If you are looking to rent out your property—be it your home, cottage, flat, or bedsit —you are probably considering the best way to create a tenancy agreement for your tenant.
An assured shorthold tenancy agreement (also known as an AST) allows a landlord to let a property to a tenant. The term of an assured shorthold tenancy agreement is usually 6 or 12 months and will usually convert to a rolling periodic tenancy at the end of the initial term.
A sole occupancy tenancy agreement is when a tenant rents the entire property and has exclusive possession of the property. This means that the landlord needs to seek permission to enter and can only repossess the property from the tenant by serving a notice under certain conditions. The conditions for serving a notice will depend on the status of the tenancy (within the initial term, at a break point or rolling) and whether the tenant has breached the terms of the tenancy agreement or not.
A break clause gives the option to the landlord, the tenant or both parties to end the tenancy agreement sooner than the end date if the conditions of the break clause are met.
A break clause is not the only way to end a tenancy agreement. The landlord and tenant can give each other notice to end the agreement. The conditions for serving notice should be detailed in the agreement and the type and amount of notice which needs to be given is sometimes set by the government such as for Section 8 and Section 21 notices.
Legislate's assured shorthold tenancy offers the option to include a break clause during the initial term.