What is the difference between an assured tenancy and an assured shorthold tenancy?

Part 1 of the Housing Act 1988 deals with assured tenancies and came into effect on the 15th January 1989.

The Act applies to tenancies granted by private registered providers of social housing and private landlords, and creates two types of tenancies:
An ‘AT’ landlord requires a legal ground to evict a tenant, while an ‘AST’ landlord simply can serve a section 21 notice after the 1st 6 months for a periodic tenancy or at the end of a fixed term  tenancy

  1. An assured tenancy (AT)
  2. An assured shorthold tenancy (AST)
AN ASSURED TENANCY

An assured tenancy provides long term substantive security of tenure. A statutory ground must be established to obtain possession against a tenant. This type of tenancy may be granted by both a private and private registered provider of social housing.

AN ASSURED SHORTHOLD TENANCY

An AST is a specific type of assured tenancy that provides short term substantive security of tenure for the initial six months of the tenancy, or for any fixed period longer than the initial 6 months.

During this period the security of tenure is substantive and similar to an assured tenancy and a statutory ground will need to be relied upon to gain possession.

An ‘AT’ landlord requires a legal ground to evict a tenant, while an ‘AST’ landlord simply can serve a section 21 notice after the 1st 6 months for a periodic tenancy or at the end of a fixed term  tenancy

A notice of possession may be served under Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 with no ground or reason required for the notice, after the initial 6 months or at any time thereafter for a periodic tenancy or at the completion of a fixed period tenancy.

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