Housing association tenancies

A private registered provider of social housing (PRPSH) is a provider of low cost rental accommodation which is not a local authority.[1]

Private registered providers of social housing include:

• housing associations

• charities

• for profit providers of social housing

All private registered providers of social housing must be registered with the Regulator of Social Housing.

Find out more about the regulation of social housing providers.

Tenancy types

A tenant with a private registered provider of social housing might have:

• an assured tenancy, also known as a lifetime tenancy

• a secure tenancy if the tenancy started before 15 January 1989

• a starter or assured shorthold tenancy

Most tenancies granted by a private registered provider of social housing after 15 January 1989 are assured tenancies. Tenancies that started before this date are normally secure tenancies. Some housing association tenants have assured shorthold tenancies.

Renters' Rights Act reforms

The Renters' Rights Act abolished assured shorthold tenancies in the private rented sector from 1 May 2026. Assured shorthold tenancies still exist in social housing after this date.[2]

The Renters' Rights Act changes that came into force on 1 May 2026 do not affect tenancies that are classed as social housing assured tenancies, defined as 'low cost rental accommodation'.[3]

Social housing assured tenancies can either be fully assured or assured shorthold, including starter tenancies.

Renters' Rights Act reforms are due to be fully extended to the social rented sector in 2027.

A tenancy with a PRPSH landlord which is not a social housing tenancy is subject to Renters' Rights Act changes from 1 May 2026. For example, tenancies let at a market rate.

In most cases, when an assured shorthold tenancy is subject to Renters' Rights Act reform, it became a periodic assured tenancy on 1 May 2026.

Find out more about assured tenancies.

Tenancy strategies

Local authorities must publish a tenancy strategy that explains what social housing providers in an area must consider when framing their own tenancy policies.[4]

Find out more about local housing authority tenancy strategies.

Shared ownership

Shared ownership is a government backed scheme where a person can buy part of a home and rent the remaining share from a social landlord.

Find out more about shared ownership housing rights.

Most housing association tenancies that started on or after 15 January 1989 are assured tenancies.

An assured tenancy is sometimes known as a lifetime tenancy.

Find out more about assured tenancies.

Ending an assured tenancy

A housing association can end an assured tenancy by serving a section 8 notice and completing the possession process.

A landlord can only end an assured tenancy if they have a legal reason, known as a ground for possession.

Find out more about section 8 notices.

Assured tenancies following stock transfer

A stock transfer is where the ownership of social housing properties is transferred, usually from a local authority to a housing association.

When a local authority transfers its housing stock after 15 January 1989, the new tenancy with the housing association is not a secure tenancy, even if the previous tenancy was secure. These tenancies are usually assured tenancies.

Assured tenants following a stock transfer retain the right to buy, and the tenancy agreement can grant other preserved rights.

Find out more about right to buy.

Where the Crown Estate Commissioners transfer housing stock after 15 January 1989, and the tenants previously had regulated status, their new tenancies with the housing association become an assured tenancy.[5]

An assured shorthold tenancy (AST) is a type of assured tenancy. All the requirements of an assured tenancy apply, including that it must be a tenancy:

• of a property let as a separate dwelling

• granted to a private person or joint tenants

• where at least one of the joint tenants occupies the property as their only or principal home

A private registered provider of social housing can grant an assured shorthold tenancy. Assured shorthold tenancies are due to be abolished in the social rented sector from 2027.

Starter tenancies

A starter tenancy is a periodic or fixed-term assured shorthold tenancy.

A housing association usually grants a starter tenancy for an initial trial period of 12 months.

In England, any private registered provider of social housing that uses the starter tenancy scheme must apply it to all new tenants, or all new tenants in a designated area. This can be checked by viewing the PRPSH's tenancy policy and procedure documents.

The PRPSH starter tenancy schemes operate the same way as the local authority introductory tenancy scheme.[6]

If the trial is successful, the tenant will be offered either:

• an assured tenancy

• a longer fixed-term assured shorthold tenancy

How a starter tenancy can be ended

The starter tenancy agreement should set out what happens at the end of the probation period.

A starter tenancy can be ended by either:

• the tenant issuing a 4 weeks' written notice

• the landlord issuing a section 21 or section 8 notice and obtaining a possession order

Find out more about section 8 notices and section 21 notices for assured shorthold tenancies.

A secure tenancy is a lifetime tenancy usually offered by local authorities.

Most PRPSH tenancies that started before 15 January 1989 are secure tenancies.

PRPSHs cannot create new secure tenancies after 15 January 1989.

Find out more about secure tenancies on Shelter Legal.

When the tenancy is not a secure tenancy

There are certain circumstances where a tenant of a PRPSH with a tenancy that started before 15 January 1989 will not have a secure tenancy.[7]

Find out more about tenancies that cannot be secure on Shelter Legal.

A tenant of a private registered provider of social housing has certain rights. These rights depend on whether the tenant holds an assured, assured shorthold or secure tenancy.

Repairs and safety

Social landlords have a duty to investigate and make safe emergency hazards and significant damp and mould hazards within fixed timeframes under Awaab's law.[8]

Find out more about hazards in social housing on Shelter Legal.

If the repair issue does not fall under Awaab's law the landlord might still have a duty to complete the repair under either:

• section 11 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985

• fitness for habitation rules

Find out more about disrepair and safety responsibilities on Shelter Legal.

Protection from unfair rent increases

A landlord can increase the rent in line with a rent review clause in the tenancy agreement if the relevant notice has been given to the tenant.

Rent increases for tenants of private registered providers of social housing are regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing.

Find out more about rent levels in private registered providers of social housing on Shelter Legal.

Rent book for tenants who pay weekly

Where rent is payable weekly, the landlord must provide a rent book or equivalent.[9]

Find out more about rent books on Shelter Legal.

Tenant's notice to end a tenancy

A social housing tenant can end a periodic tenancy or licence by serving a valid notice to quit (NTQ).

Find out more about tenant's notice to end a periodic tenancy or licence on Shelter Legal.

Right to assign a tenancy

Assignment is the transfer of an interest in a property, including a tenancy, to another person.

An assured, assured shorthold or secure tenant can assign a tenancy where certain conditions are met.

The unauthorised assignment of a secure tenancy is a criminal offence.

Find out more about assignment of a tenancy on Shelter Legal.

Rights when a social housing tenant dies

Succession is when someone inherits a tenancy after the tenant dies.

Assured and assured shorthold tenancies normally allow one succession, unless the tenancy agreement allows for a further succession.

Find out more about assured and assured shorthold tenancy succession on Shelter Legal.

Secure tenancies only allow one statutory succession and specific conditions must be met.[10]

Find out more about council tenancy succession on Shelter Legal.

A tenant could have a demoted tenancy or a family intervention tenancy if they have been involved in anti-social behaviour.

Demoted tenancies

When an assured tenant causes nuisance through antisocial behaviour, the landlord can apply to court to demote the tenancy to a 12 month probationary tenancy.[11]

The tenant has reduced security of tenure during the probationary period.

Find out more about demoted tenancies on Shelter Legal.

Family intervention tenancies

A private registered providers of social housing can offer a family intervention tenancy to work with families involved in anti-social behaviour.

A tenant must voluntarily agree to a family intervention tenancy.

A tenant with a family invention tenancy will not have an assured or secure tenancy.[12]

Find out more about family intervention tenancies on Shelter Legal.

Private registered providers of social housing often provide accommodation with intensive management and specialist support for the occupiers.

The support staff could work for a voluntary organisation and partner with the landlord, or the landlord could deliver both the housing and support services.

Supported accommodation is often offered to:

• people recovering from a mental illness

• ex-offenders

• people with learning difficulties or physical disabilities

• young homeless people

• refugees

Many social housing providers also manage sheltered housing for elderly people.

The accommodation types can include hostels with shared rooms, single rooms in shared flats and houses, to self-contained flats visited frequently by support staff.

Some schemes provide short-term supported accommodation until the tenant can live independently. Other schemes provide permanent housing.

Tenure in supported accommodation

Tenants with supported accommodation could have secure, assured, or assured shorthold tenancies.

Where occupiers share facilities or require special care facilities they could have a licence agreement. In some cases the licensees have the basic protection of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977.

Find out more about occupiers with basic protection on Shelter Legal.

A tenant living in hostel accommodation is likely to be an excluded occupier.

Find out more about excluded occupiers on Shelter Legal.

Most tenancies with a private registered provider of social housing that started on or after 15 January 1989 are either assured or assured shorthold tenancies unless the following exemptions apply.

Fully mutual housing association

A fully mutual housing association is a type of housing co-operative.

A fully mutual housing association cannot grant an assured or assured shorthold tenancy.[13] These occupiers are usually occupiers with basic protection.

If a fully mutual housing association changes its status to a non-mutual housing association, then the status of tenants could change.[14]

A tenancy created by a non-mutual housing association that was not registered with the Housing Corporation is usually a regulated tenancy. Security of tenure and rent control for these tenancies are governed by the Rent Act 1977.

Find out more about regulated tenancies on Shelter Legal.

Interim homelessness accommodation

A private registered provider of social housing can provide accommodation so that a local authority can comply with its interim duty to accommodate an applicant pending investigation of their homeless application.[15]

The occupier is excluded from the protection offered by section 3 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977.

If a private registered provider of social housing offers interim accommodation, it cannot be an assured or assured shorthold tenancy for the first 12 months, unless the tenant receives a notice stating otherwise.[16]

Temporary homelessness accommodation

A private registered provider of social housing can provide accommodation so that the local authority can comply with its main housing duty to provide temporary accommodation to a homeless person.[17]

The occupier is granted an assured shorthold tenancy unless they are notified that the tenancy is to be treated as an assured tenancy.[18]

Hostels

Licensees of a hostel provided by a charitable housing trust or a registered housing association have an excluded tenancy or licence.[19]

Trespassers

Occupiers who are granted a temporary licence or tenancy for premises that they had first entered as a trespasser also have an excluded tenancy or licence.[20]