I sometimes get contacted by landlords in a panic. “My tenant will have been in the property for three years next month – should I evict her to prevent her having the right to buy me out?”
Or sometimes it’s the tenants, thinking that they are entitled to claim ownership or charge their landlords ginormous sums as a condition of moving out.
It is true that some tenants who have been in a property for a long time HAVE been able to get big money if their landlord wants them out (Nearly Legal said he once got over £200K for a client in a comment on this blog).
However, the reason for this isn’t simply because they’ve been there a long time. It’s because when they moved in, the law was different – ALL tenants at that time had those rights. It’s just that there are fewer tenants now who have lived in their rented property since before January 1989.
And the right to big money is not absolute. You only get it (if you are a protected tenant) if your landlord desperately wants you out and is prepared to pay for it. If the landlord is quite happy to let you stay (so when you pop your clogs, he can sell the property at market value and make a packet) there is nothing you can do about it. Other than live longer than him and dash all his hopes.
Your rights, whether you are a landlord or a tenant, will depend on which statutory regime applies.
How to determine which statutory regime applies
It depends partly on when you moved in and the law is now mostly different in England and Wales.
Protected tenancies
Protected/statutory tenants under the Rent Act 1977 have the strongest rights. These are all tenants who have been in residence (or spouses of tenants who had been in residence) since 15 January 1989. Find out how to spot a Protected Tenancy here.
Note that in Wales, protected tenants have retained their rights as protected tenancies did not convert to ‘occupation contracts’ under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. So the law which applies to protected tenants is the same in both England and Wales.
If you are a tenant, and want to find out more about your rights, see here.
Assured and assured shorthold tenancies
In England, if you moved in between 15 January 1989 and 27 February 1997, it is very likely that you have an assured tenancy. This will depend on the paperwork that you were given at the time you moved in (I explain the rules and s20 notices here). However, if you do have an assured tenancy, then you too will have what is known as ‘security of tenure’ and it will be difficult for your landlord to evict you in most cases.
But again, this is not because you have been there for a long time but because the law was different at the time you moved in. Assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) did not become the ‘default’ tenancy type until 28 February 1997.
However, if you have a bog standard AST (or a common law tenancy), then after the proper form of notice has been served on you, your landlord is entitled to get the property back from you (and an order for possession if you don’t go) as of right. It doesn’t matter how long you have been there.
For an AST tenant, your security of tenure is never more than two months (give or take a few days) or the end of your fixed term, whichever is the longer. Although at the moment it is taking some time to get eviction claims through the courts, which will give tenants more time.
Occupation contracts in Wales
In Wales, the law changed on 1 December 2022 when the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 (the Act) came into force. This converted most assured and assured shorthold tenancies as well as most residential licenses, into ‘occupation contracts’. Which are subject to the rules in the Act.
The types of tenancy or license which did not convert to occupation contracts are set out in Schedule 2 of the Act. They include:
- Lodgers (so long as they share living accommodation with their landlord)
- Protected tenancies (as discussed above)
- Holiday lets
- Care institutions
So in Wales your rights, (if you moved into the property after 15 January 1989 and so do not have a protected tenancy) will depend on what type of contract you have. The length of time you have been living at the property is irrelevant.
The new law in Wales is more favourable to tenants (or contract holders as they are now called) and it will take longer, in most cases, for landlords to evict them through the courts.
If you are a landlord, you can find out more about your rights on my Landlord Law website.
This post is part of my urban myths series. You can see the rest of the series here.