What is a Non-Assured Tenancy Agreement?

A non-assured tenancy is generally only used when a let can't be an assured tenancy, for example where the property isn't the tenant's main home. Non-assured tenancies are much rarer than assured tenancies, which in England now mainly means the assured periodic tenancy that replaced the assured shorthold tenancy or AST.

Article updated: November 2026

Tenancy Agreements - What You Need to Know

A tenancy agreement is a contract between a landlord and a tenant. The agreement sets out what each side has agreed to do. The law still decides how a landlord can regain possession.

The types of tenancy agreements that may be used in residential lettings, and what they include, are covered by several different laws.

For nearly three decades, the most common type of private residential tenancy agreement in England was the assured shorthold tenancy, or AST for short. Since 1 May 2026, most new private lets in England run as assured periodic tenancies under the Renters' Rights Act. The AST was introduced by the Housing Act 1988 and this act regulates what an AST covers and the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants under it.

Other types of tenancy that might be encountered include non-assured tenancies, excluded tenancies or licences, and regulated tenancies. These are much rarer than assured tenancies and are only used in limited circumstances. Some of them are historic tenancy agreements which still exist for old tenancies but which are no longer issued. These tenancies are covered by different acts, and place different rights and obligations on landlords and tenants.

What Exactly is a Non-Assured Tenancy Agreement?

A non-assured tenancy is a tenancy which is not an assured tenancy under the Housing Act 1988 at all. The 'assured' in an assured tenancy means that the tenant has security of tenure, a set of occupancy rights fixed by the Housing Act 1988. In practice, it means a private landlord in England can only take the property back through the courts on one of the Act's legal grounds. Some of those grounds are about the tenant's conduct, such as rent arrears or antisocial behaviour. Others cover the landlord's own circumstances, such as needing to sell or move in, as government guidance on the rules from 1 May 2026 sets out. A Section 21 notice served before 1 May 2026 could still lead to possession if the landlord applied to court before the notice expired and by 31 July 2026. Those cases continue until they conclude, as the transitional guidance explains.

The 'shorthold' in an assured shorthold tenancy was about the landlord's route to possession, not the length of the let. An AST could be fixed-term or periodic. Either way, the landlord could take the property back through the old Section 21 route without giving a reason. For private landlords, new ASTs and Section 21 notices ended on 1 May 2026. The new rules will not apply to private registered providers of social housing, including housing associations, before 2027, as the government's transitional guidance sets out. For notices served since 1 May 2026, private landlords use Section 8 grounds to seek possession of an assured tenancy.

A shorthold tenancy was not necessarily short.

If you're weighing up how long to let for, our guide to how long a long-term let runs covers the practicalities.

When Non-Assured Tenancy Agreements are Used

Non-assured tenancies are generally only used when an assured tenancy is not possible. A letting cannot be assured if it fails the basic test in section 1 of the Housing Act 1988. To pass, the home must be let as a separate home, to one person or to joint tenants who are all people rather than a company. At least one of them must also live there as their main home. A letting also cannot be assured if it falls within one of the exceptions in Schedule 1 to the Act.

Examples of lettings that cannot be assured include:

• A let where the property is not the tenant's main home.
• A let that is a holiday letting.
• Student lets in university halls and some purpose-built student accommodation, where the tenants are university students and the provider has signed up to the National Code, as the government's landlord guide sets out.
• In the case of resident landlords. Where the landlord lives in the same building as their only or principal home, both when the letting starts and throughout it, as the government's resident landlord guide sets out. It does not apply where the building is a purpose-built block of flats and landlord and tenant occupy separate flats.
• Where the rent is very high: more than £100,000 a year for a tenancy first agreed on or after 1 April 1990.
• Where the rent is very low: £250 a year or less, or £1,000 a year or less in Greater London, for a tenancy granted on or after 1 April 1990 (other than under a contract made before that date).
• Where there is a tenancy under which no rent is payable at all. (Rent that is owed but unpaid is arrears; it does not take a tenancy outside the Act.)
• Where the tenant isn't a person. For example, the tenant is a business or company. (Residential tenancies where the tenant simply works from home will still usually be assured periodic tenancies.)
• Where the home includes a pub or other premises licensed to supply alcohol to drink there.
• Houses let with more than two acres of farmland, and homes on a farm let under an agricultural tenancy and lived in by the person who runs the farm.
• Some lettings by the Crown or a government department.
• Where the landlord isn't a private landlord and isn't a housing association. For example, where the landlord is a local authority.

Ordinary private student houses are different from halls and purpose-built student accommodation. They are usually let on an assured periodic tenancy. Since 1 May 2026, the landlord of a student HMO can use a new ground to take the house back at the end of the academic year, but only if every condition is met. The tenants must all have been full-time students, or expected to become so, and the landlord must intend to let to full-time students next. The tenancy must have been signed less than six months before the move-in date, and the tenants must have been given written notice of the ground before they signed. The landlord must also give four months' notice that ends between 1 June and 30 September. Tenancies that began before 1 May 2026 were handled differently for the first summer. The written notice of the ground could be given up to 31 May 2026. The six-month rule did not apply. Two months' notice served between 1 May and 30 July 2026 was enough. The government's landlord guide explains this in its section on ending a tenancy.

Council lets sit outside the assured tenancy rules, and different council tenants have different tenancies.

Also, a tenancy granted before 15 January 1989, when the Housing Act 1988 came into force, is normally not an assured tenancy under that Act. The exception is the earlier assured tenancy created by the Housing Act 1980. Those normally became Housing Act 1988 assured tenancies on that date. But that did not happen if the tenant was already waiting for a court decision on a new tenancy, as the explanatory notes to the Deregulation Bill set out.

Landlords and tenants can both ask a solicitor to check which tenancy rules apply.

Important Points to Bear in Mind

A landlord bringing a non-assured tenancy to an end does not use a Section 8 or a Section 21 notice. Section 8 belongs to assured tenancies under the Housing Act 1988, and Section 21 belonged only to assured shorthold tenancies.

Tenancy deposits don't need to be protected with a non-assured tenancy. The deposit protection rules apply to assured periodic tenancies.

A typical investment property, whether found on buy to let property for sale listings or among refurbished below market value properties, is usually let on an assured periodic tenancy. Our guide is buy-to-let worth it looks at what those standard lets cost a landlord against the rent they bring in.

Tenancies in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales

This article only applies to England. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have different tenancy laws and tenancy agreements.

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