Welcome to the Harrison Drury Leisure Sector Newsletter. Your regular update on legal developments across the leisure, hospitality and tourism sector. Our aim is to keep you informed, prepared and ahead of the curve with insights tailored to support you and your business.
While much of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 focuses on buy to let landlords, the Act also has important implications for licensed premises, which contain a residential offering.
Service Occupancy
Where it is necessary for an employee to live at the premises to carry out their role and where all parties enter into the agreement with the explicit intention to treat the occupation as being contractually tied to the employee’s job role, then a Service Occupancy will likely exist. This should take the form of a personal licence to occupy, whilst referring to the employee’s employment contract.
This protects against the Service Occupancy converting to an Assured Tenancy as of 01 May 2026 and the new provisions of the Renters’ Rights Act should not apply.
Service Tenancy
Where the accommodation is not strictly necessary for the job and there are characteristics of an Assured Tenancy such as rent and exclusive possession, then the employee may be treated as benefitting from the added protections that the Renter’s Right Act provides, as of 01 May 2026.
To better understand the rules and protections which will be brought in by the Renters Rights Act 2025, you can read our previous articles on the subject here.
Landlords and operators should take this opportunity to carefully assess how their current accommodation arrangements are structured, while making sure to pay close attention to whether an employee’s accommodation is clearly tied to their employment.
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