A Rent Act Tenancy is technically either a "Protected Tenancy" or a "Statutory Tenancy". Collectively they are known as “Regulated Tenancies”. As long as it is in existence, a protected tenancy is contractual (sometimes called common-law in nature).

Virtually all Regulated Tenancies, when first granted, are Protected Tenancies. A Statutory tenancy arises when the protected tenancy ends in some way (discussed in this article).

A Statutory tenancy is not a tenancy in the strict sense. It is a personal right to occupy a dwelling-house until the court orders that the tenant should give up possession which the court will only do if it is satisfied that one of some specified grounds has been made out. To commence proceedings against a tenant based on rent arrears, the "protected tenancy" must first be ended, resulting in a "statutory tenancy" arising.

A landlord may then seek possession based on Case 1 of the Rent Act 1977 based upon the breach of the statutory tenancy.

How to end the protected tenancy

Virtually all regulated tenancies we have had to deal with have no written agreement and will therefore be a periodic contractual tenancy without a forfeiture clause.

In this case, the protected tenancy will need to be ended through a notice to quit.

A written tenancy agreement will probably contain a forfeiture clause (it will say something like if the said rent remains unpaid for at least seven days, the landlord may re-enter, etc.). In this case, the landlord may forfeit the tenancy based on non-payment of rent, although this can sometimes be quite complicated, so a landlord may be wise to issue a notice to quit to end the protected tenancy.

In the unlikely event that the tenancy is still in the fixed term, the tenancy will have to be forfeited, and you would be wise to contact the Guild. However, as regulated tenancies must be old, this is highly unlikely.

Once the tenancy has been ended by a notice to quit (or forfeiture), a statutory tenancy arises, and a court order will be required.

Section 2(1)(a) Rent Act 1977 provides that:

"after termination of a protected tenancy of the dwelling house the person who, immediately before that termination, was the protected tenant of the dwelling house shall, if and so long as he occupies the dwelling house as his residence, be the statutory tenant of it".

Suppose a notice of increase under section 49 Rent Act 1977 was issued. In that case, this will also convert the protected tenancy to a statutory tenancy (meaning a notice to quit is not required). However, the notice must be valid for the tenancy to be converted, so again, a landlord may be wise to issue a notice to quit.

The Notice to Quit

In most cases, a landlord would be wise first to issue a notice to quit to bring the protected tenancy to an end.

A notice to quit is available here. As with all notices, the date must be correct. Otherwise, the protected tenancy will not be ended, and the court will not be able to grant possession.

Length of notice and must expire at the end of a period of the tenancy

It was once said that a notice to quit should expire on the last day of some year of the tenancy and not on the same day on which the tenancy commenced. But the modern law is that since a yearly tenancy in strictness expires at midnight of the day before the anniversary of its commencement, the notice may be made to expire either on the anniversary of commencement or on the day before the anniversary of commencement, and either is good. [Yeandle v. Reigate B.C. [1996] 1 E.G.L.R. 20, following Sidebotham v. Holland [1895] 1 Q.B. 378.]

A similar rule applies to weekly or monthly tenancies. [Crate v. Miller [1947] 2 All E.R. 45.] [para 17.255 Woodfall Landlord & Tenant]

This means that the notice to quit must expire the day before the rent is due. Therefore, a landlord must show what day or the date the rent is payable.

A notice to quit must be at least four weeks in length. However, if the rent is payable monthly, it must be at least one month in length, quarterly, three months, and yearly, at least six months in length.

Examples:

If the rent is payable weekly and on a Friday, the notice to quit must be at least four weeks long and expire on a Thursday.
If rent is payable monthly on the 15th day of every month, the notice to quit must be at least one month and rounded up to the 14th.

Court order

For possession because of rent arrears, you will rely on Case 1 Rent Act 1977, which is a discretionary ground (the court will only grant possession if it's reasonable to do so).

Forms Required

N5

N119

Template Particulars of Claim

Samples completed for you to copy from are detailed below Sample N5 & N119.

As claiming possession for a Rent Act tenancy is rare and complex, you may wish to consider employing the services of a local solicitor.

Ending a Tenancy - Rent Act Tenancies

Related Articles

Seeking Possession Based on Rent Arrears (Rent Act Tenancy)

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