Forum Spotlight: Taking over a tenancy and issuing a new AST

A member posted on our forum recently a question about a buy-to-let they’ve recently completed on. The property has a tenant living there in situ. The landlord said the current tenancy agreement expires in two months time. They wanted to have a clear understanding and make sure everything is in order when taking over the existing tenancy, and took to our forum seeking advice.

The responses on our forum

The first member to respond on the thread stated that in their view, the landlord should ensure the AST is up to date an accurate at all times, with it being a legally binding contract between landlord and tenant. They recommended this landlord download and complete a fresh tenancy agreement, from the NRLA website, as soon as possible.

Then, a member of our expert advice time shared some useful information around what the landlord must do.

They advised this landlord that once the completion has taken place, they have ‘inherited’ the current tenant, so they’d need to serve a Section 48 or a Section 3 notice.

It is vital they confirm with the transferring landlord that right to rent checks on the tenant have been conducted, and there is evidence of this such as copies from the previous landlord.

Our adviser also shared that, provided valid documents have been given by the landlord eg gas safety certificate (you should ensure that there have been yearly certificates, but the 1st one is very important for purposes of s21) EPC, EICR and how to rent then they do not need to serve any additional documents. It is advisable though to retain a copy of these documents and evidence that they have been served on the tenant.

However, if the prescribed information has not been given to the tenant then as a landlord they should  give them to the tenant retaining evidence of doing to. In addition, a new landlord would give the tenant a Privacy notice and register with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

When it comes to the deposit, this would need to be administered into the new landlords name who would provide relevant information to the tenant.