Rented flat being sold

Mark_Hewitt

Hi,
My aunty currently lives with her mother (my Grandmother) in a downstairs rented flat, which is rented from the person who lives in the upstairs flat (there are only two flats in the property)

Now as far as I'm aware the rental started in the 1940's, so and sort of lease agreement is no doubt long gone, but I've never been privy to that sort of thing so I don't know for sure.

The landlord, living upstairs recently passed away and the property is now in the hands of her daughter. Who has indicated that she intends on selling the entire property.

She's given my aunty an option to buy the flat for £60k, but since she is retired isn't really an option.

My question is, what are her rights with regard to rental when the property is sold. The rental is actually in the name of my grandmother and of course they cannot evict her as long as the rental payments continue, but she is 92 years old, what happens when she dies? Also what are her rights with regard to the amount of rent payments, could new owners say double the rent to force her to leave?

sammyjammy

Yes they can evict them, they need to give two months notice for thme to leave the flat if they wish it sell it with no sitting tenant but you might consider asking the owner if they will try and sell it to an investor in which case they may be able to continue to rent the flat, obviously this would be subject to the new owners rent agreement and terms.

If they definitely cannot afford to buy the flat then you should consider looking for alternative private rentals or contacting the council for housing advice as they are effectively being made homeless once notice has been given.

becky_rtw

Hmmm I suspect they may have a 'regulated tennancy' havent been around since 1989 but if they moved in in the 40s then they may well have (unless they agreed to swtich over at some point to an AST)

See the Shelter page for more info:
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/renting_and_leasehold/private_tenancies/regulated_tenancies

I would give them a ring tbh!

Jowo_2

Contact Shelter asap - tenants with tenancies that date from that period usually have extremely strong security of tenure and strong protection from eviction (they are virtually unevictable) and very strong protection from large rent increases. Some have the right for the tenancy to have a successor, therefore continues if another tenant or relative is in place there.

I don't know how this works when the original landlord dies, though. I can't give you any more info on this, really.

Make sure they don't sign anything until you've checked out their rights with the experts.

N79

Right - if the tenancy really does date from the 1940s then I'm afraid that specific opinion will be difficult to give - my oldest tenancy dates from the 70s (which I inherited from another LL) and is a rent act tenancy so this is the limit of my expertise - this is even earlier (although I think the rent act added its protections to earlier tenancies to stop the abuses of Rachman et al - it certainly changed the repairing obligations of Ts).

However, sammyjammy is definately wrong. Your aunty will have much stronger security of tenure and the change of LL will not impact that. In effect there is no way for a LL to evict her unless their are rental arreas or they die. Even on death the security of tenure may pass on within your family. (Edit - read the thread and believe that you aunty will have succession rights from your grandmother but you should get this checked by a housing law specialist solicitor). It is also not possible for the LL to raise the rent without the approval of a rent committee.

Your Aunties new LL may try to get you aunty to give up her rights in exchange for a payment (will be 10s of thousands, possibly around 25000 to 30000 if the open market valuation is 60000). Your aunty should seek independent legal advice before agreeing to any demotion of the tenancy. The LL would have to pay for this advice.

If the previous LL has tricked your aunty in giving up her rights then she needs to seek legal advice asap. If the LL failed to ensure that a T has independent legal advice on the implications of chaning the tenancy then there is a very strong probability that a court will reinstate the regulated tenancy.

Thats some general background for you to start researching your aunty's posistion.

To any LLs reading this who think that English LL&T law favours the T just read the above and realise how lucky we are to now have a legal regime that favours LLs so strongly.

sammyjammy

Apologies for poor advice, hope I didn't scare you OP, my excuse is I'm much to young to know about tenancies from the 1940s:D

becky_rtw

*Ahem* I am 27

PasturesNew

sammyjammy wrote: »

Yes they can evict them, they need to give two months notice

Wrong, because this tenancy has been in force for years and so would come under the old rules, pre-1996. Back then a tenant often had the right to stay for life, sometimes on a low rent if the rent amount was tied into the agreement and fixed years ago. Any property that somebody like this lives in is probably worth half on the open market that it would be worth if the tenant wasn't there and didn't have these rights.

This is why BTL only really took off after the law change, and subsequent ability of the lenders to turf tenants out fairly easily.

SouthCoast

A protected tenancy:

Protected tenants have the strongest rights of any private tenants. If you think you are a protected tenant and your landlord asks you to move or to sign a new agreement, you should consult an experienced adviser, for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest CAB.
Rights of protected tenants



As a protected tenant you have the following rights:-

• security of tenure. Your landlord can only repossess the accommodation in certain specified circumstances - see under heading The right to stay in the accommodation
• the right to have the rent fixed by the rent officer - see below
• the right to have rent increased only in certain circumstances - see under heading Fixing and increasing the rent
• the right to have the accommodation kept in a reasonable state or repair - see under heading Repairs
• the right of your spouse, civil partner, other partner or another family member to take over the tenancy on your death
• the right not to be treated unfairly because of your race, sex, sexuality, disability or religion.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_family/housing/private_sector_tenancies.htm

Jowo_2

Remember, some status is governed by whether the tenant lives in the same property as the landlord. By the sounds of it, these are 2 separate properties that are in the same building but occupiers who share amenities with landlords and who do not share entirely separate accommodation can be classed as excluded occupiers (lodgers) who have no security of tenure.

The set-up of the living arrangements will also be an influence. However, Shelter will be able to advise and it might be the case that the only way that the landlord can get secure tenants out is to bribe them - meaning that perhaps the OPs relatives might actually in the position of deciding either to stay put or accept compensation from the landlord if they wish to leave. However, they should check out how this affects the impact on any benefits they may receive and the risk of not finding suitable private accommodation or not being eligible for social housing for voluntarily leaving their accommodation.

Mark_Hewitt

Jowo wrote: »

Remember, some status is governed by whether the tenant lives in the same property as the landlord. By the sounds of it, these are 2 separate properties that are in the same building but occupiers who share amenities with landlords and who do not share entirely separate accommodation can be classed as excluded occupiers (lodgers) who have no security of tenure.

It's two seperate flats in the same building there are no common entrance areas apart from the path leading up to the front of the property, apart from that the two flats even have different outside space allocated to them.

I've read some of the websites which have been posted in this thread, they are all very interesting but they mostly say, If the tenancy is of this type then you have these rights, if it is of this type then you have these rights etc.

Trouble is we don't really know what sort of tenancy she does have. She will try to get hold of the original lease papers, but assuming these cannot be found or recalled somehow, what are her rights then, does the tenancy revert to a particular type if no evidence can be found?

edit: I see it goes off when the tenancy was taken out. I now know it was definitely before 1942, probably late 1930's.