Tenancy at Will

[purplepolarbear]

I've been offered some business premises (a serviced office) on a "Tenancy at Will".

The premises and monthly rent look good. However, I'm concerned that it appears the landlord will be able to evict me without notice if they so wish and this would be very inconvenient.

Is there any requirement for them to be "reasonable" about this and allow me time to move equipment and furniture and arrange for communications to be redirected?

If not, if I suggested to have a month's notice on either side would this be a simple matter of adding a clause to the contract or would it mean a completely different type of tenancy with different legal obligations?

[PurpleMoonlight]

I had a solicitor draw up one of these last year and it had a 30 day termination clause, so no reason why you can't hopefully have it.

[purplepolarbear]

Thanks - I'll suggest this and see what they say.

[Keep it stiff]

The purpose of a Tenancy at Will is exactly as the title suggests, as such either party can terminate with immediate effect. A Licence Agreement can be drafted in any format the parties agree upon and would usually include a notice period. A Tenancy at Will would normally be very short term, for example as a stop gap between heads being agreed and a lease being in place where a tenant required immediate occupation, a Licence Agreement more typically would be applied to accommodation used on a flexible basis, serviced offices or self-storage being examples.

[Billsnemesis]

PurpleMoonlight said:

I had a solicitor draw up one of these last year and it had a 30 day termination clause, so no reason why you can't hopefully have it.

If you are the landlord then I hope you didn't pay him much...

The WHOLE point of a tenancy at will is termination at a moment's notice. If it does not have that then it is not a tenancy at will. Any notice period makes it a periodic tenancy of some sort

That is good for the tenant since it means there is some notice to move and could eventually benefit from security of tenure if the occupation continues for long enough

It is not good news for the landlord

Back to the OP's point - if it is genuinely a tenancy at will then it can be brought to an end at any time for any or no reason. You just have to leave. We only use them for very short term arrangements or where a tenant without security of tenure wants to stay in to negotiate a new lease