If you rented privately in England at any point between 1997 and April 2026, your tenancy was probably an AST. It was the standard agreement used by landlords and letting agents, and it gave you the right to live in a property for a fixed term (usually six or twelve months) before rolling into a periodic tenancy.
The defining feature of an AST was that your landlord could end it without giving a reason by serving a Section 21 "no-fault" eviction notice with two months' warning. This made ASTs significantly less secure than the assured tenancies they replaced. Your landlord didn't need to prove you had done anything wrong to evict you, they simply needed to follow the correct procedure and wait for the notice period to expire.
From May 1st, 2026, the Renters' Rights Act abolished ASTs entirely. Every existing AST automatically converted into an assured periodic tenancy on that date, and all new tenancies created from then onward are assured by default. Section 21 no-fault evictions no longer exist, so f your landlord wants to regain possession, they must now prove specific legal grounds under Section 8 of the Housing Act.
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