Assured and Assured Short-hold Tenancies
These types of tenancies are governed by the statutory code set up in the Housing Act 1988, which was amended slightly by the Housing Act 1996. The vast majority of tenancies today will be assured or, more usually, assured short-hold tenancies. Both assured and assured short-hold tenant landlords can charge a market rent for the property.
Assured short-hold tenancies are now the ‘default’ type of tenancy, so if you are renting out a property and it does not fall into one of the exceptions discussed below, it will automatically be an assured short-hold tenancy, without you having to do anything (although letting a property without a written agreement is most unwise).
An assured short-hold tenancy can be for any term (the rule requiring them to be for a minimum term of 6 months was abolished by the Housing Act 1996), although in fact the vast majority of tenancies are for terms of six months.
The main benefit of assured short-hold tenancies is that the landlord can recover possession of the property, as of right, so long as any fixed term has expired and the proper form of notice has been served. This notice must be properly drafted and give the tenant notice of not less than two months. These notices are known as section 21 notices as the landlords’ right to recover possession and the notice procedure is set out in section 21 of the Housing Act 1988.
It is possible for tenants to challenge the rent during the first six months of the (initial) tenancy by referring it to the Rent Assessment Committee for review, but in fact they very rarely do this.
Assured tenancies give tenants long-term security of tenure, and tenants are entitled to stay there until either they agree to go, or an order for possession is obtained against them. Possession under the ‘no fault’ section 21 procedure is not available for assured tenancies, and you will only be able to evict if one of the statutory ‘grounds’ for possession, as set out in Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988, apply. See the Ending a Tenancy Module for more details.
Before 24 February 1997 assured tenancies were the ‘default’ type of tenancy, and many of the assured tenancies in existence today were created by mistake, through landlords not following the proper procedure required at that time, to create an assured short-hold tenancy.
Links to model AST agreements can be found in the Additional Resources section below