Which seems correct.
Swap out “indicates” for “suggests” (which is what I meant to write) and that would be accurate. The reason I say this is that it “suggests” that he didn’t do his due diligence in setting up the tenancy. When I queried R2R, I said
What I should have clarified is that I consider R2R to be twofold: according to the Home Office (share codes etc) and according to me (my property is not an HMO so you have no right to rent it from me).
That makes more sense. I expect you check every detail on the birth/marriage certificates and the ages claimed to make sure it all matches up! V good practice
Surely by defn the old term is only replaced by the 2 month default IF there isnt an old notice term or if the old term said notice would be more than 2 months (so illegal under RRA).
“If your tenancy agreement does not say how much notice you must give, you need to give at least 2 months’ notice.”
Independent LL also advises the existing 1 month in the tenancy agreement would prevail
Under Section 20 RRA, tenants can serve two months’ notice to quit from day one of the tenancy. Before 1 May 2026, tenants were unable to serve a valid notice to quit to expire during a fixed term, unless it had a break clause or the landlord agreed to release them, effectively “locking” them in for the fixed term period. That has now ended.
Note that if the tenancy agreement refers to a shorter notice period, for instance one month, that prevails. But if there is a longer notice period or a break clause, the two month notice applies instead.
There is a risk the father in law will challenge the shorter notice but seems quite unlikely that courts would consider that as well as giving tenants greater flexibility by ending 6m and 12m fixed tenancies, Parliament intended to tie millions of tenants into 2m notice periods rather than the 1m they had already.
If you have notice to quit from one of the tenants it severs the tenancy. Notice to quit must be in writing otherwise the tenancy is not severed. It can be SMS or facebook message just as long as it’s in writing.
Do not accept rent after notice period ends or accidently you create a new tenancy .
The remaining tenant is a trespasser and is staying unlawfully. Make that clear to them.
You can take mesne profits ( which is double rent) and it does have to be called that and double rent otherwise it will be deemed rent. ( Distress for Rent Act 1737)
You can then go to court and claim possession. It’ll be easier than an eviction process as you are dealing with a trespasser
Thats the argument that would be made and I would agree with it. I think its highly likely that this is how it should be interpreted. However, This exchange I found between a housing professional and a lawyer illustrates the point I’m making: Housing professional …The safer position is that 2 months is the default,but a shorter notice period may be arguable where the tenant’s only written tenancy agreement is the old AST and that agreement expressly allows 1 month’s notice. This is exactly the sort of issue where early casework evidence will matter. Lawyer I don’t really see that there is much debate about this. The RRA changes some aspects of current agreements but not all of them. It alter s5, Protection From Eviction Act to say that tenants have to give 2 months’ notice unless a shorter period has been agreed in writing. Existing clauses that specify a one mlntj tenant notice are, pretty clearly, such an agreement. Naturally, I will change that view if someone instructs me on it!
The point being that its easy for the tenant who doesnt want to move to simply stay put. The landlord would need to go to court to seek possession and there are plenty of solicitors willing to argue against their better instincts that the one month tenancy clause doesnt meet the requirement.
In this case you might have Shelter both advising the 2 who want to leave that 1m notice is valid - would be good to get such advice to share with father in law - and if asked separately Shelter might advise the father in law it may not be…
