MRAssociates — Glossary

Strictly speaking a tenant means a person (or more than one person who jointly) who has exclusive possession of a dwelling under a tenancy agreement or by operation of law (for example when a fixed term tenancy agreement runs out and a new statutory tenancy automatically takes its place).

But in practice, and especially in the Housing Benefit context, “tenant” is used as a catch-all for people who make payments for their home that are within the scope of the HB scheme. In particular a licensee who does not have exclusive possession of a dwelling is usually described as a “tenant” for HB purposes.