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Remote healthcare has become ubiquitous. This means that many tenants aren’t just working from home anymore; some are also running telehealth clinics out of their rented flats. This changes things, both for landlords and other tenants.

If your property policies still treat every rental like a standard residential unit, you’re probably missing a few critical updates. From bandwidth and privacy laws to medical equipment and liability questions, remote healthcare has brought new risks (but also new opportunities) for landlords.

Here’s everything you need to know about remote medical care and what it means for your property, your lease terms, and your bottom line.

Remote Healthcare is Here to Stay

Remote healthcare refers to using digital tools to deliver medical services without needing to visit a clinic or hospital. 

As you can imagine, it covers everything from video consultations with GPs to remote monitoring of chronic conditions, digital prescriptions, mental health support, and even full-scale virtual clinics run from home offices.

An increasing number of people are also turning to remote platforms to manage chronic conditions, including weight-related health concerns. It’s worth noting how accessible certain medications have become: Metformin for weight loss, for example, is now offered through digital platforms like WeightWatchers, giving residents a convenient way to tackle health issues without leaving home.

This structural shift toward remote medical care is all-encompassing. The NHS, private providers, and independent practitioners have all expanded into remote care. In fact, about 40% of GP appointments in the UK are now handled remotely, and that number keeps rising.

The part that most landlords overlook is that these services aren’t always delivered from hospitals or regulated medical offices. Increasingly, healthcare workers are providing care from home-based setups, including therapists, dietitians, nurse practitioners, and specialist consultants.

If you’re leasing to someone running a remote healthcare service, you’re not managing a typical tenancy, but dealing with partial commercial use, professional liability considerations, and different demands on infrastructure (like reliable connectivity and enhanced privacy). 

That raises an important question: who’s responsible for what? Internet upgrades, soundproofing, secure storage for medical records – those things don’t fall neatly into traditional maintenance categories.

What This Means for Property Policy

Tenants engaging in remote healthcare can bring some legitimate policy implications, especially when the rental serves both residential and semi-professional purposes.

Start with zoning and usage. If your tenant is running a virtual clinic or seeing patients on-site, you’ll want to clarify whether your lease permits partial commercial use. That might involve insurance implications, business licensing, or additional liability considerations.

Then there’s wear and tear. Medical equipment, while often compact, is still gear that gets installed, plugged in, and sometimes drilled into surfaces. Therefore, your lease should be clear about what constitutes “alteration” to the property versus acceptable personal use.

Also worth mentioning is sound and data usage. Multiple video calls a day (especially high-res video with secure encryption) may create higher-than-average network demands. So if your property includes shared Wi-Fi or if connectivity is part of your offering, you’ll need to account for that in your planning or in your service tier pricing.

Privacy, Compliance, and Tech Infrastructure

Health data is protected by law, and in the UK, this is under GDPR and sometimes additional NHS-specific guidelines. If a tenant is storing sensitive medical records at home or conducting virtual consultations, your infrastructure may need review.

For example, do your building-wide routers use sufficient encryption standards? Do you use smart locks, intercoms, or shared surveillance tech that might overlap with a tenant’s healthcare activity? These are all questions worth asking. Why? Because while you might not be legally liable for how a tenant manages patient data, unclear policies could still drag you into disputes that waste time and money.

How to Communicate Expectations Clearly

You don’t need to micromanage tenants’ health routines. All you need are updated clauses and a clear communication plan. Add provisions that address:

• Acceptable commercial or professional use of residential space,
• Limits or guidelines for equipment modifications,,
• Data security boundaries (especially if you provide any shared tech),
• Notification requirements for high-traffic virtual services.

Then communicate early. New lease? Make this part of your tenant welcome packet. An existing tenant who’s pivoted to telehealth work? A policy addendum can cover the bases without rewriting the whole agreement.