Do I have a lease or a license to rent my current home? My landlord hasn't put my deposit away?

jess_d_docs

Hi all,

Myself and my boyfriend live in a room in a shared flat in London. We rent from a couple working under the company title 'EasyRoom4You'.

As the landlords have been dodgy, to say the least, in other parts of the contract, I had already asked them for our deposit scheme certificate as I suspected they probably had not put our money away safely. They haven't - on the grounds that I am a 'licensed occupier' rather than a 'tenant'.

I've been looking into this and I can't seem to find a definite answer for my rights here.

We have a fixed-term agreement from 1st June to 1st December. The contract is titled 'License agreement', but refers to us constantly as the 'tenant'.

Our rent covers the room we live in plus a shared kitchen and bathroom with two other flatmates.

On their website, in their FAQ section, it says: "you sign an Assured Shorthold License agreement and you will receive a copy of our agreement which you are entitled to keep."

The landlord said in a reply to my request for the deposit certificate: "I can see you have signed a license agreement rather than a tenancy agreement because you are renting a room rather than the whole property. License agreements deposit normally don’t go into a scheme. However I can assure you deposit will be fully refunded if the room handed back to us under al of our terms and in a good condition." [direct quote]

In Street v Mountford [1985], Lord Templeman identified three essential criteria for a lease:
1. the grant of exclusive possession
2. for a period of time which is certain
3. the payment of rent

We have exclusive possession of the room, but not the entire flat.

Is our landlord allowed to classify us in this way and avoid abiding by the deposit protection scheme requirement based on this?

I'm so confused! Thanks so much!




[Side note: I'll be honest, we didn't thoroughly scan the contract as much as we have done for previous flat-shares. We suddenly had an urgent need for accommodation as our house buying process got indefinitely delayed. The flat we're renting from was in the right area and available immediately so we took it quickly.]

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

When you say you have exlusive posession of one room - it usually means that you can lock the door (of your room) behind yourself and be sure that no one besides yourself and your partner have the right to enter the room. Is that the case?

jess_d_docs

Yes we have a key and we lock the door of our room each day.

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

That's good. And can/does the LL/others enter your room without prior permission (say for cleaning, routine maintenance, etc)?

jess_d_docs wrote: »

Yes we have a key and we lock the door of our room each day.

jess_d_docs

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser wrote: »

That's good. And can/does the LL/others enter your room without prior permission (say for cleaning, routine maintenance, etc)?

No. No one can enter our room without a written request. The cleaner only cleans the bathroom and kitchen. At the moment, our radiator is broken so the landlord has asked if he can enter the room to identify the problem.

Irishsmurfy

It sounds very much like you're a lodger in the home rather than a tenant as a lodger usually rents the room they're sleeping in together with sharing bathroom, kitchen etc. If you are a lodger rather than a tenant then there is no requirement for the landlord to use the tenant deposit scheme.

(Apologies - I assumed you were flatsharing with the landlord - if live out landlord then none of the above apply).

All depends on the exact wording of the agreement you've signed.

gingercordial

Does the landlord live in the same house as you?

FreeBear

Irishsmurfy wrote: »

It sounds very much like you're a lodger in the home rather than a tenant

I would disagree - Having a couple of lodgers myself, I make it clear that no locks are fitted on internal doors (thumb latches excluded), and access to the rooms is required for safety checks, maintenance, and (sometimes) cleaning. Being a lodger brings with it very little in the way of legal protections - No requirement to secure the deposit in a recognised scheme is one.

By the sounds of it, the OP is in a small HMO, especially if the LL is non-resident.

G_M

My understanding is that the landlord does not live there.

If so, then whatever the contract says, this is an AST. OP is a tenant in a shared property. All tenancy leglislation applies:

* deposit protecion
* S21 if LL wants possession
* EPC, gas report, gov leaflet
etc


The LL is simply attempting to convince his tenants they have fewer rights than they actually do.


The question is what does OP want to achieve, and when?

jess_d_docs

gingercordial wrote: »

Does the landlord live in the same house as you?

No. Just two other tenants.

jess_d_docs

G_M wrote: »

My understanding is that the landlord does not live there.

If so, then whatever the contract says, this is an AST. OP is a tenant in a shared property. All tenancy leglislation applies:

* deposit protecion
* S21 if LL wants possession
* EPC, gas report, gov leaflet
etc


The LL is simply attempting to convince his tenants they have fewer rights than they actually do.


The question is what does OP want to achieve, and when?

Thank you so much! I also thought the landlord was being very shifty about this - they have continuously attempted to bend the rules at our expense. They recently tried to tell us that although our contract ends on 1st December, we can't leave until January 'because it's hard to find tenants over Christmas'.

I wanted to find out what our rights were as I couldn't find any clear answer on the internet so thank you so much to everyone for your help. I have a very strong suspicion the landlord will attempt to withhold our deposit - there are various people saying this company has not paid back their deposit - so I wanted to get all of the facts early. Even if our deposit does come back in full, I expect we will probably apply for compensation for it never being in a deposit scheme. These landlords can't keep getting away with it!