Licences, tenancies at will and periodic tenancies

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Licences

Leases (whether residential or commercial) give tenants a range of statutory protections. They include:

  1. •

    various forms of 'security of tenure', including under Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954) in respect of business tenancies, and under the Housing Act 1988 (HA 1988) in respect of assured tenancies (AT) and assured shorthold (AST) residential tenancies

  2. •

    compensation for improvements under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927

  3. •

    in respect of residential leases, protection from eviction and the regulation of costs such as service charges

Licensees will generally not enjoy many of those protections: both LTA 1954 and HA 1988 (in respect of ATs and ASTs) apply to tenancies, not licences. A licence might therefore seem to offer the owner of commercial property a way to allow occupation on an 'easy in, easy out' basis, without the need to follow complex statutory procedures. Licences are also sometimes used in order to allow a future tenant early access to a property before a tenancy is finalised.

However, caution should always be

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