Scope: Scotland. Cited to Scottish instruments throughout. Short assured tenancies are creatures of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988. The similarly named English and Welsh form belongs to a different Act of the same year, and the two are constantly confused; nothing in that Act applies here.
Our compliance check now covers Scotland, and so does the fine calculator. Enter a Scottish postcode and both answer in Scots law, cited to Scottish instruments — the check with your council’s registration and HMO position where we hold it, the calculator with the Scottish maximum for each offence and, where the consequence is not a fine, what it actually is. Still England and Wales only: the tenancy agreement checker, whose findings come from England and Wales statutes.
Why this still matters
No short assured tenancy has been created in Scotland since 1 December 2017. Every tenancy granted since then is a Private Residential Tenancy.
But a short assured tenancy granted before that date does not convert. It continues, on its own terms, under the 1988 Act, and it continues by tacit relocation at the end of each term unless something ends it. Some are now well over a decade old. If you inherited a portfolio, bought a tenanted property, or simply never changed anything, you may be a landlord under an Act you have never read.
What made a tenancy a short assured tenancy
Section 32 of the 1988 Act sets two conditions, and both had to be met:
- The tenancy was for a term of not less than six months; and
- A notice in the prescribed form — the AT5 — was served before the tenancy was created, by the person who was to be the landlord, on the person who was to be the tenant, stating that the tenancy was to be a short assured tenancy.
The timing in the second condition is the one that fails. The AT5 had to be served before creation. Served on the same day as signing, or afterwards, it does not satisfy section 32 — and a tenancy that fails section 32 is not a short assured tenancy at all. It is an ordinary assured tenancy, with no section 33 route and full security of tenure.
If you cannot produce the AT5 and evidence of when it was served, you should assume you cannot rely on it.
The part almost every published account gets wrong
Section 33 is the route to possession at the end of a short assured tenancy, and it used to be mandatory: establish the conditions and the order followed.
It is not mandatory any more. The current text of section 33(1) says the First-tier Tribunal may make an order for possession if it is satisfied of the listed conditions — and the list now includes paragraph (e), “that it is reasonable to make an order for possession”.
So the no-fault route on a surviving short assured tenancy carries the same reasonableness test as every ground under the PRT. Establishing that the tenancy has reached its finish, that tacit relocation is not operating, and that notice was given no longer guarantees anything. Any guidance that still calls section 33 “mandatory” or “automatic” is describing the law as it was.
The section 33 conditions, as they now read
- The short assured tenancy has reached its finish.
- Tacit relocation is not operating — the tenancy has not silently rolled on.
- The landlord, or any of joint landlords, has given the tenant notice stating that possession is required.
- It is reasonable to make the order.
The notice period is two months, unless the tenancy itself provides for a longer period, in which case the longer period applies. The notice may be served before, at, or after the termination of the tenancy.
Section 33(5) puts one thing beyond argument: sections 18 and 19 do not apply where a landlord is proceeding under section 33. The ground-based machinery and the section 33 route are alternatives, not a sequence.
Tacit relocation, which has no English equivalent
If a short assured tenancy reaches its end date and neither party ends it properly, it does not lapse and it does not become a statutory periodic tenancy. It continues by tacit relocation on the same terms, for a further period — up to a year, matching the original term where the term was a year or less.
Section 32(3) then provides that the continued tenancy is still a short assured tenancy, whether or not it meets the six-month and notice conditions on its own. That is a protection for the landlord, not a trap. The trap is the other way round: a landlord who assumes the tenancy simply ended, and lets a new one, may find the old one never stopped.
What still applies to you regardless
The tenancy form is old; the duties are current. A short assured tenancy does not exempt you from anything that attaches to the letting rather than the lease:
If you want the tenancy modernised
There is no conversion mechanism. A short assured tenancy becomes a Private Residential Tenancy only if the existing tenancy is ended and a new one granted — which means the tenant would have to agree to leave and re-let, and the reasonableness test now stands between you and forcing that. In practice, most surviving short assured tenancies will end when the tenant chooses to leave.
Information tool, not legal advice. Scottish law only.