Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreements Explained
The Assured Shorthold Tenancy is a letting contract agreement under UK law.
There are several different types of tenancy agreements depending on the type of property being let and to whom. As an example if you rent a room in your house to a lodger or rent out a holiday home your let will be created under a different act of law from that used by a shorthold tenancy agreement. The same applies to very high or very low rents and especially to business lets. However, if you are renting a property in its entirety to an individual or groups of individuals (as is the case with most buy to let property purchases and subsequent rentals then your let will be covered by an Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement. Note, there is an implied agreement even if no pieces of paper change hands.
Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreements can be purchased from most high street stationers or even some book shops. These are cheap and, importantly, fair. This is more important than you might think. I’d never create or even amend my own agreement unless you’re qualified. Many people think they can out anything in a contract and as long as the other party sign it then that created a binding agreement but this is not the case. We all have statutory rights and these cannot be broken even by a signed contract. Always get a solicitor to advise and make any contractual amendments for you.
I’ve been successfully dealing with tenants for a couple of years now, by way of giving credit where it’s due I had a lot of excellent property management advice from this site.
