Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs): Why They No Longer Exist

England only

What happened to ASTs

The assured shorthold tenancy was introduced by the Housing Act 1988 and became the default private tenancy in England for nearly forty years. Its defining features were a fixed term and, crucially, section 21 — the ability to recover possession at the end of that term without giving a reason.

The Renters’ Rights Act removed the entire chapter of the Housing Act 1988 that created ASTs. Not amended it — removed it. Along with it went section 21, which lived in that chapter. There is now one form of private tenancy in England: the assured periodic tenancy.

The AST	What replaced it
Fixed term of six or twelve months	No fixed term. Periodic, indefinite
Section 21 no-fault possession	Section 8 grounds only
Break clause to exit early	Nothing to break. Tenant gives two months’ notice
Rent review clause at renewal	Section 13 notice, once every 52 weeks
Renewal every year	Nothing to renew
Deposit protection barred section 21	Deposit protection bars section 8 as well

If you came here for an AST template

Understandable — it’s what everyone still searches for, and it’s what the entire industry called these documents for four decades. But an agreement headed “Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement” is now describing a tenancy type that cannot legally be created.

Using an old AST template doesn’t invalidate the tenancy — you’d still have created an assured periodic tenancy, because that’s the only thing available. What it does is fill your agreement with clauses that either do nothing or actively work against you:

The second box is the one that should worry you. A dead clause is merely untidy. A no-DSS or no-children restriction sitting in a signed agreement is documentary evidence of a practice that now carries a civil penalty, whether or not you ever enforced it.

We publish a current, compliant version free: the 2026 tenancy agreement template.

Does “assured shorthold” still mean anything?

Only historically. Three places you’ll still encounter it legitimately:

In your old paperwork. Agreements signed before May 2026 still say AST on the front. That’s fine — the document records how the tenancy began. The tenancy itself is now periodic assured.

In the legacy tenancy carve-out. Ground 1A, the selling ground, doesn’t apply to “legacy assured tenancies” — genuine old-style assured tenancies pre-dating 1997 that were never ASTs. Converted ASTs are fully within ground 1A. If you hold a genuinely old tenancy, that distinction matters; most landlords never encounter one.

In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Different regimes entirely. Wales has occupation contracts under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016; Scotland has private residential tenancies. Nothing on this page applies outside England.

What this means for how you let

The habit worth breaking is thinking in twelve-month cycles. There is no term, no renewal date, no annual moment where you reset the rent and reconsider the tenant. Instead you have a tenancy that continues until someone ends it, a rent you can adjust once every 52 weeks by formal notice, and possession that requires a ground.

Practically, that pushes weight onto the front of the process. Referencing and affordability assessment — both expressly preserved by the Act — now carry the load that the fixed term and section 21 used to carry between them. Get the tenant right at the start, because the tools for correcting it later are considerably blunter than they were.

Questions