Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Private PBSA student rooms, shared facilities: licence or lease?

Published by a LexisNexis Property expert

Q&As

Cases which distinguish leases from licences are very fact sensitive.

The usual starting question is whether there is ‘exclusive possession’—the legal ability to keep all others off the land. This feature is the badge of a tenancy; in contrast, a licensee does not enjoy it. Where the parties’ arrangement is set down in a written agreement, the enquiry centres on the proper construction of that instrument, interpreted against its factual background. Do the terms, on their true meaning, confer exclusive possession? More precisely, if an agreement grants: (i) exclusive possession; (ii) for a term; and (iii) at a rent, then, absent a lodging set-up or special circumstances, it amounts to a tenancy: Street v Mountford.

Alternatively, where nothing has been recorded in writing, whether exclusive possession has been conferred is determined by considering all the circumstances, including asking:

what the parties would ordinarily have expected in the particular context; and
whether services are provided in the name of the owner or of the occupier...

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Web page updated on 27/05/2026

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