By the Beacon Living Group team · 12 July 2026 · 8 min read + compare table + quiz
Summary: for Manchester landlords, an assured shorthold tenancy can only exist where the tenant is an individual living in the property as their only or main home, so a corporate lease to an operator such as Beacon Living Group, whose tenant is a company, sits outside that regime entirely, including the Renters' Rights Act's rules on possession grounds and rent increases. That is a genuine structural difference, not a loophole, and it predates the Act by decades. Work through the compare table and the five-question quiz below to see which structure suits your property. This is general information, not legal advice; take advice on your own circumstances before restructuring.
Every landlord asking about corporate lets is really asking one question: is there a legal way to sit outside this regime? The honest answer is yes, but not because anyone found a clever gap. Corporate lets have sat outside the assured tenancy framework since the Housing Act 1988 first created it, for a reason that has nothing to do with the Renters' Rights Act and everything to do with who your tenant is.
Section 1(1) of the Housing Act 1988 sets the test for an assured tenancy, the category that shorthold tenancies sit inside: the tenant, or each joint tenant, must be an individual, and at least one of them must occupy the property as their only or principal home. A company can sign a lease, but a company cannot "occupy a home." It fails the test on its face, every time, regardless of how the lease is worded.
That single condition is why a corporate lease, letting to a business rather than a person, was never inside the assured tenancy regime in the first place. It is not excluded by a special carve-out written for operators; it simply never qualified. Everything that follows from assured tenancy status, including the protections the Renters' Rights Act strengthened, only applies once that first test is met.
Since 1 May 2026 the Act has abolished shorthold status itself: existing ASTs converted automatically into assured periodic tenancies, and landlords can no longer create a new fixed-term AST. Possession now runs on statutory grounds rather than a section 21 notice, and rent increases follow a once-a-year procedure that a tenant can challenge at tribunal. Most landlords still call the result an AST out of habit, which is why this guide does too, but the technically correct term today is an assured tenancy.
What did not change is the gateway test in section 1(1). It was untouched by the Act, so a corporate let is exactly as far outside the regime today as it was before 1 May 2026. Our Renters' Rights Act guide covers the wider changes to grounds, notice periods and rent increases in full; this page focuses on the one boundary that determines whether any of that applies to your letting at all.
Neither structure is universally better; they suit different priorities. Here is where they diverge in practice.
| On a Manchester rental | AST / assured tenancy | Corporate lease Fixed term |
|---|---|---|
| Possession process | ✕Statutory grounds, notice, court if contested | ✓Set out in the lease you sign |
| Rent review mechanism | ✕Once-a-year section 13 procedure, tribunal challengeable | ✓Agreed upfront for the lease term |
| Void risk | ✕Your loss between tenants | ✓Sits with the operator during the lease |
| Notice periods | ✕Vary by ground, some barred in year one | ✓Fixed in the contract, known from day one |
| Day-to-day management | ✕Yours, or your agent's | ✓Handled by the operator throughout |
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It is worth saying plainly: choosing a corporate lease is not an attempt to dodge tenant protections. Those protections exist for individuals who live somewhere as their home, and a corporate lease never involved that relationship between you and your tenant in the first place. Under Beacon Living Group's corporate lease, your tenant is the company; the people who actually stay in the property do so as short-term guests under licences the operator manages, not as your tenants at all.
The trade-off is real in both directions. On an AST, or the assured tenancy it has become, you keep the chance of a higher market rent and full control over who you let to, in exchange for a possession process that now runs on statutory grounds and a rent review procedure with a fixed annual rhythm. On a corporate lease, you give up that ceiling and that direct control in exchange for a fixed monthly rent and a possession date fixed in the contract rather than dependent on grounds. Our standard corporate lease runs for three to five years, which is why the quiz below asks whether you could commit to that kind of term.
Not sure which fits your situation? Answer five quick questions about how hands-on you want to be, how much a controlled return date matters, and whether a fixed rent beats chasing the ceiling, and we will point you to the honest next step.
An assured shorthold tenancy can only exist where the tenant is an individual occupying the property as their only or main home. A corporate let, where the tenant is a company, never meets that test under the Housing Act 1988, so it sits outside the assured tenancy regime entirely, along with the Renters' Rights Act's rules on possession grounds and rent increases.
Not as a separate category. Since 1 May 2026 the Act has converted existing ASTs into assured periodic tenancies and stopped new shorthold tenancies being created, so an ordinary individual letting is now legally an assured tenancy. Most landlords still say AST out of habit, which is why this guide uses the term too, but the underlying individual-tenant test is unchanged.
No. Leasing to a company is a long-standing, entirely lawful structure that has sat outside the assured tenancy regime since well before the Act existed, because the test has always been about who holds the tenancy rather than a workaround built in response to recent legislation.
Possession is a matter of the lease contract rather than a statutory grounds process, so what happens at the end of the term, or on any break clause, is whatever you and the operator agreed in writing when you signed.
Yes. Once your existing tenancy with an individual tenant has ended, you can let the same property to a company such as Beacon Living Group on a corporate lease. A free valuation will confirm whether the property qualifies and the fixed monthly figure on offer.
About Beacon Living Group. Beacon Living Group is a Manchester guaranteed rent and serviced accommodation operator. It leases properties from landlords across Manchester on 3- to 5-year corporate leases, pays a fixed monthly rent with no fees, and is built to manage every stay in-house. Beacon Living Group Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company no. 17076795.
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