|
|
Question Title: Company lets
| Question: 303 |
| I have been asked by a landlord to set up a 'company let' agreement where the people who will be occupying the property are not employees of the company but overseas students. Are there any problems with this that I should warn the landlord about?
|
| Answer: |
| There seem to be a number of potential dangers for the landlord in the situation that you describe. Whilst the agreement by the landlord with the company is not covered by the provisions of the Housing Act 1988, if the company intends to rent to the students, they will become assured shorthold tenants under the Act. That is unless there is an exclusion from the default tenancy, Paragraph 8 of Schedule 1 to the Act does not apply as the company is not "a specified institution". The only other possibilities would be to let at either no rent or a very low rent (see paragraph 3 of Schedule 10) or to create licences for the students. This latter approach would be difficult if any of them had exclusive possession of part of the property. The courts have held that they will look behind the title of the agreement and examine the realities. Unless the property is being occupied as a single household, then issues regarding houses in multiple occupation will also come into play. If that is the case then this will impact on the facilities required, possible registration requirements if the local authority has a scheme, council tax payments and planning controls. Your landlord would be well advised to investigate all these issues before committing himself to this particular let.
|
|
References:
|
Pages:
|
Hyperlinks:
|
|
Letting Handbook |
Chapter 6 |
letting-handbook-and-factsheets.html
|
For more information, discuss on the Forum
|
|
