An assured shorthold tenancy (AST) is a tenancy that gives the tenant the exclusive right to use and occupy a house or flat and is the most popular kind of residential tenancy in use in England.
Under an AST the owner will not live at the property and the tenant is given the use of the property for a set time - usually 12 months.
The owner can get possession of the property after the first six months by following the set procedure. Rocket Lawyer’s Tenancy agreement for a flat and Tenancy agreement for a house are ASTs.
A tenancy can be an AST if all of the following apply:
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the property is private
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the tenancy started on or after 15 January 1989
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the property is the tenant's main accommodation
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the landlord doesn’t live in the property
A tenancy can’t be an AST if:
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it began or was agreed before 15 January 1989
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the rent is more than £100,000 a year
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the rent is less than £250 a year (less than £1,000 in London)
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it’s a business tenancy or tenancy of licensed premises
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the property is a holiday let
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the landlord is a local council
Periodic tenancies
A periodic tenancy is a tenancy that runs from month to month, or less commonly from week to week. Periodic tenancies can either be statutory or contractual.
There will be a statutory periodic tenancy in place if:
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the previous tenancy agreement had a fixed term
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the end date has passed but the tenant still lives there
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the agreement didn’t say that it would become a periodic contract at the end of the fixed term
A contractual periodic tenancy will arise if the last agreement was either a:
It is also an option to create a periodic tenancy from the start rather than a fixed term (ie for six months or a year). To do this you can give your tenant an initial term of just one month (or even just one week) and then just allow it to run on. It automatically turns into a periodic tenancy.