Periodic Tenancy Agreement England: What Replaced the AST

At a glance

• ASTs ended for new lettings on 1 May 2026. Sections 1 and 2 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 removed assured shorthold tenancies and fixed terms from the law from that date.
• Existing ASTs converted automatically. Any AST still running on 1 May 2026 became an assured periodic tenancy that day, with no new paperwork, signature, or notice required.
• Section 21 "no fault" evictions are gone entirely, for tenancies of any age. A landlord now needs a ground for possession under Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988, served through a section 8 notice.
• New tenancies run as periodic from the start, with rent periods of no more than a calendar month (or 28 days). Fixed terms have no legal effect on an assured tenancy.
• Rent can normally rise only once every 12 months, using a statutory notice giving at least two months' notice; the tenant can refer it to the First-tier Tribunal, which can confirm or reduce the figure but never increase it.
• Deposit protection is unchanged. Deposits still have to go into a government-approved scheme under the Housing Act 2004, and this remains a precondition for most possession claims.
• This guide covers England. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 largely applies to England only; deposit protection under the Housing Act 2004 also extends to Wales, but tenancy type reform does not.

What an AST was — and why the term is now largely historical

An Assured Shorthold Tenancy was the default form of residential letting created by the Housing Act 1988, with 1996 amendments making it the automatic tenancy type for most new private lets. It combined a fixed initial term, commonly six or twelve months, with a specific, relatively fast route for a landlord to recover the property once that term ended, known as the section 21 procedure.

That changed on 1 May 2026. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, and the two sections that dismantled the AST system — section 1 (assured tenancies to be periodic, with rent periods capped at a month) and section 2 (abolition of assured shorthold tenancies) — came into force on 1 May 2026 under a commencement order made under the Act.

If you're taking on a new letting today, or granting one as a landlord, the tenancy is an assured tenancy running as a periodic (rolling) arrangement from day one. There's no fixed term to negotiate, and the label "AST" no longer describes anything a new agreement can lawfully create. Many people, and a lot of existing paperwork and search terms, still use "AST" out of habit — this guide uses it where that's genuinely what the reader means by it, but is precise about what currently applies.

What replaced the AST: the assured periodic tenancy

For lettings entered into on or after 1 May 2026, the tenancy is an assured tenancy under the Housing Act 1988, and section 1 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 inserts a new provision (section 4A of the 1988 Act) that strips out any term trying to create a fixed term or a rent period longer than a month. In practice, that means:

• No fixed term. A clause purporting to bind the tenant for six or twelve months has no legal effect. The tenancy runs periodically from the outset.
• Rent periods capped. Rent periods must be 28 days or shorter, or a calendar month. A landlord and tenant can still agree different rent periods at different points, provided each one fits within that limit.
• A written statement of terms. For tenancies entered into from 1 May 2026, the landlord (or their agent) must give the tenant certain mandatory information in writing before the tenancy is entered into — most easily done by including it in the tenancy agreement itself. The specific terms and information required are set out in regulations made under section 12 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025.
• No rent in advance beyond the first payment, and no demand for more than a month's rent to be held at any one time once the tenancy has started, under sections 8 and 9 of the Act.

This doesn't mean a written agreement is optional — quite the opposite. A clear document setting out the rent, the property, the parties, and each side's obligations still matters enormously; it just can no longer create a fixed term or promise a section 21 route that no longer exists.

What happened to tenancies that started before 1 May 2026

Nothing had to be done, and nothing needs to be signed now. An AST that was already running on 1 May 2026 converted automatically into an assured periodic tenancy on that date, under the transitional provisions of the Renters' Rights Act 2025. The core commercial terms — the rent, the property, who the parties are — carried straight across. Any term of the old agreement that tried to keep a fixed period running, or that set a rent period longer than a month, simply stopped having effect from that date, and the tenancy became periodic in the same way as a brand new one.

If you're a tenant holding a document labelled "AST" signed before 1 May 2026, your actual legal position today is that of an assured periodic tenant — the paper title doesn't change what applies. If you're a landlord relying on an old agreement, the same is true in reverse: any surviving reference to a fixed term or a rent review clause tied to an index is not enforceable as written. Section 6 of the Act specifically overrides existing rent-review clauses, including those linked to RPI or CPI, in favour of the statutory rent-increase procedure described below.

Grounds for possession: how a tenancy can now be ended

Section 21 is gone entirely — not phased out, not restricted, removed from the statute book by section 2 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 for tenancies of any age. A landlord who wants the property back now has to serve a section 8 notice relying on one or more grounds set out in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988, which section 3 of the 2025 Act substantially revised and expanded.

The grounds split into two categories:

• Mandatory grounds — if the landlord proves the ground applies, the court must order possession. These cover situations such as the landlord or a family member wanting to move in, the landlord wanting to sell, and serious or repeated rent arrears.
• Discretionary grounds — the court has to be satisfied it's reasonable to grant possession even where the ground is made out. These cover matters such as general rent arrears below the mandatory threshold, breach of tenancy terms, and anti-social behaviour, where section 4 of the 2025 Act sets out factors the court must weigh.

Each ground carries its own minimum notice period and evidence requirements, and — outside the anti-social behaviour grounds — a court generally will not grant possession unless the deposit has been properly protected and the prescribed information served. Because the right ground, correctly evidenced and correctly notified, is now the only route to possession, getting the section 8 notice right matters far more than it used to when section 21 offered a simpler fallback.

Rent, deposits and pre-tenancy paperwork

Rent increases. A landlord can still increase the rent, but only through the statutory procedure under section 6 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 — any rent-review clause in the agreement is disregarded. The landlord serves a formal notice giving at least two months' notice of the new figure, and the increase can normally happen no more than once every 12 months. The tenant can challenge the amount at the First-tier Tribunal before the increase takes effect under section 7 of the Act; the Tribunal can confirm the figure or reduce it, but it has no power to increase it beyond what the landlord proposed. See our guide on challenging a rent increase for how that process works in practice.

Deposits. Deposit protection under the Housing Act 2004 is untouched by the 2025 reforms. Any deposit taken must go into a government-approved tenancy deposit scheme within the statutory deadline, with prescribed information given to the tenant. Failing to protect the deposit, or serve the prescribed information, still blocks most possession claims and exposes the landlord to a claim for compensation. See our guide on deposit protection schemes for how the schemes work and what happens if there's a dispute at the end of the tenancy.

Repairing obligations. The landlord's statutory repairing obligations under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 are unaffected and cannot be contracted out of in most cases — they cover the structure and exterior, and installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation, heating and hot water.

Before the tenant moves in. A signed inventory and schedule of condition, ideally with dated photographs, remains just as important as it always was, because it protects both sides when the tenancy ends and the deposit is returned. See our guide on check-out inventories for what a thorough one should cover.

Worked example: a tenancy that started in 2024

Priya, a fictional tenant, signed a twelve-month AST in September 2024, with the fixed term due to roll into a periodic tenancy the following September if nothing else happened. By the time 1 May 2026 arrived, her tenancy had already been running periodically for some months under the old rules — but from 1 May 2026, her tenancy automatically became an assured periodic tenancy under the Renters' Rights Act 2025, regardless of what her original paperwork said.

Nothing changed in terms of what she had to do: no new agreement to sign, no notice to give or receive. What changed was the legal framework sitting behind her tenancy — her landlord can no longer serve a section 21 notice against her, any remaining rent-review clause in her original agreement has no effect, and any future rent increase must come through the statutory section 6 procedure rather than whatever mechanism her 2024 paperwork described.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Using or relying on a pre-2026 AST template for a new letting. A template that still promises a fixed term or describes a section 21 route is legally wrong for any tenancy granted on or after 1 May 2026, and could mislead both parties about their actual position.
• Assuming an old rent-review clause still works. Under section 6 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, it doesn't — the statutory procedure is now the only lawful route to a rent increase on a periodic tenancy.
• Serving, or expecting, a section 21 notice. It is no longer available for any tenancy. Attempting to rely on one wastes time and will not lead to a valid possession order.
• Treating deposit protection as settled once, forever. It remains a live precondition for possession under most grounds — check the scheme registration and prescribed information are still in order before serving any notice.
• Assuming this guide applies outside England. The Renters' Rights Act 2025's tenancy reforms are largely England-only; Wales operates under the separate Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 framework, and Scotland has its own private residential tenancy regime.

What to do next

1. Work out which regime actually applies to you. If your tenancy started before 1 May 2026, it has almost certainly already converted to an assured periodic tenancy — check the date, not just the label on your paperwork.
2. If you're a landlord letting a property now, use up-to-date documentation that reflects a periodic assured tenancy from the outset, and make sure the written statement of terms and prescribed information requirements are met before the tenant moves in.
3. If you're ending a tenancy, identify the correct ground under Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 and confirm the deposit position before serving a section 8 notice — there is no fallback to section 21.
4. If you're facing or considering a rent increase, check the notice gives at least two months and follows the section 6 procedure; if you think the figure is too high, you can refer it to the First-tier Tribunal.
5. Keep your inventory, deposit certificate, and correspondence together, as these matter just as much under the new regime as they did before.
6. Take advice on anything fact-specific. The transition affected millions of existing tenancies at once, and how it interacts with your particular agreement, arrears history, or notice already served can turn on detail this guide can't cover.

Related reading

For the matching periodic tenancy agreement, see Assured Periodic Tenancy Agreement for England (2026).

This guide provides general information about tenancy agreements in England following the Renters' Rights Act 2025. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for advice tailored to your specific circumstances. The law described was accurate as at August 2026 and is subject to further secondary legislation and guidance — always check GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk for the most current position.

Last reviewed: August 2026 by a non-practising solicitor · Next review due: August 2027 or on legislative change.