What is a tenancy agreement?

England. Wales uses occupation contracts under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, Scotland uses private residential tenancies, and Northern Ireland has its own regime. The general principles below hold everywhere; the statute names do not.

The answer, in one paragraph

A tenancy agreement is a contract giving someone the right to live in a property they do not own, in exchange for rent, for a period of time. It names the parties and the property, states the rent and when it is paid, and sets out the obligations on both sides. In England, a private tenancy of a home is almost always an assured tenancy, and since 1 May 2026 all of them are periodic — they roll on until somebody ends them properly.

The agreement is not the tenancy

This distinction sounds academic and is not. The tenancy is a legal interest in land. It comes into existence when someone is given exclusive possession of a property for a rent, and it exists from that moment whether the arrangement was written, spoken over the phone, or never discussed at all.

Under section 54(2) of the Law of Property Act 1925, a tenancy for three years or less, at a market rent, taking effect immediately, needs no deed and no writing. A verbal agreement creates a real tenancy with real statutory protection.

The written agreement matters for a different reason: it is the evidence. Without it, both sides are arguing about what was agreed, and the courts will fall back on the statutory defaults — which are not written with the landlord in mind.

Tenancy, licence or lodger agreement?

What the document is called does not decide what it is. In Street v Mountford (1985) the House of Lords held that if the substance of the arrangement is exclusive possession for a term at a rent, it is a tenancy, however the paperwork is labelled. Calling an agreement a licence to avoid tenancy law does not work.

	Tenancy	Licence	Lodger agreement
Exclusive possession	Yes — the occupier can exclude the owner	No — permission to be there, nothing more	No — the landlord lives there too
Typical use	Renting a house or self-contained flat	Genuine serviced accommodation, some employee housing	A room in the landlord’s own home
Court order needed to remove	Yes, always	Usually yes, for residential occupiers	No — excluded occupier, reasonable notice
Deposit protection	Required	Not for a true licence	Not required
Renters’ Rights Act applies	Yes	No	No

What an agreement can and cannot do

A tenancy agreement sits underneath statute, not above it. You can agree terms that add to the legal position. You cannot agree terms that take away rights the law gives the tenant — those terms are simply void, and the rest of the agreement carries on without them.

You can agree	You cannot — the clause is void
Who is responsible for the garden	A fixed term of any length, for tenancies from 1 May 2026
Whether smoking is allowed	A blanket ban on pets, or on tenants with children or on benefits
How and when rent is paid	Rent in advance of more than one month
Rules on subletting and lodgers	Any clause removing the landlord’s repairing obligations under section 11
Reasonable rules on decoration and alterations	A rent review or automatic annual uplift clause
How inspections are arranged	A right to enter without the tenant’s agreement

Does it have to be signed?

No. A signature is useful evidence that both parties agreed to the terms, but a tenancy is created by the parties’ conduct — handing over keys, taking rent — not by ink. An unsigned agreement that both sides have acted on will usually be treated as the terms.

What has changed is that in England, for tenancies granted on or after 1 May 2026, the landlord must give the tenant a written statement of terms. That is a legal duty in its own right, separate from whether a contract exists. For most landlords the tenancy agreement and the statement are the same document, and our tenancy agreement guide sets out exactly what has to be in it.

What changed on 1 May 2026

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 came into force for tenancy reform on 1 May 2026 and rewrote what a tenancy agreement can say.

• No fixed terms. Every assured tenancy is periodic from the first day. Existing fixed-term ASTs converted automatically on that date.
• No section 21. A landlord now needs a ground under section 8 to get possession.
• Rent increases only by section 13, once a year, on two months’ notice, challengeable at tribunal. Rent review clauses in the agreement do nothing.
• The tenant can leave at any point on two months’ notice. The landlord cannot.
• One month’s rent in advance is the maximum a landlord may require.
• Pets cannot be refused unreasonably, and refusing tenants on benefits or with children is unlawful.

The asymmetry in the third and fourth points is the real change to how letting works, and it is worth understanding before you draft anything: see periodic tenancies.

How long does a tenancy agreement last?

For tenancies in England from 1 May 2026, the honest answer is: until somebody ends it. There is no end date. The tenancy rolls month to month indefinitely. It ends when the tenant gives two months’ notice, when the landlord obtains possession on a valid ground, or when both sides agree to end it by surrender.

If your agreement still says “12 months from 1 June”, that clause has no legal effect for a tenancy granted after 1 May 2026, and an existing agreement containing it converted by operation of law. The document is not void — just that part of it.

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