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Mandatory grounds for possession are to be abolished. At least, that's what the Law Commission recommends in its report Renting Homes, published on Wednesday.

In 2002, the commission consulted on its proposals to overhaul tenancy law. The response was so overwhelming it took longer than expected to analyse the results. This has delayed the publication of the final report and draft bill by a year, to 2004.

In the meantime, the commission has published Renting Homes to help the sector plan for the proposed changes. It says these recommendations are likely to be included in the draft bill, but this depends on a swift government decision to go ahead.

If you think this means you have nothing to do for a year, think again: the proposed legislation will retrospectively affect your current tenancies. When the proposals become law, all existing tenancies will be converted into the type they would have been if the act had been in force at the time they were created.

This means that some supported housing residents who currently occupy homes under licence or assured shorthold tenancies will become assured tenants. In addition, new compulsory terms will also apply retrospectively.

The commission regards tenants as consumers. It proposes to abandon the property law basis for housing legislation and replace it with an approach based on fairness and transparency. Accordingly, the new legislation will be far more prescriptive about tenancy agreements. Their structure and content will be standardised, and there will be compulsory minimum terms that can be improved upon but not watered down.

The commission proposes to introduce a single tenancy for public, social and private landlords. Secure and assured tenancies will be replaced by the temporarily named type I tenancy. Assured shorthold tenancies will be replaced by type II tenancies.

The new legislation will be far more prescriptive about tenancy agreements. There will be compulsory terms that cannot be watered down

Local authorities and housing associations will be required to grant type I tenancies in the majority of cases, except where the legislation expressly permits them to grant type II (notably student lets, temporary housing for the homeless, market renting and some supported housing).

Type I tenancies will give maximum security of tenure. As now, landlords seeking possession will have to serve notice and obtain a court order. There will be two categories of grounds for possession: breach of tenancy and so-called estate management grounds, the latter based on those aspects in the Housing Act 1985 that relate to the landlord's ability to manage its stock as opposed to the tenant's default.

The two big changes for housing associations are that all grounds for possession will be discretionary, and that associations will have to provide suitable alternative accommodation in order to obtain a court order on estate management grounds.

Mandatory grounds will remain available for type II tenancies. Landlords will still be able to terminate on notice without proving grounds. Indeed, the six-month moratorium is being abolished. Landlords will be able to terminate a type II tenancy at any time on two months' notice, which means they will be able to create fixed-term tenancies for only two months. "Serious" rent arrears (two months) will also be a mandatory grounds for type II terminations.

The new proposals should resolve some difficulties with the current law. 16-17 year-olds will be treated as adults, removing anxieties about enforceability. All landlords will have a unilateral right to vary type I tenancy agreements after consultation. They will be able to repossess abandoned properties without going to court. A joint tenant will be able to terminate their interest in the tenancy without bringing the entire contract to an end, which should help in cases of relationship breakdown.

Landlords will obtain wider powers to deal with antisocial behaviour by way of injunction and exclusion orders. The definition of antisocial behaviour has been extended to include domestic violence. Housing associations and local authorities will have a statutory right to create probationary tenancies and to use them in individual cases as well as generally.