Tenancy confusion

marleneb1

I have rented my home continuously for the past 29 years. My landlord, who lived in Australia, died in 2017 and left the property to his partner who is Australian. She has only this week sent me documents showing she is now registered as freeholder of the property with the Land registry. She has also sent me a cheque for my deposit which is £1000 more than I actually paid in 1993. I think she wants to evict me and is only now complying with her legal duties so that she can serve a section 21 notice. She says she is now my landlord but my tenancy agreement was with her partner. Does she have to provide me with a new tenancy agreement before she can evict me?

macman

If your previous LL was the freeholder, then the tenancy passes to the new owner. Neither death or a sale end your tenancy, it continues under the same tenancy agreement. She merely needs to provide you with her details as the new LL.
Returning your deposit is no part of starting to end a tenancy, so most likely she has no clue how UK tenancy law operates. She cannot evict you, only a court or yourself can end a tenancy. Surely if she sent you a cheque, it came with some explanation as to her intentions? She might just sell the property with the tenancy in place.
Continue to pay your rent until such time as you receive an S21.
Given she is in Australia, how is this tenancy managed? Is it even regularised, as the deposit was apparently not protected? GSC, EICR, EPC, How to Rent booklet?
AST's began in 1989, so it's presumed that this tenancy, old as it is, is still an AST.

theartfullodger

Very very few tenancies were ASTs before February 1997. Do you have original tenancy paperwork?  See what it says.

Has she sent notice(s) compliant with s48 & s3?  If not no rent due (!! S48!…) and possible fines and criminal record for owner, (s3).

If notice (s) are complied with them she is fully landlord, if not only partly.

S48 requires an address in England or Wales so that you may "serve notices on her".  Suspect no rent due since death of partner but don't spend it all at once, when notice served ALL back rent becomes due.

See Shelter website on "assured tenancy".

Wonder if her dead partner's estate paid CGT (might be due)  on property and if all rent is/was being declared to HMRC  for both original owner and new one.

Was/is there ever an agent?

Bet she's done very little training in landlord/tenant law.....

Good luck 

_Penny_Dreadful

marleneb1 said:

I have rented my home continuously for the past 29 years. My landlord, who lived in Australia, died in 2017 and left the property to his partner who is Australian. She has only this week sent me documents showing she is now registered as freeholder of the property with the Land registry. She has also sent me a cheque for my deposit which is £1000 more than I actually paid in 1993. I think she wants to evict me and is only now complying with her legal duties so that she can serve a section 21 notice. She says she is now my landlord but my tenancy agreement was with her partner. Does she have to provide me with a new tenancy agreement before she can evict me?

Your tenancy doesn't end when the landlord dies, it continues as it always has.  As you've lived there for 29 years it is possible you have an Assured Tenancy rather than an Assured Shorthold Tenancy if:

• your original tenancy started between 15 January 1989 and 27 February 1997

• your landlord didn't give you an agreement or notice that it was an AST

• you don't share any rooms with your landlord and they live elsewhere

The first point is true and is the third, so did your original landlord ever give you an agreement or notice to say that it was an Assured Shorthold Tenancy.  This is an important point as a Section 21 notice cannot be used to evict an Assured Tenant.

Your new landlord does not need to issue you with a new tenancy agreement as the existing agreement is still in force.  She must however, under S3 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, provide you with her name and address in writing within 2 months of her acquiring an interest in the property.

marleneb1

Thanks for your responses. In the 6 years since the death of my landlord, only this week have I received notification of her registering with the land registry of her freehold interest dated 7 July 2022. She included in her covering letter her personal address in Australia for the serving of notices. Until I got this I didn't have her address. She has not issued any notices to me in the intervening time. 
When I signed the first agreement (I don't have a copy of it), the letting was managed by a letting agent who was the ex-partner of my landlord. Until his death, she continued to deal as an intermediary between him and me and the rent was and still is paid into a joint bank account in their names. The letting agent collected and held the deposit on his behalf and signed the tenancy agreements on his behalf until it went periodic.
The oldest tenancy agreement I have is dated 1995 and is an Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement.
The landlady has always said she intends to sell the property and so I knew this day would come. I just need to see if I can delay the inevitable as finding a new property to rent in this current climate will be so difficult as I'm now 73 and in poor health. 

SDLT_Geek

Have you been paying rent to an agent?

 If not and you have been paying rent direct to a non UK resident landlord, have you needed to deduct tax at source?

marleneb1

SDLT_Geek said:

Have you been paying rent to an agent?

 If not and you have been paying rent direct to a non UK resident landlord, have you needed to deduct tax at source?

I've been paying rent into a UK bank account in the joint names of my original landlord (now deceased) and his agent. I have not been asked to deduct tax.

SDLT_Geek

marleneb1 said:

SDLT_Geek said:

Have you been paying rent to an agent?

 If not and you have been paying rent direct to a non UK resident landlord, have you needed to deduct tax at source?

I've been paying rent into a UK bank account in the joint names of my original landlord (now deceased) and his agent. I have not been asked to deduct tax.

It sounds as if you have been paying an agent, so the responsibility to deal with any deduction of tax at source is the agents.  

Do be alive to this issue though if asked to pay rent direct to an overseas landlord.

marleneb1

SDLT_Geek said:

marleneb1 said:

SDLT_Geek said:

Have you been paying rent to an agent?

 If not and you have been paying rent direct to a non UK resident landlord, have you needed to deduct tax at source?

I've been paying rent into a UK bank account in the joint names of my original landlord (now deceased) and his agent. I have not been asked to deduct tax.

It sounds as if you have been paying an agent, so the responsibility to deal with any deduction of tax at source is the agents.  

Do be alive to this issue though if asked to pay rent direct to an overseas landlord.

That is precisely what I am being asked to do from now on - landlady has provided me with a new bank account to pay the rent into - Commonwealth Bank which I'm assuming is in Australia?

SDLT_Geek

It sounds as if you should be deducting tax at source unless the landlord has obtained permission from HMRC for rent to be paid to the landlord gross.

SDLT_Geek

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/paying-tax-on-rent-to-landlords-abroad