HMO AST or LA

Tax Planning and Financial

I run 3 HMO's of 6 rooms and currently use a LA (Licence Agreement) rather than an AST.

This was initially recommended to me a few years back although I believe the situation has changed now.

Given that we sometimes have tenants who may only stay 2-3 months how is it practical to use an AST given that the minimum term of an AST is 6 months? And 2 months notice is a long time if a tenant is being a general pest but is still paying their rent etc.

My understanding is that a LA won't hold up in court if it is shown that the tenant had exclusive use of the room - is there any reasonable way of not granting exlcusive use of the room?

So questions are:

1) Is it possible to use a LA anymore - is it clear cut or is it still open for interpretation?

2) Is there any way to get any additional flexibility when using an AST in circumstances such as this.

Thanks,

Jules