# License agreement versus rental/lease agreement



## Orga (6 Mar 2008)

Does anyone know what are the key differences between a license and a lease agreement - is one more formal than the other, which affords greater protection to the landlord - if its the case of using an office and not for living in by a tenant which would you go for?

Thanks in advance.


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## Pulped (7 Mar 2008)

If you are a landlord then a licence agreement is always the most desirable. A licence is a personal interest in land and cannot be sold on or inherited. On the other hand a lease can be transferred or inherited, subject to certain restrictions, and gives more rights to the party holding it. As the law currently stands in Ireland it's quite difficult to create one though and the courts will usually construe something as a lease even if described as a licence agreement. 

The defining features of a lease are exclusive possession, the intention of the parties, rent and writing in the case of agreements for a duration of more than a year. Exclusive possession means that the person holding the lease is the only one entitled to access to the premises apart from defined circumstances such as the landlord having access to make repairs. The intention of the parties is somewhat less important and in Smith v CIE the court basically decided to ignore what the parties intended. Rent is fairly self explanatory.


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## csirl (7 Mar 2008)

Licences come in various forms. Some have similar terms to leases, others can be simply permission to traverse a piece of land or access rights. 

Licences that have similar characteristics as leases are regarded by the courts as being leases regardless of which word is written on the top of the paperwork.

As the previous poster says, leases are usually exclusive possession - normally if you were taking an entire self contained premises, whether it be part of a building or the whole building, you would probably lease. However, office blocks that let out space within a building e.g part of a floor, that is not self contained is usually by means of a license.


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## Orga (9 Mar 2008)

many thanks Pulped and csirl - ur advice much appreciated


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## ajapale (24 Oct 2011)

Similar question posed today


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