Ms Louise Loughlin:

As Ms Steen said, it is important to think about the responsibility of the RTB as regards tenancies. We are responsible for maintaining a register of private residential tenancies, tenancies of approved housing bodies and student-specific accommodation tenancies. When we talk about what we are responsible for, it is just as important to consider what we are not responsible for: tenancies in local authority housing or under shared ownership lease arrangements; holiday letting arrangements; the rent-a-room scheme, particularly where the landlord and tenant share the same self-contained property; one that can often be missed, where a tenant lives with a spouse, civil partner, parent or child of the landlord and there is no written letting agreement in place; short-term lets and lets on licences - typically, most licence arrangements do not come under the remit of the RTB, and while the naming of a licence as such does not necessarily mean it is not regarded as operating as a tenancy for the purposes of the RTB, a licence is usually said to exist where a person is staying in a hotel, guesthouse or hostel; sharing with the owner in rent-a-room or digs accommodation; or staying in rented accommodation at the invitation of the tenant. That is what is excluded from our remit.