Service occupiers

This content applies to England only.

Housing laws vary between England and Scotland. Get advice relating to Scotland

You are probably a service occupier if your home comes with your job, and either it is essential for you to live in that accommodation to do your job, or your employment contract says that you must do so.

What are service occupiers?

Service occupiers include people who:

are employed as a live-in nurse, carer, nanny, au pair, or housekeeper
work in a nursing home or sheltered housing
are members of the clergy
work in a hotel, pub or restaurant and live on the premises
are caretakers, park or grounds keepers, or gardeners.

If you are a service occupier, usually your contract will say that your right to live in the accommodation ends when your employment ends.

An example of a service occupancy

If you are a teacher at a boarding school and part of your job involves supervising pupils during the evenings and at night, it may well be written into your contract that you must live on the premises and you would not be able to carry out your job properly if you were living elsewhere. In this case, you would probably be a service occupier.

I'm a service occupier - what if I lose my job?

If you are a service occupier, you will have to leave your accommodation if your employment ends. You should still be given notice to leave your accommodation. The amount of notice you are given may be specified in your employment contract or service occupancy agreement, but unless you are an excluded occupier, this will normally be at least four weeks.

Can I make a homeless application?

If your employment ends and you have to leave your home but have nowhere else to go, you can make a homeless application to the council.

Will the council think I'm intentionally homeless?

When you make a homeless application, the council will not have an ongoing duty to house you if they believe you deliberately did or didn't do something which caused you to lose your home. This means that the council will look at the reasons why you left your tied accommodation (and therefore also at the reasons why you left your job) when assessing your situation to see what help you are entitled to.

If you were sacked from your job for misconduct, the council may decide that you made yourself homeless intentionally. However, you should not be found intentionally homeless if, for example:

your contract had expired
you retired
you were made redundant
it was no longer reasonable for you to work there.

What if I'm in the armed forces?

If you are serving in the armed forces, you will be provided with accommodation in barracks (single living accommodation) or in Services Families Accommodation (SFA). For more information on housing issues if you or your partner are in or have just left the armed forces, contact:

What if my home needs repairs?

Your service occupancy agreement will probably state which repairs your employer/landlord is responsible for, and which repairs you should carry out yourself. Your employer/landlord must ensure that the property is safe and fit for you to live in and will be responsible for getting a safety check for all gas appliances in the property once a year.

Landlords are also responsible for ensuring that the electrical system and any electrical appliances that they supply are safe to use. The section on repairs explains this in more detail, and looks at what you can do if your employer/landlord refuses to carry out repairs.

Where can I get help and advice?

In practice, it can be hard to decide whether a person living in tied accommodation has a service occupancy or a tenancy agreement. If you are asked to leave your tied accommodation and are unsure of your rights, you can use our directory to find an adviser in your area, or get legal advice from a solicitor – use the Law Society website to find a solicitor near you.

An adviser at Citizens Advice can also tell you about your rights as an employee. To find out more about these rights, visit the Direct.gov or Acas websites.