Space rent contract question

Manxman_in_exile

Naf wrote: »

A mod has evidently been round and fixed the post title. Originally it asked about an employment contract.

You're right - that's why earlier posters replied as they did.


EDIT: It's just B2B contract. But I think OP needs to ensure her insurance know what's going on and may be able to give her advice. Like ensuring the person she is renting to has her own insurance.

Savvy_Sue

I agree that both you and she should get legal advice on whatever's in the contract. But as for anything going wrong between her and her customers, you should insist on her giving evidence of having insurance in place for this. And your insurer needs to know about her presence.

Manxman_in_exile

I think the OP also needs to make sure that clients of the beautician renting the room fully understand that they are her clients, and not clients of the OP or her business.


I can see the need for lots of disclaimers - except you can't do that for personal injury, can you?


I know these sorts of arrangements are very common with beauty salons and hairdressers etc, but there must be scope for lots of argument when things go wrong. (Could be a TV programme - "When things go wrong in the beauty salon"!)


OP needs to talk to her solicitor

Nikki8

Smodlet wrote: »

I did not get the whole "employing her" bit; I thought the contract was purely for the rental of the room.

That's right, I initially made a mistake in the wording of the title and that gave the wrong impression to the people who replied to my post. She won't be employed by me, just renting a room in my beauty salon.

Nikki8

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

But as for anything going wrong between her and her customers, you should insist on her giving evidence of having insurance in place for this. And your insurer needs to know about her presence.

I'll ask her to get business insurance first, however, it terms of the contract itself, do I need to mention anything in specific?

Manxman_in_exile

Nikki8 wrote: »

I'll ask her to get business insurance first, however, it terms of the contract itself, do I need to mention anything in specific?

Hi Nikki8 - please forgive me if this seems a little rude (I'm trying to help!), but I don't think you are taking on board the advice given above. There are lots of knowledgeable posters on these boards (I may or may not be one of them) but you are asking quite a specific legal question about disclaiming liability for the professional negligence of somebody you are renting a room in your business to. That could be quite high risk. There may well be qualified lawyers posting on these boards - but how do you know who they are?


If I were in your position I would (1) get paid for legal advice from your solicitor and (2) inform your insurers of this arrangement and also ask them if they have any other advice for you in these circumstances.


(PS - do you have any other similar arrangements in your business, and how are you protected if they "go wrong"?)

JReacher1

I would just use something like this.

https://simply-docs.co.uk/IR35_and_Self-employed_Agreements/Self_Employed_Hairdresser!!!8217;s_Chair_Rental_Contract

Amend it slightly as it is a different service as to what you are proposing e.g it is a room not a chair, but what you are proposing is very common and it is not too complicated. You probably do not need a lawyer.

Link does not work because this forum is broken and cannot cope with !!!8216;. If you remove the !!!8217; it is fine....

Savvy_Sue

I'm not able to make that link work, and it might be perfectly fine, right up to the moment when you have a dispute with the person using the room. At which point the lack of paid for legal advice has the potential to cause huge problems to both of you.

Please don't say that you cannot afford to pay for legal advice. In this kind of situation, you cannot afford not to, and nor can anyone hoping to rent a room from you.

Another thought - and this is just an example of the kind of thing 'proper' legal advice will cover. You say 'your' beauty salon. Do you own it outright? If you are renting yourself, what does your lease agreement say about sub-letting? If you own it and have a mortgage on it, what does your mortgage provider say about it? You really cannot afford to get this wrong, and no-one here can give 'proper' legal advice. As Manxman says, you have no idea who we are and whether we have any legal training or qualifications (I don't). But more to the point, if you take the advice above and do NOT get 'proper' advice, you have no remedy if it all goes horribly horribly wrong. Whereas with 'proper' advice, you can at least sue the pants off the legal professional who wrongly advised you. I'm not saying it would be much comfort, but it would enable me to sleep at night ...

nicechap

Nikki8 wrote: »

I'll ask her to get business insurance first, however, it terms of the contract itself, do I need to mention anything in specific?

In short, loads, which a lawyer will help you with.

There are so many pitfalls in your proposed arrangement its almost impossible to give any sensible advice in a vacuum. As SavvySue asks, we have no idea on what basis your beauty salon operates (freehold property? leasehold? are there other tenants in building?) Does the proposed rent cover rates? water? electric? Who disposes of their business waste? Will they operate set hours within your hours or outside? Who locks up? Who is liable for theft by negligence? What advertising will they do? Do you have copy approval if they used your name or address details? Can they have an apprentice or other staff? etc etc etc

Manxman_in_exile

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I'm not able to make that link work, and it might be perfectly fine, right up to the moment when you have a dispute with the person using the room. At which point the lack of paid for legal advice has the potential to cause huge problems to both of you.

Please don't say that you cannot afford to pay for legal advice. In this kind of situation, you cannot afford not to, and nor can anyone hoping to rent a room from you.

Another thought - and this is just an example of the kind of thing 'proper' legal advice will cover. You say 'your' beauty salon. Do you own it outright? If you are renting yourself, what does your lease agreement say about sub-letting? If you own it and have a mortgage on it, what does your mortgage provider say about it? You really cannot afford to get this wrong, and no-one here can give 'proper' legal advice. As Manxman says, you have no idea who we are and whether we have any legal training or qualifications (I don't). But more to the point, if you take the advice above and do NOT get 'proper' advice, you have no remedy if it all goes horribly horribly wrong. Whereas with 'proper' advice, you can at least sue the pants off the legal professional who wrongly advised you. I'm not saying it would be much comfort, but it would enable me to sleep at night ...

Exactly this.


As an example, my wife and I have three law degrees between us and she's a solicitor. We did our own wills. (I even did law of succession as one of my optional subjects). After a few years we suddenly had a "what if" moment. We thought about it and suddenly realised neither of us had a clue what we were doing!


My wife found a good STEP solicitor sharpish and we went off and paid money to get "proper" wills done that correctly and accurately expressed our wishes.


As Savvy_Sue says, one of the main points about getting paid for professional advice is that you may be able to sue them when the **** hits the fan! (Or the waxing strips hit the fan...)