Secure Tenancy
A tenancy held by most local authority housing tenants under Housing Act 1985. Provides strong security of tenure; the landlord may only recover possession on limited statutory grounds and with a court order.
Independent editorial summary — not the official statute text. Read the official version on legislation.gov.uk.
Under section 79 of the Housing Act 1985, a tenancy under which a dwelling-house is let as a separate dwelling is a secure tenancy at any time when the conditions described in sections 80 and 81 of the Act — known as the landlord condition and the tenant condition — are both satisfied.
In broad terms, the landlord condition is met where the landlord interest belongs to a local authority or another specified public landlord, and the tenant condition requires the tenant to be an individual who occupies the dwelling as their only or principal home. A secure tenancy gives the tenant strong security of tenure: the landlord can normally only recover possession by obtaining a court order on one of the statutory grounds set out in the Act.
Related terms
Official sources
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