Company lets are not assured tenancies. What applies instead

Scope: England and Wales. Verified against the legislation on 14 August 2026. The structure decides the answer here, so treat this as the questions to ask rather than advice on your arrangement.

An assured tenancy requires the tenant to be an individual who occupies the dwelling as their only or principal home. A company cannot occupy a home. So a genuine let to a company is not an assured tenancy at all, and almost nothing on the rest of this site applies to it.

That sounds like an advantage. It is, until it is not.

What does not apply

• Security of tenure. No grounds, no Form 3A, no possession claim under the assured regime. The contract governs.
• Deposit protection. The statutory scheme applies to assured shorthold tenancies, so a company let deposit generally falls outside it — and outside the penalty.
• The abolition of the fixed term. A company let can still be a fixed term, because the reform applies to assured tenancies.
• Rent increase machinery. No section 13; the contract sets the mechanism.

What still applies, and is routinely forgotten

The safety regime does not care who the tenant is. It attaches to the property and the occupation:

• Gas safety duties reach anyone occupying under the arrangement.
• Electrical safety and alarms.
• Licensing. If the occupiers make it an HMO, or the property sits in a selective licensing area, a licence can be required regardless of the tenant being a company.
• Your lease and your mortgage, both of which may prohibit corporate lettings specifically.

The two ways this goes wrong

1. It is not really a company let

The commonest failure. A landlord uses a company let agreement because it avoids the regime, but the reality is an individual living there under an arrangement dressed as corporate. As with holiday lets, the label does not decide it — a court looks at who the real tenant is and whether the company is a genuine party or a device.

If a court finds it is in truth an assured tenancy, everything applied from day one: security of tenure, an unprotected deposit past the 30-day deadline, and every unserved day-one document.

2. Forgetting who the occupier is

The company is your tenant; the occupier is not. That has consequences people miss:

• The occupier may have rights against the company that constrain what you can do.
• When the company's tenancy ends, the occupier's position needs handling — removing somebody in occupation without process risks an offence, and their status is exactly the kind of question that needs deciding before you act, not after.
• Changing the named occupier is a change in the arrangement, and can change whether the property is an HMO.

Practical checks before agreeing one

• Is the company real and trading? Check the register; a dormant company set up for the letting is evidence the arrangement is a device.
• Who will actually live there, and how many? That answers the HMO question.
• Does the agreement name permitted occupiers and require notice of changes?
• Does your insurance cover a corporate let? Undisclosed occupancy type is a common ground for declining a claim.
• Does your mortgage and, for a flat, your lease permit it?

Run the free compliance check — the safety and licensing duties it returns apply whoever the tenant is.