RLA Guide to Tenancy Agreements

The RLA provides six different types of tenancy agreements to meet most circumstances. Agreements have been approved by the Plain English Campaign and Crystal Marked. The agreements which are available are as follows:-

Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement (AST)

This is the most commonly used form. It can be used for houses and flats i.e. self contained units. It can also be used where a house or flat is rented as a whole to a group such as groups of students, young professionals etc. On the other hand, if you are renting out individual rooms then normally the Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement – Room Only is the appropriate form. The tenancy created by this agreement is an assured shorthold tenancy within the Housing Act 1988. Any deposit paid must be protected under one of the Government approved tenancy deposit schemes. At the end of the fixed term the tenancy automatically runs on unless you take steps to end it.

You can use the Section 21 procedure to obtain possession. In the event of tenancy arrears or other tenancy breach you will need to serve a Section 8 notice (e.g. relying Ground 8 for rent arrears).

NB: Please refer to the note below which tells you if other forms of agreement may be more suitable to your needs.

If you are protecting the deposit with DepositGuard you must use the DepositGuard Compliant Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement.

Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement – Room Only

This is for use where a non resident landlord rents out an individual room to a tenant e.g. in a shared house or a bedsit. The accommodation will be non self contained so that the tenant will share facilities (e.g. a bathroom or kitchen) with other tenants in the same house/building. The tenancy is an assured shorthold tenancy governed by the Housing Act 1988. Any deposit paid must be protected under one of the Government approved tenancy deposit schemes.

You can use the Section 21 procedure to obtain possession. In the event of tenancy arrears or other tenancy breach you will need to serve a Section 8 notice (e.g. relying Ground 8 for rent arrears).

If you are protecting the deposit with DepositGuard you must use the DepositGuard Compliant Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement.

Note: If any of the following apply to you as landlord then the two types of assured shorthold tenancy referred to above may well not be suitable for your requirements and you should consider an alternative form of agreement as listed below.

This applies where –

You are renting out your own home which you have occupied in the past as your only or main home (or if there is more than one landlord at least one of the landlords has occupied the property as his/her only or main home).
You are resident in the same house/building and you share living accommodation (e.g. bathroom, toilet, kitchen or a living room) with the tenant.
You reside in the same house/building but you do not share any living accommodation with the tenant (i.e. you do not share bathroom, toilet, kitchen or living room) and your own residence in the house/building is your only or main home.
The rent is less than £250 per year.
You are certain that this will be a second home for the tenant i.e. the tenant’s only or main home is somewhere else and will remain elsewhere during the currency of the tenancy.
The tenant to whom you let the property is a limited company, limited liability partnership (LLP) or other incorporated body i.e. the tenant or if there is more than one tenant all of the tenants are not individuals.

If any of these situations apply please consider one of the following:

Excluded Tenancy Agreement (Lodgers Agreement)

This is for use if you are a resident landlord and you share living accommodation with your tenant.

This does not create an assured shorthold tenancy or a non shorthold assured tenancy. It is outside the scope of the Protection from Eviction provisions. This means that so long as you give the proper notice as required by the agreement you can evict the tenant without a Court order. You must not actually do so when the tenant (or anyone else associated with the tenant) is present at the time. The normal four week minimum period of notice is not required either. If you take a deposit it does not need to be protected under one of the Government deposit schemes. You must not use this agreement unless you actually share the accommodation. Simply sharing an access is not enough.

NB: Please refer to the note below which tells you if other forms of agreement may be more suitable to your needs.

Company Let Agreement

This form is for use where the tenant is an incorporated body (e.g. a limited company, limited liability partnership (LLP) etc). Where there is more than one tenant none of them must be individuals. They must all be incorporated bodies. The tenancy is not an assured tenancy. If you take a deposit it does not need to be protected under one of the Government approved tenancy schemes. If it is a common law tenancy you do not need to serve a Section 21 Notice or a Section 8 Notice to obtain possession. It is a fixed term tenancy which then runs on automatically as a monthly tenancy. You will need to give a notice to quit to terminate the tenancy.

NB: Please refer to the note below which tells you if other forms of agreement may be more suitable to your needs.

Owner Occupier Tenancy Agreement

This is for use where you let your own home. You should only use it if you have actually lived yourself in the property and when you lived there it was your only or main home. It does not matter how long ago; nor does it matter that you did not actually own the property when you lived there. If there is more than one landlord then only one of the landlords needs to have lived in the property as his/her only or main home at the time. The agreement creates a non shorthold assured tenancy. Unlike a shorthold, the tenant does not have the guarantee of a minimum of six months right of occupation from when he/she originally moved in. However, the tenant will be able to live in the property for however long you provide for in the agreement itself (so long as they pay the rent and comply with the tenancy terms). Thus, if you give the tenant a 12 month tenancy he/she can stay there for that period even though it may be your own home. You have to give two months notice using a Section 8 Notice relying on Ground 1 to end the tenancy and obtain a Court order if the tenant will not vacate. You will not be able to obtain a Court order unless any fixed term tenancy has run out before you start Court proceedings for possession. You can serve the Ground 1 notice but you will have to wait until any fixed term has run out. It does not matter if there is a monthly tenancy in place rather than a fixed term. In that situation you can obtain possession once the two month Ground 1 notice has run its course. You can also rely on Section 8 and the other usual grounds if there are rent arrears or a breach of the tenancy terms (e.g. Ground 8 for rent arrears).

The agreement contains the statutory Ground 1 notice warning the tenant that this is an owner/occupier agreement and a Ground 1 applies. As the tenancy is a non shorthold you can take a deposit and do not need to protect it under one of the statutory schemes.

Non Assured Tenancy Agreement

This is for use in three situations:-

Where the rent is not more than £250 per annum.
The tenant has his/her only or main home elsewhere. If there are joint tenants each of them must have their only or main home elsewhere. You need to be sure of this situation and as certain as you can be that it will continue for the duration of the tenancy. For example if a tenant lives with his family elsewhere at weekends and uses the property during the week returning home at weekends.
You are resident as landlord but do not share living accommodation with the tenant. This means that you must not share toilet, bathroom, kitchen or a living room with the tenant. However, your residence elsewhere in the same property must be your only or main home and not your second home.

In all of these cases as the tenancy is not an assured tenancy you can take a deposit without having to pay it into the Government’s tenancy deposit scheme.

To end this tenancy you do not need to give a Section 21 or Section 8 Notice. This is because it is a common law tenancy. The tenancy starts as a fixed term tenancy. This means that the tenant can stay there until the end of the fixed term so long as he pays the rent/complies with the tenancy terms. You will then need to give a notice to quit to end the tenancy. This has to be on a prescribed form.

NB: Previously, this agreement could also be used where the rent exceeded £25,000 per annum. However, the maximum rent level for an assured tenancy is raised to £100,000 effective from 1st October 2010. After that date all tenancies where the rent is between £25,001 and £100,000 automatically becomes assured tenancies whenever they were created. The provision is retrospective. They become assured shorthold tenancies automatically so long as the tenancy first commenced after the 28th February 1997. The RLA therefore no longer provide an agreement for this situation.

IMPORTANT

All the RLA forms of agreement create a fixed term tenancy (e.g. for 6 months or one year depending on what you agreed with the tenant) and thereafter continue automatically as monthly tenancies. Automatic continuation will not apply, however, if you have given notice to the tenant in accordance with the terms of the tenancy agreement before the fixed term runs out. Once the tenancy has become a monthly tenancy then the tenant needs to give one months notice. You will have to give two months notice using Section 21 if it is an assured shorthold tenancy (or Section 8 Notice relying on Ground 1 if it is an owner occupier agreement). Otherwise, you will need to give one months notice to quit to end the tenancy to prevent automatic continuation.

WARNING – this note only gives general guidance. If you require more specific advice regarding your own situation you should take your own independent advice or contact the RLA helpline.

When completing the RLA tenancy agreement please follow the guidance instructions applicable to the particular agreement which you are using.

When giving any notice to end the tenancy please carefully check and follow the applicable clause which gives details regarding how the tenancy is to end but always remember that legal requirements such as those which apply under the Housing Act 1988 also apply and may override the terms of the agreement itself. If in doubt take advice.

Addendum Agreement - additional terms

We know that some landlords like to add their own provisions to tenancy agreements and we therefore have an addendum agreement for this purpose. Make sure that if you use the Addendum Agreement this is signed, as well as the tenancy agreement itself. Please read the notes on the Addendum Agreement carefully. In particular, you need to be careful about altering standard clauses which are already in the tenancy agreement. You could fall foul of the Unfair Contract Terms Regulations, for example. For instance, the standard RLA agreement says that if pets are to be brought on to the property this can be done with the landlord’s consent but this consent must not be unreasonably withheld. A clause banning pets altogether may fall foul of the Unfair Contract Terms Regulations e.g. because it unreasonably bans a tenant from having a small goldfish in a small bowl in the property. The RLA cannot accept any responsibility for the consequences of the variations.

Addendum Agreement - DepositGuard

We also have a separate Addendum Agreement where you protect the deposit with DepositGuard. This is for use where the Tenancy Agreement used is NOT the DepositGuard version of an RLA Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement (AST). This Addendum Agreement contains the required clauses which must be used if you protect the deposit with DepositGuard.