The following FAQs are typical questions raised regarding tenancies and leases. It is recommended that you should seek professional legal advice appropriate to your own circumstances.

1 ) What's the difference between a lease and a tenancy?
None, but leases are usually for longer periods than tenancies.

2) What's the difference between a lease and a licence?
The most important issue is whether the occupier has exclusive possession of the room or building that is being leased or licensed. If you have exclusivity then it is a lease rather than a licence. However certain temporary arrangements may be true licences. It is common these days for most of the first 12 months of an incubator tenancy to be a licence rather than a lease, to the advantage of the occupier.

3) Do business leases automatically come to an end when the term of the lease expires?
Most leases do not as the landlord and Tenant Act 1954 provides for them to continue until a special form of written notice is given by either the landlord or the tenant. There are some exceptions as the 1954 Act does not apply in every case.