What are your client’s rights if they lose their job and live in accommodation provided by their employer?

In this short form article we will look at the rights of those who live in tied accommodation. The advice in this article applies to England only.

An employee’s right to remain in accommodation when they lose their job will depend on their agreement and employment contract. As well as housing advice, is it always important for clients who live in tied accommodation to get employment advice.

There are many different types of tied accommodation — in this article we will focus on Service Tenants and Service Occupiers. Citizens Advice advisers can read more about the other types of tied accommodation on AdviserNet.

Service Occupiers

In order to be a service occupier an employee will have an express term in their employment contract that states they are required to live at the property for the better performance of their duties. Where there is no express term, they may be a service occupier if their occupation of a property is essential for the performance of employees duties. For example, a school caretaker who is required to live in onsite accommodation in order to take deliveries and provide out of hours and emergency access to the school would be a service occupier.

Service occupiers’ right to remain in their accommodation will depend on their employment contract. In most cases employees will have the right to remain in occupation unless they lose their job or their terms of employment change — once their job has ended or their employment terms change their employer can ask them to leave the accommodation.

Employers are not required to serve a formal notice asking the employee to leave their accommodation unless there is a term within the occupancy agreement or employment contract that says they must do so. However, employers are required to get a possession order to evict an employee if they do not leave when requested to do so, or when the notice required by their written agreement has expired — this is often referred to as basic protection.

The only exception to requiring a court order is if an employer shares accommodation with their employee (i.e. a live in personal carer) in which case they are an excluded occupier and a court order would not be required to evict them.

Service Tenants

A service tenant is someone who lives in accommodation not associated with their job requirements but their landlord is also their employer, for example where a local authority provides key worker accommodation to teachers or social workers, or where an employer provides off site accommodation to employees who have relocated to the area to take up their role.

As with all tenancies there must be;

• exclusive possession of premises — this could be room in a shared property
• for a period of time
• rental liability — the rent can be deducted from an employee’s wages and be below market rent

Services tenants have the same rights as other occupiers and their security of tenure will depend on when their tenancy started and who their landlord is. If you’re an Local Citizens Advice adviser you can use our tenancy checker flow charts to identify the specific tenancy a service tenant has.

Next Steps

Second tier advice is available to local Citizens Advice from the Expert Advice team for benefits, employment and housing, Citizens Advice advisers can also access our immigration and nationality advice and Help to Claim workplace groups.

You can sign up to our weekly email update from the Expert Advice team which provides up to date information on legal changes, expert insights on emerging issues, updates to our online resources and details of other useful advice resources.

Vicky Allen is a housing expert in the Expert Advice team at Citizens Advice