There are a lot of issues to think about when you’re preparing to let your property and it’s easy to overlook the issue of TV licenses in favour of more important considerations. But you can’t guarantee that your tenants will put TV licenses at their top of their lists either, so be on the ball and know where you stand.
If you’re letting out an unfurnished property to one single tenant, a couple or a family, then one TV license is required for the property. If several tenants are living in the property under separate tenancy agreements, but there is only one TV in a communal area, then technically only one TV license is required. However, if any of the tenants have their own TVs in their rooms, or watch TV on the Internet, then by law each of them should have their own TV licenses. In cases where there are several tenants, but they have a joint tenancy, then only one TV license is required for the entire property.
For fully furnished properties, or if you’re including a television in the rental, you need to be extra clear about who needs to purchase a TV license. If you provide the TV, both you and your tenants can be held responsible if a license is not purchased. When you’re putting together a tenancy agreement you need to specifiy exactly whose responsibility it is to purchase the TV license.
To make doubly sure that a license is purchased for a property where you supply a TV, you could consider buying it yourself and adding the cost of it into the rental fee. That way you can be sure your property will be fully covered and not have any unwanted TV licensing issues in the future.
Anyone watching TV or using any other devices to watch or record television programmes without owning a TV license could face prosecution, a court appearance and a fine of up to £1,000.
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