Room rental agreement for a beauty salon or clinic

If you rent a treatment room to a self-employed therapist, aesthetic practitioner or nail technician, the agreement has two jobs beyond collecting the money: keeping the arrangement a licence rather than a tenancy, and keeping the therapist genuinely self-employed rather than a worker on your payroll. I draft that agreement around your salon or clinic for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Beauty salons, nail bars, aesthetics clinics and multi-room therapy spaces in England and Wales letting rooms to self-employed beauticians, massage therapists, aestheticians, podiatrists or lash technicians. Your room renter is a business customer rather than a consumer, because they are acting in their own trade, so the consumer protections do not run in their favour. The clients they treat are a separate question, and the agreement should deal with them.

What matters in a room rental agreement

A licence to occupy, not a lease

Under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 a business occupier with exclusive possession under a lease may have security of tenure, which means a therapist you wanted out in a month has a statutory right to stay. A licence to occupy does not confer it. The agreement has to look and behave like a licence: shared and non-exclusive use of the room, your right to move the therapist to different space, keys and control of the premises retained by you, and none of the language of rent, demise and quiet enjoyment.

Keeping the therapist self-employed

Set their hours, price their treatments, require them personally, supply the products and pay them a share of the till, and you have built something that looks like employment. Status turns on the facts: personal service, control, mutuality of obligation and substitution, and HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool is the reference point. The agreement should record a real right to send a suitably qualified substitute, freedom over hours and pricing, and no obligation on either side to offer or accept work. Your day to day practice then has to match it.

The fee, the takings and who holds the card machine

A fixed weekly or monthly licence fee is cleanest. A share of takings is common, but it means you are counting someone else's money, so the agreement must say how takings are recorded, who holds the terminal, when each side is paid and what you may inspect. Because the therapist is a business, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 lets you claim interest at 8% over base rate and fixed compensation of £40 on a debt under £1,000. Say what happens to arrears and any deposit when they leave.

Whose clients are they

The argument that costs salons most is the one about the client list. Decide in advance whether bookings taken through your system, your reception and your social media belong to the salon, and say so. Consultation forms, treatment histories and before and after photographs need an owner and a responsible party, particularly where the therapist uses your software. On exit, a narrow non-solicitation restriction aimed at clients first introduced through the salon is worth having. A sweeping ban on working anywhere in town for years is not worth the paper.

Insurance, qualifications and the treatments themselves

You should see the therapist's treatment liability insurance, qualifications and any local authority registration their treatments require before their first day, and again each renewal, with an obligation to tell you immediately if cover lapses. The agreement should make clear that the therapist contracts with their own clients, carries their own consent and aftercare process, and indemnifies you if a treatment goes wrong. That matters most in aesthetics, where the client who was injected in your building will complain to you first, whatever the sign on the door says.

House rules, waste and ending the arrangement

Cover access hours, keys and alarm codes, what equipment and stock each side provides, cleaning between clients, noise, music and what may go on the walls, and the standards expected in shared reception areas. Sharps and clinical waste need a licensed disposal route, and a business transporting waste must be registered with the Environment Agency under the Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989. Then set the notice period both ways, immediate termination for lapsed insurance or insolvency, and what happens to bookings already in the diary when the room is handed back.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

Can I charge a percentage of the therapist's takings instead of a fixed fee?

Charging a share of takings is lawful and widely done, but it pulls the arrangement towards employment and it makes you responsible for counting income that is not yours. If you go that way, the agreement needs a recording and payment mechanism, an inspection right, and compensating terms elsewhere that show the therapist runs their own business.

The therapist wants to use my salon name, booking system and social media. Is that a problem?

It cuts both ways. The more your brand fronts their work, the more a client treats you as responsible when a treatment goes wrong, and the more a tribunal sees control. The agreement can license your name on stated conditions, require the therapist to identify their own business on consent forms and invoices, and let you withdraw the licence.

Do I need a separate agreement for each room renter?

One agreement drafted around your salon will work across several therapists, with a schedule recording each one's room, fee, hours and start date. What causes trouble is running different informal arrangements with different people in the same premises, because the loosest of them tends to set the standard when someone brings a claim.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month
• Chair rental agreement for a hairdressing salon
• Terms and conditions for a beauty salon and nail bar

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.