1 Shortholds and the Tied Cottage legislation

11.63 Many farm cottages will be let on assured shorthold tenancies. Shortholds are commonly used where cottages are let to farm workers who would otherwise qualify for an assured agricultural occupancy under the 1988 Act.

11.64 The interaction of the assured shorthold provisions with the tied cottage legislation is potentially problematic. In the case of assured shortholds granted before the Housing Act 1996 came into force (ie before 28 February 1997) three qualifying conditions had to be satisfied¹⁵¹:

•the tenancy must have been granted for a fixed term certain of not less than six months,

•a notice in prescribed form, informing the tenant that the tenancy was a shorthold, must have been served before the tenancy was entered into, and

•the tenancy must be one in respect of which there is no power for the landlord to determine the tenancy at any time earlier than six months from the beginning of the tenancy.

11.65 A tenancy granted in circumstances where any of these conditions was not met would not be an assured shorthold – in this case it would either be an assured tenancy simpliciter or, if the agricultural worker condition were met, it might be an assured agricultural occupancy. Despite the relatively straightforward nature of these requirements, they nevertheless proved a potent trap for the unwary landlord. A landlord might fall foul of the shorthold rules in a number of ways – eg where no prescribed notice was served, where the notice was served but only after the creation of the tenancy, where a break clause was included which was operable during the first six months, or where the dates in the tenancy agreement and the prescribed notice were inaccurate and incompatible.¹⁵² The backdating of a tenancy agreement could also cause difficulties, if less than six months were left unexpired at the date of grant¹⁵³ The Housing Act 1996 simplified the rules for granting short holds on or after 28 February 1997.