Private Tenancy

A private tenancy is a tenancy where you rent your home from a private landlord. This means that your landlord is not a council or other social housing landlord.

Private tenants might pay rent direct to a landlord or they might pay it to a lettings agent. If you aren’t sure if you have a private tenancy or a social tenancy, you should ask your landlord.

For benefits purposes, lodgers and boarders are usually treated as private tenants when working out what benefits they're entitled to.