Existing Tenancies, Giving Notice & Tenant Changes

Current Tenancies, Giving Notice & Housemate Changes


The UK rental market operates on a modern, rolling periodic system. If you are an existing tenant with Bee City Living, or you share a home with flatmates, here is exactly how your contract works, how to hand in your notice, and how to manage a change in housemates.

1. The Rolling System: What happened to your tenancy?

Every private tenancy automatically runs as a rolling Assured Periodic Tenancy (APT).


  • Continuous and Flexible: Your tenancy continues indefinitely on a month-to-month basis until you choose to give notice, or a housemate change is processed.
  • Your Original Terms Apply: Your rent amount, deposit protection, and standard house rules carry over continuously into this periodic system.

2. How to Hand in Your Notice (Single Tenancies)

If you live by yourself (or as a couple on a single agreement) and decide it's time to move on, giving notice follows a structured legal timeline.


  • The Notice Period: You must give us a minimum of 2 months’ written notice via email.
  • Aligning with Your Tenancy Period: In line with official UK housing law, your notice must be served so that your final day in the property matches your specific monthly rental cycle. Your tenancy must officially end on the last day of your rental period (the day right before your rent is due).

  • For New Tenancies (Started after May 1st, 2026): Your rental period is strictly tied to the day you moved in. If you moved in and got your keys on the 18th of the month, your rent is always due on the 18th. Therefore, your 2-month notice must be timed to end on the 17th of the month.
  • For Older Tenancies (Transitioned before May 1st, 2026): If you are an existing tenant whose rent was historically aligned to the 1st of the month via a pro-rata payment, your rental period runs with the calendar month. Your 2-month notice must be timed to end on the last day of the calendar month (the 30th or 31st).

⚠️ Important Note: We cannot accept notice periods that end on a random date in the middle of your specific rental cycle, as this makes the notice legally invalid. Rent remains fully payable up until the correct legal end date of your notice period.

3. Shared Houses: What if 1 person wants to leave a joint tenancy?

Shared tenancies fall under what is legally known as "Joint and Several Liability." This means that all housemates named on the contract are viewed legally as one single tenant. You share equal responsibility for 100% of the rent and the condition of the entire property.


Because of this, managing a housemate change under rolling periodic rules requires clear planning.


⚠️ The Law: One Notice Ends It All

Under UK housing law, any single joint tenant can serve a 2-month notice to end the tenancy for everyone. If Flatmate A serves a formal notice to quit, the entire contract legally terminates for Flatmate B and Flatmate C as well, even if they want to stay.


Because we want to keep your household together and avoid disrupting your home, our policy for a housemate swap is to wrap up the old agreement and sign a completely fresh tenancy.

Our Process: A replacement tenant

If Flatmate A needs to move out, the household must work together to find a suitable replacement tenant to take over their space in the house.

🏠 Our Policy on Finding Housemates: Bee City Living does not offer a service to help you find a replacement tenant. Because you will be sharing a home and joint financial liability, it is incredibly important that you source and choose your own housemate to ensure they are someone you are genuinely happy to live with!   

1. Referencing the New Flatmate: The incoming flatmate completes our online application and must pass our standard financial, background, and Right to Rent ID checks.

2. Closing the Old Contract: Once the new flatmate is approved, we mutually bring the old tenancy to an official close.

3. Signing the New APT: We issue a brand-new Assured Periodic Tenancy (APT) contract. All three remaining/new housemates (Flatmates B, C, and the New Flatmate) sign this fresh agreement digitally. 4. Refreshing the Guarantors: Because a brand-new tenancy is being created, any personal guarantors for Flatmates B and C will also digitally sign a fresh guarantee form to ensure their paperwork remains legally valid for the new contract.


⏱️ Communication & The Notice Warning

Clear communication between housemates and our team is absolutely vital during this process. We want to support you and will help as much as we possibly can to make the transition smooth.

However, you must keep the legal timeline in mind:  If a housemate gives their formal 2 months' notice to leave, the clock starts ticking for the entire property. If the household does not find a qualified replacement tenant in ample time to pass referencing and sign the paperwork before that 2-month window closes, the landlord is highly likely to maintain the official notice date for everyone.

In this scenario, the tenancy will end for all residents, and we will begin advertising the property as a whole to the open market.  To avoid this, please talk to your housemates first and reach out to us before anyone submits a formal notice email!

💡 How the Security Deposit is Managed During a Swap

Because we do things properly by closing the old contract and launching a brand-new one, we do not allow informal cash swaps or private deposit handovers between tenants. Everything is handled safely and legally through our official government-approved scheme (TDS).

Here is how the money moves to ensure everyone is legally protected:

The Incoming Tenant Pays Us: The new housemate pays their new deposit portion directly to the Bee City Living client account. We then register their funds securely with the deposit scheme.

TDS Releases the Outgoing Share: Once the old tenancy is officially brought to a close on our system and the new APT contract is signed, the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) will formally process the release and return the outgoing tenant's share directly back to their bank account.  


This ensures a clean, legal break for the person leaving, and guarantees the new housemate's money is immediately protected under their own name.

Still planning your next steps?

If someone in your house is thinking about moving out, please do not send a formal notice right away. Drop our friendly team an email first! We will help you organise the replacement and prepare the new APT paperwork so nobody is left without a home unexpectedly.


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