An “Assured Shorthold Tenancy” is a special kind of “Assured Tenancy”. An Assured Shorthold Tenancy has one additional ground for possession and that is a landlord is guaranteed possession of his let property after the fixed period has expired.

All new tenancies after 28 February 1997 are automatically Assured Shortholds, unless the written tenancy agreement has specified the tenancy is intended to be an  Assured Tenancy.

Shorthold Tenancies granted after 15 January 1989 and before 28 February 1997 are only legally an assured shorthold tenancies if the landlord on or before granting the tenancy served a prescribed section 20 notice on the tenant. A prescribed section 20 notices warns the tenant the tenancy is intended to be an assured shorthold tenancy and the landlord will be entitled to repossession after the expiry of the fixed period has come to an end. It also states the tenant should seek legal advice to better understand the Assured Shorthold Tenancy and his legal right.

For landlords it is desirable all potential occupants are a party to the tenancy agreement, as this will make the tenants joint and severally liable for the tenancy. Never try to force a tenant to leave - a court possession order must always be obtained if the tenant won't leave. If in doubt about the financial security of the tenant or for younger tenants always try to obtain a guarantor like parents or another homeowner willing to sign a guarantor’s agreement in case of default or damage. Always have a credit check done on all your tenants.

To see under what circumstances a tenancy does not constitute an Assured Shorhold Tenancy Agreement read above tab “Non Housing Act Tenancy Agreements.

An “Assured tenancy” is a form of residential tenancy in England and Wales that grants a degree of security of tenure to the tenant. A tenant under an assured tenancy may not be evicted without a reason and the rent under the assured tenancy will often fall under the supervision of a Rent Assessment Committee.

Assured tenancies were introduced by the Housing Act 1988 and replaced the previous tenancies protected by the Rent Acts.

Security of tenure operates in a slightly different way depending on whether the tenancy is a periodic or fixed-term tenancy.

If the tenancy is periodic, it will only come to an end either by an order of the court or by surrender by the tenant.

If the tenancy is a fixed term tenancy, it may be ended either by the effluxion of time or, if the tenancy agreement gives the landlord a power to end the tenancy, by the landlord exercising that power. If a fixed term assured tenancy comes to an end in one of these ways, a new periodic assured tenancy will be created, known as a “statutory periodic tenancy”. Security of tenure still remains.

In order to regain possession, the landlord may do so only on one of a number of statutory grounds, which are set out in Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988. To obtain an order for possession, the landlord must serve a section 8 notice on the tenant, setting out the grounds that are relied on and and when the notice period has expired then apply to the court for possession.

These tenancies give the residential tenant considerable security of tenure and they also regulate the level of rent payable by the tenant.

Basically these are uneconomic to operate and landlords need to exercise caution when purchasing properties with existing tenants, in case there are any Rent Act tenants.

As a general guide a property with a sitting Rent Act tenant is worth only around 50% of its vacant possession value.

The ‘Residential Property Tribunal’ Service determine Fair rents and Market rents for Regulated (Rent Act) and Assured tenancies.

The grant of a license does not create an estate in land and the license does not gain an interest in the property, purely permission to occupy it. Stays in hotels, hostels, lodgings (where the "landlord" is resident) (letting a room in your own home) holiday lettings, employees of a business living on the premises, and some HMO’s are all license agreements.

Interestingly, there is in fact a halfway house between tenant (full tenancy rights) and lodger (license to occupy) - it's called an "Occupier with basic protection".

This situation arises where the tenant shares a house with the landlord, but not the accommodation, e.g. not sharing a bathroom or cooking facilities. This applies, for example, to student halls of residence. Therefore in this the tenant has most of the protection of an assured short hold tenancy (AST) and the landlord would need to give the usual section 21 notice and get a court order to evict.

There are a number of exceptions set out in the Housing Act 1988 under which exclude a tenancy from being an Assured Shorthold Tenancy and the tenancy maybe deemed as a non housing act tenancy. Example:

• The rent annual rent is more than £25,000.
• None of the tenants occupying the property do so as a principal home.
• The tenant is not an individual (for example, it is a limited company).
• The rent per year is very low rent.

To end a non housing act tenancy you will need to serve a notice to quit, as a section 21 or section 8 notices is not applicable.

There are mainly 4 kinds of residential tenancies:

(1) A Protected (Rent Act) Tenancy - tenancies entered into before 15 January 1989.

(2) An Assured Tenancy - introduced by the Housing Act 1988.

(3) A Non Housing Act residential tenancy.

(4) An Assured Shorthold Tenancy - introduced in 1988 but amended by the 1996 Housing Act.

a) Tenancies brought into existence before ‘15 January 1989’ are governed by the Rent Act 1977. These are uneconomic for landlords to operate - avoid them if you can. Exercise extreme caution when purchasing properties with existing tenants.

b) Tenancies commencing after 15 January 1989 but ‘before 28 February 1997’ may be either Assured Tenancies or Assured Shorthold Tenancies. The default tenancy here is the Assured one which offers more security to the tenant; unless the landlord can show that the correct Shorthold (Section 20) Notice was served. Again, caution is needed when purchasing with existing tenants.

c) After ‘28 February 1997’ the default tenancy is the Assured Shorthold Tenancy. This is unless the landlord served a notice specifically stating that an Assured Tenancy was being created. Once a person is given possession (exclusively) of land or property (usually evidenced by possession of the keys) and the owner accepts rent payments, a tenancy comes into existence legally.

Tenancy is an "estate in land" granted for a determined period of time - "term of months or years" or "fixed-term".

A tenancy can be for 6 months, 1 year or even 99 years. As consequences of the Housing Act 1996 after 28th February 1997 it is now possible to grant a shorter tenancy than 6 months. In return for the "time limited" but ‘exclusive’ use and possession of the land the tenant pays the landlord ‘rent’.

Landlords can fall in the following category:

Freeholder (owner) Landlord grants a tenancy to:
Tenant A (Head lease holder).
Tenant A grants a tenancy to "B" (sublease holder).
Tenant B grants a tenancy to "C".

Provided each subsequent ‘sublease’ is shorter in length than the previous one there is no problem. To all intent and purpose, whilst a tenancy is in force, the tenant occupier is the ‘owner of the land’ and can act as any other owner would, so long as it's within the terms of his tenancy / lease agreement and current statutory requirements (Acts of Parliament).

In a residential tenancy agreement the landlord has a number of legal obligations i.e. to maintain the property, tenant deposit scheme TDS, EPC certificate, annual gas service and safety checks.  Tenancy agreements are partly contractual, i.e. an ‘agreement between landlord and tenant’ which can be enforced by a court of law. with residential tenancies they are partly governed by ‘statutory’ (Parliamentary) ‘rules’ which cannot be overridden by the contractual common law rules. The agreement must be deemed "fair" and that it does not fall foul of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.