Residential tenants
Residential tenants are people who rent a property from you as their home, rather than for business, holiday or storage. In legal terms, they usually hold assured tenancies or assured shorthold tenancies and, in some cases, older regulated tenancies, which attract the full package of housing rights and protections.
Someone is a residential tenant if the property is their only or main residence and they have exclusive possession of it or of a room in a shared home (See HMO and lodger) in return for rent. Labels in the paperwork are not decisive. If the arrangement looks and behaves like a tenancy, the law is likely to treat it as one, even if you called it a “ licence” or “company arrangement”.
Under the Renters’ Rights Act, residential tenants benefit from:
Stronger security of tenure in open-ended assured tenancies and reformed possession grounds.
Clear rental standards, including fitness for human habitation, Awaab’s Law damp and mould duties, and energy efficiency rules.
Financial protections such as permitted payments only, capped and protected deposits, and access to the PRS Ombudsman and PRS Database information.
Professional landlords start by asking: Is this person really a residential tenant? If the answer is yes, they assume the full private rented sector regime applies and manage the relationship accordingly.
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