Page 134 - Demo

Turning to residential short rentals – this introduces the housing regime with matters such as tenancy deposit schemes and HMO regulation plus; obligations on landlords regarding care for space, heating, water, electricity etc. If you are therefore providing short term residential lets to tenants, you need to be aware of the additional obligations that you are liable for as a landlord. It is always advisable to take professional advice on these obligations and, in some cases, to have a managing agent who deals with them for you.
With residential long leases – a different set of legislation applies introducing regulation of service charge arrangements but also leasehold and enfranchisement rights for tenants (and that is increasingly affecting
charity landlords).
Agricultural – while not obvious, a number of religious institutes own land which they may let to farmers to manage. This introduces a whole host of legislation, particularly depending on when the original lettings are granted. Some older tenancies can have extremely severe security of tenure effects
(for successive generations). Modern tenancies use the Farm Business Tenancy regime and would necessarily involve year-long notices to bring them to an end. This is a specialised area and one where advice should be taken before entering into any such arrangement.
As a nal thought, the charity sector has more-than-usual use of 999 year leases as very often those are useful vehicles for ensuring both a restricted use and the restricted tenant. There are quite a few practical issues that arise from this and indeed some statutory ones (rights of enfranchisement can again arise unless carefully framed).
ARE THERE ANY THOUGHTS ON RELATED AREAS OF LAW THAT ARE HELPFUL?
As mentioned earlier there are a number of related areas of practice which may come to the attention of trustees/bursars and, in particular, we note following:
Planning – religious institute use being quite speci c, it very often does not easily fall within the general summary of user types. Convent use itself is viewed as “sui generis” usually and otherwise there are plenty of occasions where “Residential Institution” may apply and or “Educational” use. It is
130 Chapter 7