By the Unity Stays directors, Marcus Chong & Gadir Al-Khatib · Last updated 12 August 2026
In short: A company let is a tenancy where a limited company, not an individual, is the tenant and houses its employee or contractor; the company is liable for rent and the property's condition. Because a company cannot occupy a home, it sits outside assured shorthold tenancy rules — but the arrangement must be genuine, and lease, lender and insurance checks still apply.
What it is
A company let is a tenancy where the tenant is a limited company rather than an individual. The company takes the property and permits an employee, contractor or guest to occupy it.
The company is liable for the rent and for the condition of the property. The occupier has no direct relationship with you, and can be changed by the company during the term.
It is a common arrangement for relocations, secondments, project teams and executives, and it is the structure most corporate accommodation runs on.
Why it sits outside assured shorthold tenancy rules
An assured shorthold tenancy requires the tenant to be an individual occupying the property as their only or principal home. A company cannot do that, so a genuine company let falls outside the AST regime.
That means the statutory security of tenure and the deposit protection requirements that apply to ASTs do not apply in the same way, and the routes to recovering possession differ.
It is not a loophole and it is not automatic. The arrangement has to be genuine. Where a company is inserted artificially into what is really an individual's tenancy, a court can look through it. Drafting and substance both matter.
When it suits a short-let owner
Most usefully when a corporate booking runs long enough that a short-stay licence starts to look strained. A stay of a few nights or weeks is comfortably a licence to occupy; a stay running to several months with exclusive occupation raises questions that are better answered in advance than in a dispute.
It also suits the commercial shape of the demand. Corporate bookers want an invoice, a purchase order reference and payment terms rather than a card at checkout, and they want one contracting party rather than a series of bookings.
The trade is flexibility. A company let is a tenancy for a term, not a booking you can move, so the nightly upside is gone for the duration.
What to check before agreeing one
The same permissions as any letting, plus a few specific to this structure.
- Your lease and your lender — a company let is a different use again, and consent for one arrangement does not cover another
- Who the company actually is — check it at Companies House, and look at how long it has traded
- Who will occupy, and whether they can be substituted during the term
- Insurance — tell your insurer, because a company let is not what a short-let policy assumes either
- Utilities and council tax — who pays, and whether the rate changes
- What happens at the end, including how possession is recovered if the company does not vacate
A plain summary of a letting structure, not legal advice. Company lets can be complex and the drafting matters. Take proper advice before entering one.