Licence or Tenancy?

[erik]

I rented an en-suite room in a house with 5 rooms occupied by different people. The landlord lived elsewhere. My contract stated that I had a licence to occupy. However, it also stated that "the property is referred to as the en-suite room", as well as "The sharer will not have exclusive possession of any part of the property..."

Should it have been a licence or a tenancy legally? Thanks.

[jeffrey]

Ignore its label. If you have exclusive possession of the room (and how could you not?), it looks like a tenancy.

[qwerty12345]

Jeffrey,

I have difficulty in following your claim to the previous post. As far as I understand:

To be considered a tenant, Erik must have exclusive possession of the room. But it seems that he has signed an agreement stating that he does not have exclusive possession of any part of the property. Therefore he is not a tenant.

So how would Erik be able to claim that he does have exclusive possession of the room, contrary to his agreement, and how defensible is this? Your thoughts would be appreciated.

[jeffrey]

But what it says is mainly irrelevant, compared to what it actually does: Street v. Mountford?

[qwerty12345]

Forgive my naivety, but in Street v Mountford the contract signed does not make any explicit reference to there being exclusive possession or not. Lord Templeman's conclusion that there was exclusive possession is based on an analysis of the other clauses of the contract, which I believe does infer that there is exclusive possession. I think this is substantially different from Erik's case, where the contract explicitly states that there is no exclusive possession. In Erik's circumstances, is it just a case of weighing up the other clauses of his contract to see if they contradict this claim of not having exclusive possession?

[jeffrey]

You're right; but that was not my point. The case held that a transaction takes effect not merely by reference to what the parties state but in accordance with the law. No matter its express wording; no matter that they swear blind their joint intention to create a licence: if the law treats it as a tenancy, it is a tenancy.

[Snorkerz]

I rented an en-suite room in a house with 5 rooms occupied by different people. The landlord lived elsewhere. My contract stated that I had a licence to occupy. However, it also stated that "the property is referred to as the en-suite room", as well as "The sharer will not have exclusive possession of any part of the property..."

Should it have been a licence or a tenancy legally? Thanks.So building on the above comments by Jeffrey and querty12345, in practice, do you have exclusive occupancy of any areas? Can the other licensees walk in and use your en-suite? Are there locks on the doors?

[erik]

So building on the above comments by Jeffrey and querty12345, in practice, do you have exclusive occupancy of any areas? Can the other licensees walk in and use your en-suite? Are there locks on the doors?

Well, I asked the landlord to fix a lock to my room door immediately after I moved in (the landlord didn't put locks on the doors for obvious reasons), so of course nobody else could walk in and use any parts of my room.

[jeffrey]

Well, I asked the landlord to fix a lock to my room door immediately after I moved in (the landlord didn't put locks on the doors for obvious reasons), so of course nobody else could walk in and use any parts of my room.
That sounds like 'exclusive possession' to me!

[HMO Landlord]

Sorry not read all of thread but whilst trying to bring my tenancy agreements up to date a couple of months back a solicitor over the phone asked me why i was using tenancy agreements rather than Licences.

I usually use a separate tenancy agreement per person in a HMO where they share facilities, but when i obtain more info from that solicitor i will pass it on.

[Snorkerz]

Sorry not read all of thread but whilst trying to bring my tenancy agreements up to date a couple of months back a solicitor over the phone asked me why i was using tenancy agreements rather than Licences.

I usually use a separate tenancy agreement per person in a HMO where they share facilities, but when i obtain more info from that solicitor i will pass it on.Just make sure the solicitor is a specialist in L&T law - the amount of poor L&T advice given by 'High Street' solicitors that we see on this site is astounding.

[HMO Landlord]

Yes you are right, she seems to talk the talk, lets see if she can walk the walk.:)


I may be vague but if it starts you off in the right direction then we are on a winner.