Commercial Licenses

Landlords who let commercial or retail properties often play music or show TV in the course of everyday businesses and the license regulations surrounding these are often complex. A landlord in a Croydon pub was fined £10,000 earlier this week for illegally showing Sky Sports and it’s something that all commercial landlords need to be aware of.

Contractual difficulties

Often providers of music or TV services offer a number of different subscriptions and it is often an issue that businesses subscribe to the wrong package. You need to look for public and commercial packages that cover all of your intended purposes – a pub showing football needs to have the appropriate public showing licence as theoretically anybody could walk in to watch the game.

Subletting

Even if you’re a landlord who lets to a business which then takes responsibility for their uses of the property, you may come into difficulty if licenses are found to be breached on your property. Landlord insurance may help you fight a legal case but if you suspect a problem then you should ensure your contract is properly worded to devolve any responsibility away from you.

Fair usage

One difficulty which often arises is surrounding fair usage policies. It is common for cafes or bars to offer free WiFi services and you need to be sure that you sign up for the appropriate package. Providers will not regard having over ten users of a home broadband packages, however large the package, fair usage and this may get you in trouble. Make sure to read the full terms of use before you sign up to any package.

Commercial licenses can cause difficulties and the fines are high if you do get found out. If you have any difficulties you should talk to both your tenants and your provider before you end up in court – don’t take unnecessary risks.