UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi there,  We are buying a property which has tenants already in place.  We had agreed to keep them on and had negotiated a new increased rent to which they had agreed.  We had drafted up a new 6 month AST Agreement for them and had been told by the Letting / Estate Agent that they were happy to sign this 6 Month Agreement.  (They are presently on a month to month rolling contract - the wording of the present tenancy agreement is pretty rubbish / too basic and this is one of the reasons why we wanted to use our own (thorough) agreement).  Just at the point that the tenants/and the letting agent thought that we had completed on the purchase we were informed that the tenants did not want to sign a 6 month agreement (they want to stay in the flat on a month to month basis).  We not actually completed yet and our thoughts are that we only want to take on these tenants on a new 6 month AST (which they had already seen and agreed to, even up until a few days ago, but have not signed).  We have actually 'bent over backwards' for them already, eg. agreeing to rent to them at a figure less than we know we could have got, etc.

Please help, as we really don't know where we stand now.

Many thanks

You step into the shoes of the existing Landlord. You can ask the Tenants to sign a new agreement but they are not obliged to do so. Ensure that you serve correct notice on the Tenants, re. change of Landlord, so rent is actually due. You cannot evict the Tenants, other than through the normal means, once you are the Landlord... but you can insist to the Vendor that you want vacant possession and hand the problem over to someone else.

You've bent over backwards for them? Trying to enforce a new fixed term and increasing their rent? Obviously you're having a laugh.

If the property is worth it (great deal ..) then you might be better of just taking the property and not jeopardising the deal but.....

"You step into the shoes of the existing landlord" is exactly right...so make sure the existing landlord has served all the right paperwork otherwise it will be your liability.

If he has not then you may have a serious problem serving the s21 notice to kick them out.

Also make sure the deposit is transferred (Likely you need to get agreement for this from the vendor) etc etc etc

Best of luck.