calling all solicitors!!

[greedygreedyguzzler]

i am a self employed part time chiropractor. i have just commited to a new lease on some premises and was hoping to be able to have a couple of other self employed therapists working from the premises when i am not there. i was going to take a percentage of their earnings and from the landlord point of view i would be solely responsible for the rent and condition of the premises.

he has said there are some problems with this and i wondered how i could get around them?

problem is i really need the income from the other therapists so i can make it worth my while.

thank you anyone!!

not a legal bod but am a s-e therapist - what were the problems he was talking about? Does he think you would be sub-letting? If you take a percentage of their earnings, then they wouldn't be sub-letting; if you had said you were charging room rent then I can see that point.
Need more info on landlord's problems.

Who is he? Loads of people in your line of business do this? It is all in the contract isn't it?

what BGD said. it will be down to what it says in your lease re permitted use of the premises. Maybe your ll will agree to some variation - get it in writing of course, at the very least, if he will agree. He may only be a tenant or subject to terms of a mortgage so might not have that much flexibility - but if you don't ask you don't get, in my book.

I think it is the subletting / sharing occupation point which will worry your landlord. If you occupy premises for the purposes of a business, you can get security of tenure under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. This could apply to you or to the other therapists. The problem if that the sub-tenants (here, the other therapists) become secure tenants, your landlord could be stuck with them even after your lease with him had ended.

I'm afraid I don't follow the distinction thumbwitch is making. They could still be sub-tenants that way.

The options I can think of are

• naming the other therapists on the lease, so you are all liable for the rent. This might work if you knew and trusted them
• agreeing with your landlord the others would not work from your space for more than 11 months at a time. This might not work for them, if they need to build up a client base, but would be better if you didn't know them. They have to be there for more than a year before the 1954 Act kicks in.
• the variation (side letter) tiger driver mentioned

more details needed!

fridayschild - and I admit I don't know the legal side of this - in lots of therapy centres, single rooms are used by more than one therapist. For e.g. in my last therapy centre, "my" room was also reularly used by at least 3 other therapists, to say nothing of the more transient ones who came and went.
This would create issues with having the names of all therapists on the tenancy agreement - and, to be honest, I would think a lot of therapists, especially newer ones, would not go for that.

the distinction I was making is probably not an accurate one but it works like this - if you rent a room out, you pay for the room on a time basis (e.g. 9 hours a week) and you apay regardless of whether or not you have clients; whereas if you only pay a percentage of your income, then, if you have no clients, you pay nothing. If you pay nothing, then you are not renting the room, iyswim. Probably completely wrong though!

Thumbwitch - yes, I thought you meant something like that, although I didn't know how many people were transitory. Legally that is still subletting. I think there is a case about selling ice creams in a theatre foyer during the intervals of performances which settled the point.

goodness, well I'm glad I know that now!
Thank you for telling us - makes it rather interesting, doesn't it!

GGG, if you are still there, I am still trying to think of a solution!

Something else you could try would be to agree a standard form of subletting agreement with your landlord. He can vet it once, and be happy that his concerns are addressed. It can still require them to pay you the percentage of earnings rather than a flat fee per room. All your other therapists would need to sign up to this.

Lisalisa on mumsnet is also a commercial property lawyer, it might be worth putting a shout out to her to see if she has any other ideas.