Check-out reports now that no tenancy ends on a fixed date

A check-out report used to be a diary item you could see coming months ahead. A twelve month term signed in July ended in July, and the summer was busy because everybody's terms ran the same way. That planning rhythm ended on 1 May 2026, and the work did not get smaller. It got harder to place.

What changed on 1 May 2026

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and its first phase came into force on 1 May 2026. Assured shorthold tenancies were abolished and replaced by assured periodic tenancies, which roll on with no end date. Section 21 went with them, so possession now runs on the section 8 grounds and has to be justified.

Existing tenancies were not left behind. Most converted automatically on the same day, fixed terms fell away, and no re-papering was required. Deposits already protected stayed protected, and there was no need to re-register them or reissue the gas certificate, the EPC or the EICR.

What it means in practice is that a tenant may now give at least two months' notice in writing, at any point, to expire at the end of a rental period. No break clause, no waiting for a term to run out.

Why the check-out report is harder to place than it was

Two months is the whole of your planning window, and it opens whenever somebody decides it does. Three consequences follow.

The work stops clustering. Instead of a summer peak you get a flat stream across the year, with the odd week where four notices land together for no reason anybody can trace.

Notice does not mean available. A tenant who serves notice in October for the end of December does not hand back the keys on the day that suits your branch. The check-out has to happen on their last day, which is frequently a Friday, often the end of a month, and sometimes a Saturday.

Re-letting pressure arrives earlier. With no fixed term to market against, the incoming viewings start while the outgoing tenant is still in place, so the check-out and the next check-in sit closer together than they used to.

None of that changes the standard of the document. It changes who can produce one at short notice, on the day it is actually needed, and get it back before the deposit conversation starts.

What has not changed at all

The evidence rules are untouched, which is the part worth holding on to.

Deposits on an assured tenancy must still be protected in one of the three government approved schemes within 30 days, and the prescribed information still has to be served. A landlord cannot get a possession order on a section 8 ground without having done it or returned the deposit, so the protection is now tied to something sharper than a penalty.

Adjudication is still free, still evidence based and still decided on documents by somebody who has never stood in the property. The burden still sits with the landlord. A check-out report that is compared line by line against a dated, photographed check-in is still the only thing that reliably carries a deduction, and an assertion is still worth nothing.

So the substance of the job is exactly what it was. What has moved is the logistics.

What agents are doing about it

Three habits are doing most of the work in branches that have adapted well.

1. Book the check-out the day the notice is received, not the week before the tenant leaves. The date is known two months out even when nothing else is.
2. Keep the check-in on file in a form you can actually read against. A report that cannot be compared item by item is a report that will lose at adjudication, whatever it cost.
3. Have somewhere to send the short notice ones. Notices get withdrawn, dates move, keys get handed back early. A clerk who works seven days and takes last minute bookings absorbs that without it landing on a negotiator's Saturday.

The Act was written to give tenants flexibility, and it has. The cost of that flexibility falls on whoever has to schedule around it, which in most cases is the agent rather than the landlord.

Emilecon writes check-in, check-out and interim reports across Greater London, seven days a week, with the report normally delivered within 24 hours of the visit. If a notice has just landed on a date that does not suit anybody, book the slot now and it is held.

Sources: the Renters' Rights Act: an overview for landlords on GOV.UK, tenant notice periods from 1 May 2026 from mydeposits, and what the Act means for deposit protection from the NRLA. This is general information, not legal advice.