Changing Tenant on Lease

kmmr

Hi,

My rental house is used as a london base for a small company, although the lease is in the name of one person. He is there most of the time, but shares with one or other person as they need to be in town.

The main guy has left the company, as so he wants me to just change the name of the lease into someone else's name.

I don't really mind this, but not sure if I should write a letter saying 'x has taken over the liabilities of y', or should I do a new contract - with the same end date. Of course the inventory has been signed by the original lessee, and the deposit (in TDS) is in his name, so should I reissue both of those. I will re-check the references as if it's a new tenancy, and ensure that the guarantor (the company) signs any new deal.

With TDS, I was going to ask him to approve his whole deposit being returned to me, and then I will relodge it under the new name, or can I even just change the name in TDS.

Any advice from the experts here would be very welcome.

Thanks

K

pramsay13

I'm no expert but I have a flat that we rent out as a house in multiple occupancy so there are strict regulations here in Glasgow.
The only similar issue we had was when we rented the flat to 3 tenants who all jointly signed the lease, paid the deposit etc.
Then one wanted to leave so I just updated the lease by scoring out the name of the person that had left, and adding the new person's name. Then I initialled and dated the amendment, so the current lease is still valid but with the new person.
The new person then just paid the person leaving her share of the deposit.

Jowo_2

A deed of assignment is a document where an existing contract can continue with a change of tenant - it is signed by all tenants, including the incoming/outgoing tenant and by the landlord.

kmmr

Thanks Jowo - that is exactly what I need. Have googled it and found something perfect.

I'll speak to DPS tomorrow, and hopefully can just change the name there.

Pramsey, it's not a multiple tenancy agreement, just with one person. Although that does raise the issue of when does a 'regular visitor' start to become a tenant. Anyway - issue for another day!

Jowo_2

You'd need to check if the DoA is applicable for a single tenant as now I think about it, I wonder if its for joint tenants but do let us know what the criteria is.