The Housing Act 1988: A New Regime For The Private Rented Sector: 2

Abstract

The Housing Act 1988 confers security of tenure on “normal” assured tenants,¹ by way of a scheme which has certain similarities (particularly as regards some of the prescribed grounds for possession) with that governing “regulated” tenants in the Rent Act 1977 (s.98 and Sched. 15). However, there are some significant differences between the new scheme in the 1988 Act and the old scheme in the 1977 Act: in particular, the 1988 Act avoids the Rent Act's somewhat unhappy distinction between the contractual (“protected”) tenancy and the statutory tenancy which follows its termination (compare the 1977 Act, ss.1-2), and it introduces some draconian new grounds for possession which have no precise counterparts in the Rent Act.