Tenancy agreements under the Housing Act 1988 can currently be either fixed term or periodic in nature.
	A "fixed term tenancy" is defined in section 45, subsection (1) of the Housing Act 1988 as any tenancy other than a periodic tenancy. As determined by the Court of Appeal in Goodman v Evely [2001] EWCA Civ 104, the defined term "fixed term tenancy" includes both a tenancy granted for a fixed period (e.g., one year) and one that is granted for an initial fixed period and thereafter a periodic term (e.g., one year and thereafter month-to-month).
	In future, it will not be possible to grant an assured fixed term tenancy. Instead, all assured tenancies must be periodic from the beginning of the tenancy. Upon the commencement date, all existing assured tenancies will also become periodic. This will give tenants more flexibility to end tenancies where they need to, including where landlords are failing to meet their obligations, or properties are poor quality.
	The periods of a periodic tenancy can currently be any length. Unless the parties expressly agree otherwise, when a tenant gives notice to end a tenancy, the date on which they wish to end the tenancy must align with the end of a period. A tenant cannot end a tenancy midway through a period and so must pay rent for the entirety of the final period. To prevent tenants from being locked into unduly long periods in future – which would have the same or similar impact as a fixed term – it is necessary to limit the length of periods of an assured tenancy.
Part 1: Tenancy reform Chapter 1: Assured Tenancies Section 1: Assured tenancies to be periodic with rent period not exceeding a month Background