Assured tenancies

Assured tenancies were created by the Housing Act 1988 and are the most secure form of tenancy available to tenants of private landlords.  They provide long-term security of tenure whereby the landlord can only regain possession on limited/specified grounds. 

Prior to 28 February 1997 all residential tenancies under the Housing Act 1988 were automatically assured tenancies unless the landlord served notice on the tenant prior to the start of the tenancy informing them that the tenancy was to be an assured shorthold tenancy.  From 28 February 1997 the situation was reversed, with the tenancy automatically being an assured shorthold tenancy unless it continued an earlier assured tenancy, was one of a small number of exceptions or the landlord served notice that it was to be an assured tenancy.

The tenancy must grant exclusive occupation of the dwelling as a separate dwelling (i.e. possession cannot be shared with the landlord), any tenant must be an individual (so company lettings are excluded) and the property must be occupied as the tenant's principal home.

Certain tenancies are excluded from the definition of an assured tenancy, including:

• Premises with a high rateable value or high rent;
• Tenancies at a low rent;
• Tenancies of business premises;
• Tenancies of licensed premises;
• Tenancies of agricultural land or holdings;
• Student lettings by educational institutions;
• Holiday lettings;
• Crown tenancies; and
• Local authority tenancies.

To recover possession of a property let on an assured tenancy requires a notice to be served on the tenant (referred to as a section 8 notice), a possession Order to be obtained from the Court and that Order to be executed.  The grounds on which possession can be sought are set out in Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988.  Those grounds are either mandatory grounds (where the Court must Order possession if the ground is made out) or discretionary grounds (where the Court has a discretion to decide whether the tenant should be entitled to stay even if the ground is made out).

We are here to help 24 hours a day 365 days a year.  Either e-mail us anytime, call (01296) 662770 (Nick) or (01525) 373322 (Richard) during the normal working day or (07973) 424178 in an emergency.