We have a prospective tenant who wishes to rent one of our properties for approx 1-2 years, however he has asked for a “contracted tenancy agreement” between ourselves and the company he works for rather than the standard AST agreement and where the deposit does not have to be registered with a deposit scheme but can be held by ourselves? We are not particularly comfortable with this request and would like your advice as to whether we should proceed on this basis or not.
Question
Types of Tenancies (England)
Contracted Tenancy Agreement
Answer
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1 Comment
We think the term he’s referring to is a “contractual tenancy agreement”.
You are right to be cautious because if such an agreement was given as a sham to avoid the various legislation (such as deposit protection) there could be troubles.
However, if the letting is genuinely to a company (perhaps for them to put their employees in for example) this is not a problem.
The main advantage you have here is that the tenant is asking for the agreement i.e. you’re not forcing it on them in order to avoid certain legislation.
In the first instance, you should ask them to complete our application for accommodation. That asks if it’s letting to a company and it will be the tenant answering the question not you. If everything seems “genuine” about it being a company let, then it’s fine.
We would ask the individual to be a guarantor for the letting, that way if the company goes under, you can still sue the individual.
The contractual tenancy and guarantee form is available via our Tenancy Builder