Here is a question to the blog clinic from David who is a landlord
I am about to rent a four bedroom house (to four tenants) and none of the bedrooms have a lock therefore I was wondering if I’m supposed to install locks for every bedroom? Is there a law/an obligation for such a thing? I couldn’t find anything on the internet.
There is no hard and fast rule but this is my take on it.
When you rent out a house or flat to, say, four people, on a joint and several basis, then its not really necessary to put locks on the doors. Unless perhaps the tenants ask for this as a condition of renting the property.
There is no difference in law to renting out a house to four students as there is to any other type of tenant. Its just four people renting a property together on a joint and several tenancy.
So far as you are concerned, as all the tenants are renting the house together, they each have an equal right to use all of it. Although no doubt among themselves they will reach agreement as to who should use which room.
It changes though if they all rent their room on an individual basis and each have their own tenancy agreement for the exclusive use of their room and shared use of the other parts of the property.
THEN you do need to have a lock on the door as the other tenants have no right to go in there. The room is rented just by the individual tenant.
Tessa agree 100%
About 17 years ago I had this very situation with 4 student nurses renting a property for 2nd year onwards. Initially it was a single agreement and they sorted out between themselves who had which room, did anyone pay a bit more for a slightly bigger room etc.
One day, about 4 months into the tenancy, the ‘lead’ tenant (we were light years ahead of DPS!!!) rang up to ask if they could have locks on each of their bedroom doors. We said sure as long as our maintenance man fitted them – he was delighted to visit with four student nurses making him a cuppa!!
I wondered why they were now bothered about locks. Turned out it was nothing to do with them between themselves, just concerned about visitors when they themselves were not there i.e. one of the nurses boyfriends etc.
But something nagged at the back of my mind, and I checked it out with our then solicitor. He advised me separate locks meant separate tenancies – an AST on the bedroom and licence to share the common parts. So our Hybrid or Sharers AST was born.
One agreement – as you say they rent the whole property, J&S applies to all parts etc.
Locks on doors = separate agreements and J&S only on the common parts.
It depends on your attitude towards your property and your intentions.
In my 3-bed properties I do not wish them to be considered on a rent-a-room basis and my tenancies are on a joint tenancy basis (one agreement for all 3 tenants). If tenants ask about locks we explain that this is not possible due to fire regulations (all inside doors have to have particular locks that can be unlocked from the INSIDE of the bedroom without a key) but also, in the event of a fire, it is possible that the fireman could not get through that door from the outside. There are plenty of insurers who rent to sharers on this basis (ie. no locks on individual doors).
I find this increases the harmony within the flat (trust is essential) and enforces the position that all tenants have obligations on the WHOLE flat, not just their room. This works well for us and we have not, to date, had a flat refused or any arguments about locks on doors after this has been explained.
Prospective tenants have commented to us on “how refreshing it is to come into a property WITHOUT locks on the doors” as it feels more like home and less like a hotel or jail even! Our tenants range from students to young professionals. I hope this helps.
IO
I would be very interested to know on what basis your solicitor believed that locks change the status of a tenancy, if a tenancy has been signed for the whole property,it can not really be dissolved by the application of a door lock. How does one even define a lock? Many properties may have internal locks for security or child safety – the latter is common on childrens bedrooms to prevent kiddies escaping in the night & falling down stairs.
Hello
I agree with the question above as to why the simple insertion of locks would change a joint and several tenancy into individual tenancies. In my view that’s not correct.
However, there is one thing just to be wary of and that is council tax. Obviously if a house is let as one on a joint and several basis, the tenant is responsible to pay the council tax but if let as individual, it’s the landlord who pays (see regulation 2 of the The Council Tax (Liability for Owners) Regulations 1992). However, what is less known is that if a property has been “adapted” for use as multiple lets (even if it is actually let as one) then council tax is payable by the landlord and not the tenants.
Even on a single joint and several tenancy, the installation of locks on rooms is “adapted” for council tax purposes and so payable by the landlord Hayes v Humberside Valuation Tribunal [1998] R.A. 37
Of course if the house is full of students, it doesn’t really matter as the building becomes exempt. However, if one ceases to be a student during the term, then, the landlord could become liable even if it’s a joint and several tenancy.
Hope this helps.
Adrian
Thanks Adrian, thats useful to know.
I also agree that the simple fact of putting locks on doors will not change the nature of the tenancy.
However it does look as if it is inadvisable.
Although in reality if the tenants want to put locks on the doors once they are in occupation, the landlord cannot stop them – all he can do is claim against the deposit when they leave for the cost of putting things back as they were when they went in.
To follow up with Adrian’s point the fitting of locks will create a serious risk of changing the Council Tax position. This is because the Council will say that individual tenants will no longer have unfettered access to the whole property. This will make the property and HMO for Council Tax purposes and so liability for Council Tax will fall to the landlord. They should not really look behind the tenancy agreement and the “joint and several” liability statement on it but they usually will if it will earn them money!
The locks may make the property a HMO for Council tax purposes, but under the Housing Act 2004 any property occupied by 3 unrelated persons i.e. students, migrants workers, people in receipt of housing benefit etc. is a HMO. The type of tenancy agreement in place or the fact that there are/are not locks on bedroom doors makes no difference to this.
The definition of a HMO is particularly important if you have an additional licensing scheme or Article 4 planning direction in your area.
It is not just that the council tax for the whole property falls to the landlord (locks on individual bedroom doors) but that the council can recategorise the property into seperate, individual bills which the landlord would be expected to pay. I have read online of a number of landlords with large HMOs who have received multiple bills for council tax owing on each room eg. £13,000 against the same property upon which the landlord would have paid one bill for under £2,000 per annum. No locks on doors = no problems in my experience.