Agents are being urged to ensure they fully understand the new Ground 4A mandatory possession ground.

The call comes from Propertymark.

Ground 4A is a mandatory possession ground designed to allow qualifying student Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) to be made available to a new group of students for the following academic year.

For a landlord – or an agent acting on their behalf – to rely on Ground 4A the property must be an HMO, must be let to full-time students, and there must be the intention to let it to another group of full-time students.

In addition the landlord or agent must give the tenants written notice before the tenancy begins that Ground 4A may be used, and the tenancy must not have been agreed more than six months before it started.

For a joint tenancy, all the tenants must be full-time students when the tenancy is granted, or the landlord must reasonably believe they will become full-time students during the tenancy. 

Where rooms are let under individual agreements, Ground 4A can only be used against tenants who meet the student criteria.

Propertymark members can access a Ground 4A written notice template from this page.

With the Renters Rights Act still bedding in – much of it became law only four months ago – there are temporary agents for this year only.

For tenancies that started before 1 May 2026, landlords and agents were allowed to serve a Ground 4A notice between 1 May and 31 July 2026 with two months’ notice instead of four months.

However, any new Ground 4A notice must follow the standard four-month requirement.

Propertymark says: “In practice, landlords who did not use the transitional arrangements are unlikely to obtain possession under Ground 4A during the remaining 2026 window. 

“Agents should therefore review affected cases carefully and plan for summer 2027. 

“Another possession ground may be available depending on the circumstances, but landlords should not assume that Ground 4A can be used outside its specific conditions.”