Assured periodic tenancies: a guide for tenants
If your landlord wants to end your tenancy
If your landlord decides they need you to leave, they must have a valid reason and give you notice in a particular way.
This guidance only applies to assured tenancies after 1 May 2026. There’s different guidance if you have another type of tenancy, such as a regulated tenancy.
How landlords can end assured periodic tenancies
Your landlord can only end your tenancy if they have a valid reason. These reasons are known as ‘grounds for possession’. For example:
- your landlord wants to live in the property
- your landlord wants to sell the property
- you owe your landlord rent
- you have broken any other terms of your tenancy
- you have damaged the property
- you have committed antisocial behaviour
Your landlord must give you a ‘section 8 notice of seeking possession’. The notice needs to include the grounds the landlord is using to end the tenancy.
Your landlord needs to give you the right notice period.
Landlords must give at least the minimum notice for the grounds they’re using. This is usually at least 2 months, but can be up to 4 months.
They can give more than this if they’d like to.
If your landlord took a deposit from you, they will need to have kept your deposit safe using a government-approved tenancy deposit protection scheme.
You may be able to get your deposit back if your landlord did not protect it.
If you’re a university student
Assured periodic tenancies cannot have an end date, even if you’re a student.
There are different rules if you live in halls or private halls.
Your landlord will be able to end your tenancy using ground 4A at the end of the academic year if all of the following apply:
- all the tenants were full time students when they signed the tenancy, or expected to become students during the tenancy
- your landlord intends to let to students when they next let the property
- the tenancy was signed less than 6 months before the date you could move in
- the property is a house in multiple occupation (HMO) or is part of a HMO
- you received written notice that you may be evicted under ground 4A before you signed the tenancy
- you were given 4 months’ notice of intention to evict - the notice period must end between 1 June and 30 September
If the tenancy began before 1 May 2026
Your landlord has until 31 May 2026 to tell you in writing that they may evict you using ground 4A.
They will then be able to give you a notice of seeking possession that gives you 2 months notice instead of 4 months. They must do this between 1 May and 30 July 2026.
They can use ground 4A even if the tenancy was signed more than 6 months before the date you could move in.
If you do not leave the property
Your landlord cannot remove you by force. Your landlord may be guilty of harassing or illegally evicting you if they do not follow the correct procedures. Illegal eviction is a criminal offence that can lead to a prison sentence.
If the notice period expires and you do not leave the property, your landlord will be able to apply to court for a possession order to try and evict you.
If your landlord goes to court to evict you, there may be a hearing. You’ll be able to say why you disagree with the reason your landlord is trying to end the tenancy.