Renting, but our house has just got new owners

VickyA_2

For the past 21 months we have been living in the same rented house. In February, our landlord put the house on the market and we agreed to co-operate with the sale (ie letting in the Estate Agent, allowing viewings etc). The house sold subject to contract very quickly. All this time, we have remained in the property paying rent through the letting agents. At no point have we be served with notice to quit.

On Thursday, we received a letter from our letting agent saying that the new owner would look to serve notice on us when they had taken ownership of the property. The letting agent is the holder of our deposit and say that they have no contract with the new owners.

Today we received a letter from the new owner's solicitors, saying that their clients are now the owners of our rented house and all future payments should be sent to them, giving us Mr & Mrs X's address. This is the first that we have heard about the ownership changing, but obviously we're only the tenants.

Where do we stand?
Currently our rent is paid by standing order to the letting agents, but it sounds like this will no longer be the case.
We have not got a tenancy agreement with the new owners - is this a problem?
I presume that our rent will remain unchanged until a) we get informed otherwise or b) we get served notice.
If they (new owners) want us to leave, is it still a 2 month notice period that they should give us?

Sorry for the long post, but this is never a situation that we've been in before.

Many thanks.
Vicky

xycom1

I don't know about your legal position with regards to the questions you've asked, but personally my first action would be to reply to the solicitors letter and ask for verifiable evidence that the people named now own the property, and look towards getting a tenancy signed with them.

Plus enquire about your deposit as if the letting agents no longer have any involvement, they should return it to you or pass it on to the new landlord (which you should obtain some sort of receipt for).

Gold_Shogun

Hi Vicky,
The new owners would have legally assumed the obligations & responsibilities of the existing Tenancy Agreement (namely yours) as an essential & inherent part of the purchase, so the same Terms & Conditions as per your original Tenancy Agreement still stand.

I assume your original fixed period has now ended without a formal renewal & that you are now on a standard Periodical Tenancy.

The situation with the Deposit is less clear cut, and I foresee some potential for that money to effectively disappear into a "Magic Roundabout" type black-hole where everybody claims that "somebody else is responsible" ... I would strongly suggest that you reply to the New owner's solicitor confirming that you are happy to change your rental payment as instructed AND formally notifying him that :-
"As the New Owners have taken over the Tenancy Agreement as Landlords Under Assignment, they should ensure that they have transferred & are holding the Deposit from the previous Landlord as a naturally essential part of their purchase arrangements."
Send it via Recorded Delivery, so that you are protected against any future problems in the (hopefully unlikely) event that the New Owners try to evade refunding your Deposit.
... Having been formally notified, their solicitor will be legally obligated to either arrange the transfer on their behalf OR (to protect the solicitor's own donkey) to obtain confirmation from them that they accept personal responsibility for said deposit ... That way, YOU don't have to get yourself caught in the middle of any potential old-new owner firefight.

Also, if the New Owners decide to issue you a new or renewal Tenancy Agreement to "tidy up" matters, you will gain some security as they will be obligated to place that deposit within one the the new TDS schemes.

Cheers
Bob

VickyA_2

Many thanks for this advice. :beer:

daisy_doughnut_2

hi there
this happened to me
1st insist on some sort of tenency agreement weather it be for 1-12 months
this covers you and the owners plus the rent thy want to charge you
also aske a documented letter saying where yopur deposit is i did this and had a signed letter stateing that my deposit had been paid in full to the new owners
also you need an inspection of the property from the new owners so they cant charge youfor something thats allready happened i had damo that had caused the carpet to smell i didnt want to charged so it was noted
also anything that may have been rented with the house you need to know where you stand with them mine had a fridge that the new owners wernt interested in so i kept it
if the new owners refuse to give a tenency agreement or a rent book then call your local councill and ask to speak to someone on the private let dept an explain all to them they will help you

other wise with no agreement you dont know the rent costs so who or what do you pay?
do not pay any one untill you know your money is safe

good luck

DD x