Corporate tenancies
Renting to a company instead of a person
A business signs the lease instead of a person, often to house an employee, sometimes to run a small office or store things. The rules most residential leases lean on are written around a person’s home, so a company on the other side of the signature changes more than the name: who is liable, who lives there, where notices go and which rules protect the tenant. The diagram shows who stands where.
Often a director guarantees the company personally.
Why it isn’t just the name
Why it isn’t just the name that changes
Most residential tenant protection exists to protect somebody’s home. A company doesn’t have one, so a lease to a company often sits outside that protection, at least in part, and the terms become something the two of you actually negotiate rather than something the law fixes for you. Pick the jurisdiction the property actually sits in.
Elsewhere
General guidance- Most places treat a business tenant differently from an individual renting a home.
- Exactly how varies a great deal by country and by what the lease is actually for.
Check your local commercial or civil tenancy rules, or ask a local lawyer, before you rely on anything here.
Person or company
The same flat, two kinds of tenant
Read across a row to see what moves when a company signs instead of a person. Each row is a line of the lease worth setting on purpose.
On the lease
A person rents
A company rents
- Who signs
- A person rentsThe person who will live there
- A company rentsThe company, through someone who can sign for it
- Who lives there
- A person rentsThe tenant
- A company rentsAn employee, named as the occupant
- Who pays
- A person rentsThe tenant
- A company rentsThe company, which is the one liable
- If it cannot pay
- A person rentsThe tenant remains liable
- A company rentsOften a director’s personal guarantee, since a company can be dissolved or become insolvent
- Where notices go
- A person rentsThe home
- A company rentsThe registered office, or the address the lease names
- Which rules protect the tenant
- A person rentsThe residential regime, built for a home
- A company rentsOften outside it, at least in part, depending on the country and the use
- What the space is for
- A person rentsA home
- A company rentsHousing, an office or storage: check permits for anything beyond housing
The lease itself
What actually changes on the page, clause by clause
A handful of things are worth setting deliberately rather than copying an individual lease and swapping the name.
Parties and use
Example lease- Tenant
- The company, by registered name and number
- Guarantor
- A director, personally
- Occupant
- The named employee, while employed by the tenant
- Notices to
- The registered office
- Use
- Housing the occupant only
Who is liable
The company is the tenant, but a landlord often still asks for a personal guarantee from a director, particularly for a small or newly formed company, since a company can be dissolved or become insolvent and leave nobody to pay.
Who actually lives there
If the company is housing an employee, name that person as the occupant even though the company signs, so it is clear who has the right to be in the property day to day, and what happens to that right if they leave the company.
Where notices go
A notice to a company generally needs to go to its registered office or the address the lease names for that purpose, not to whoever happens to be living there, since that is often not the same address.
Business use and permits
If the space is used for anything beyond housing someone, check whether the address needs its own registration, licence or permitted commercial use before you sign, since that sits outside what a residential lease normally covers.
Before you sign
Six checks on a company before it becomes your tenant
A person shows you a payslip. A company shows you paperwork. These are the questions worth answering before the lease is signed, and what to ask for to answer each one.
1.The company exists
Ask forIts entry in the company register of its country
2.The person signing can sign for it
Ask forTheir role, or the company’s written authority
3.It can pay the rent
Ask forRecent accounts, or a director’s guarantee if it is small or new
4.You know who will live there
Ask forThe occupant’s name, to write into the lease
5.Notices will reach it
Ask forThe registered office, or the address it wants named
6.The use fits the property
Ask forWhat the space is for, and any registration, licence or permit it needs
Where Dardaris fits
The lease still needs tracking, whoever signs it
A corporate tenant changes the paperwork on day one and disappears from view after. Dardaris keeps tracking it either way.
A company tenancy in Dardaris
Read from the leaseRiverside Consulting SRL
- OccupantA. Dubois
- GuarantorS. Vermeulen, a director, personally
- Notices and invoices toRegistered office
- Rent, invoiced to the company€980Paid from the company account
Reads whichever name is on the lease
Dardaris files the tenant as the company, the occupant if there is one, and every date the lease carries, the same way it would for an individual.
Rent, reconciled automatically
Every payment matched against your bank feed, with a case opened the day one is short or missing.
What your jurisdiction actually says
Where a rule genuinely differs for a business tenant, Dardaris surfaces what the property’s own jurisdiction pack says rather than assuming the residential rule applies.
Questions landlords ask
Renting to a company
Can I rent to a company instead of a person?
Yes. Nothing generally stops a landlord from signing a lease with a company rather than an individual; what changes is which rules apply once you do, since many tenant protections are written around a person’s home rather than a business.
Does a corporate tenant get the same protections as an individual?
Often not the same ones, or not to the same degree, precisely because those protections were written for somebody’s home. Exactly how much changes depends on your jurisdiction and on what the space is actually used for, so check the rules that apply to your property rather than assuming either way.
What should change in the lease for a corporate tenant?
At minimum: who is liable if the company can’t pay (a personal guarantee is common), who is actually named as the occupant if someone will be living there, and where formal notices are sent, since a company’s registered office is often not where anyone lives.
Should I ask a company for a personal guarantee?
Landlords often do, particularly with a small or newly formed company, because a company can be dissolved or become insolvent and leave nobody to pay. The usual form is a guarantee from a director, written into the lease or signed alongside it. Whether and how it holds is set by local law.
Who should be named as the occupant?
The person who will actually live there, usually the employee the company is housing. Naming them makes clear who has the right to be in the property day to day, and the lease can say what happens to that right if they leave the company.
Where do I send notices to a company tenant?
Generally to its registered office, or to the address the lease names for notices, not to whoever happens to be living in the property, since that is often not the same address. Write the notice address into the lease.
How do I check a company before renting to it?
Look it up in the company register of its country, check that the person signing can sign for it, and ask for something that shows it can pay, such as recent accounts, or a director’s guarantee if it is small or new. Get the occupant’s name and the notice address before the lease is signed.
Can a company use a residential property as an office?
Only if the property and the lease allow it. If the space is used for anything beyond housing someone, check whether the address needs its own registration, licence or permitted commercial use before you sign, and whether a different lease regime then applies.
Whoever signs the lease, Dardaris still reads it
Hand over the lease, and see the dates, the rent and the filing it opens on.
14 days before the first charge · Nothing is switched on until you say so