Author Archives: Guy Patching

Working from home and tenancy agreements

By Guy Patching | Fri 20th March 2020 - 6:56 pm

In times such as these where we are dealing with rapidly emerging realities it can be easy to overlook strands of how society is made up. It can often take people directly involved with a particular issue to draw attention to potential problems, ideally before they arise.

One such problem involves private renting. Whilst the mess of UK housing policy is not an immediate triage problem there is a minor element of it that might be a ticking time bomb problem.

Many tenancy agreements come with clauses in the contract that prevent any business activity taking place within these private houses. Whilst at most times these are reasonable, not rigidly enforced, and signed quite casually by tenants they cause individuals potentially a deeply problematic dilemma.

One can easily imagine any number of office based workers in this country have signed such contracts, based on the assumption that they would never be compelled to break this aspect of their tenancy. Now, however, for the sake of their own health, their company’s reaction to Covid-19, or the greater public health many are working at home. None of these are areas where would want people to be punished for a breach of contract.