Licence or tenancy?

I was a property guardian for a year, through one of the biggest players in that particular game. The agreement they provided was a standard document written for English law even though the property was in Scotland. It attempted the same kind of legal gymnastics as you are labouring under here.

The bottom line is this - I was paying rent, and had exclusive possession of my own room. The agreement argued that because the property guardian company had a key to my room and could inspect it at no notice (also unlawful) I did not have possession. The practical reality was that it was my room, and at one stage there were no inspections for more than six months.

I'm no solicitor, but there are reams of case law in the area of licences vs tenancies - attempting to deprive tenants of their rights by legal contrivances will be viewed dimly by courts. Courts on both sides of the border have ruled that because of the inherent power imbalance between landlords and tenants, tenants cannot simply sign away their rights, as people desperate for somewhere to stay will sign pretty much anything.

I became a property guardian with my eyes open - I did a lot of research and struggled to find evidence of legal challenges to the model which created precedent. But, in articles on the topic (on property law websites, for example) the reason for this is that the guardian companies always settle! You'd certainly be following the industry standard by employing this unlawful fiction, and most of the guardians will go along with it. However, in a serious dispute, you would be very likely to have a bad day in court.

For those wondering about the business model, the owners usually pay the guardian company in lieu of paying for security etc, and the guardians themselves pay rent which is lower than residential properties. In other words, the guardian company, although just a middleman, is making money from both tenants AND landlords. I imagine this model tends to favour larger properties, because the owner has higher costs to bear. They can also support a higher number of rent-paying guardians.