It has been widely publicised that the security of tenure for residential tenants is now significantly greater than it was before the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (“RRA 2025“). Landlords are now required to establish a statutory ground for possession in Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 (“HA 1988“) instead of being able to serve a section 21 “no fault” eviction notice.
However, what has not been so widely discussed is that this increase in security is not universal for all assured tenants. Behind the headline reforms lies a quiet widening of some landlords’ routes to possession and a weakening of the security of tenure for legacy assured tenants and, to a lesser extent, assured agricultural occupants.
Assured tenants have historically always had good security of tenure because landlords could only rely on a very restricted group of Schedule 2 possession grounds to serve a section 8 notice. The RRA 2025 has weakened the security of tenure for these tenants because the Schedule 2 grounds have been amended – some have been loosened, and new grounds have been added.
What is a legacy assured tenancy?
A legacy assured tenancy is a tenancy which was entered into before 1 May 2026 (that was not an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (“AST“)). Assured tenancies have not been the first choice of tenancy for private landlords to grant but they may nonetheless have arisen for one of the following reasons:
- Succession: for example, they can arise in some circumstances on succession for Rent Act 1977 or Rent (Agriculture) Act 1976 tenancies
- Security: for example, where a landlord wanted to offer a reasonably secure tenancy to a tenant and favoured this over a fixed long-term AST
- Mistake: a large number have arisen where a landlord failed to serve the obligatory (pre-1996) notice to create an AST. Interestingly, the fact that so many will have arisen by mistake may provide some explanation as to why there will not have been a huge political incentive to protect tenants from the reform of Schedule 2 HA 1988
What is an AAO?
One type of legacy assured tenancy is an Assured Agricultural Occupancy (“AAO“), which provides agricultural workers with succession rights and lifetime security of tenure. This means they have the right to live in a property even if their employment ends.
An AAO arises where a qualifying agricultural employee occupies accommodation provided by the employer. To qualify as an AAO the agricultural worker condition must be met, and there must be a tenancy or licence capable of protection. To meet the agricultural worker condition the worker must establish that:
- They are a qualifying worker (i.e. have worked 91 out of the last 104 weeks in agriculture)
- They were a qualifying worker at any time during the subsistence of a relevant tenancy / licence
- The dwelling house is in qualifying ownership
The definitions of agriculture and qualifying ownership adopted by the HA 1988 are those contained in the Rent (Agriculture) Act 1976. This definition of agriculture is narrower than some other statutory definitions of agriculture meaning that there are many workers who are not agricultural workers; for example, ghillies, gardeners and game keepers. It should be noted that even where a tenant/employee is not intended to work in agriculture during the tenancy, the tenant’s previous employment in agriculture can result in the tenancy being an AAO from day 1. Often advice needs to be sought to assess the risk and establish if the conditions for an AAO are met.
Prior to the RRA 2025, landlords needed to serve a Form 9 “opt-out” notice to agricultural workers before granting an AST to avoid inadvertently creating an AAO and giving agricultural workers enhanced rights. Since 1 May 2026 the form is a Form 9A, but any Form 9 served before 1 May 2026 remains valid.
Security of tenure before the RRA 2025
Before the RRA 2025, the Schedule 2 grounds available to landlords of assured tenancies were very limited. For AAOs the position was the same, except that Ground 16 (which permitted a landlord to regain possession at the end of employment) was specifically excluded from applying to AAOs.
What has changed?
The RRA 2025 reformed the possession grounds in Schedule 2 – adding new grounds and amending “old” grounds, thereby giving landlords of most legacy assured tenancies greater flexibility to regain possession.
For rural landowners, the Ground 1 changes (occupation by landlord or family member) are the most significant of the “old” ground amendments. The family members for which a landlord can require possession have been expanded – beyond just the landlord’s spouse or civil partner – to include the landlord’s parent, grandparent, sibling, child or grandchild. Furthermore, there is no longer a requirement that the landlord lived in the property (as their only dwelling house) prior to the start of the tenancy.
The new grounds of particular significance to rural landlords are:
- Ground 1A: sale of dwelling house
- Ground 2ZA: possession when superior lease ends
- Ground 2ZB: possession when fixed term superior lease ends
- Ground 2ZC: possession by superior landlord
- Ground 2ZD: possession by superior landlord (fixed term)
- Ground 5A: occupation by agricultural worker
- Ground 5C: end of employment by the landlord
However, under Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026/421 Ground 1A is carved out from applying to legacy assured tenancies (including AAOs).
AAO tenants are protected further by virtue of section 25 HA 1988 which states that Grounds 2ZA – 2ZD, Ground 5A and Ground 5C cannot apply to AAOs. So, the changes which apply to AAOs are only those made to existing grounds. Moving forwards, landlords must continue to “opt out” their tenancies to ensure they do not create AAOs and can benefit from the new grounds for possession.
Conclusion
The watering down of an assured tenants’ security of tenure feels slightly strange in today’s political climate, but it is important to remember that most legacy assured tenants are in social housing, and very few rent from private landlords. As the RRA 2025 passed through the Parliamentary process, there was much lobbying on behalf of landlords to ensure that the new Schedule 2 grounds for possession worked efficiently in a rural context – so the lack of exclusions for the superior landlord and employment grounds for most legacy assured tenancies make at least some sense. Regardless of how this has come into being, whilst most tenants’ security has improved with the RRA 2025, there are a small number of assured tenants whose protection has been diluted.
