The tenancy trail
Answer – company lets
Tenancies to limited companies cannot be assured tenancies, and so this will be a ‘common law’ or unregulated tenancy (we will be looking at others later in this guide). Note that before renting to a company, you should always check that it is a ‘real’ company by doing a search at the Companies House website
Tenancies to companies are known as ‘company lets’. For it to be a residential tenancy, it must be for accommodation for the company’s directors or employees. This is the nearest that a company (which is an artificial person, created for legal convenience) can get to living in the property ‘itself’.
We have information on Landlord Law about common law tenancies here and you will find a company let agreement which can be used for this purpose via the Documents and Forms page.
Note that if the property is let to a company for the purpose of subletting to other tenants, then this is a business ‘rent to rent’ tenancy and not a residential one.
Be aware that since the coming into force of the Renters Rights Act 2025, ‘rent to rent’ arrangements have become considerably less favourable to property owners. If you are considering entering into such an arrangement, we suggest you take legal advice before doing anything.
You may want to watch the video here, which gives details of some of the (extremely serious) problems which can occur if care is not taken -note that this was recorded before the Renters Rights Act was published, so does not cover the additional problems raised by that act.
