Landlord changed management agency and now asks to sign new tenancy agreement and refund deposit.

edzusbalodis

Good day.

Situation is : We have been with this landlord/letting agency for about 10 years now, and now we got informed that landlord is changed property management company.
I received so called greeting letter from this new agency telling that they took over , provided new bank details as should but there is some strange thing in this all.

They ask to come in and sign new tenancy agreement (I thought that tenancy agreements are between landlord and tenant not agency and tenant)
And also asking to ( I will copy exact text here: Because we use a different government approved deposit holding provider, you need to raise a

request to Manager at PREVIOUS AGENCY on PHONE to refund your deposit to you in full. On receipt of that payment, you must repay the same amount across to us via a payment to our

Client Account above, with the reference of Deposit and your address.)

How normal or legal this is ?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

m0bov

Only you can tell us if the original TA was between you and the LL or LA. You'd need to check it,

edzusbalodis

m0bov said:

Only you can tell us if the original TA was between you and the LL or LA. You'd need to check it,

My appologies. 

TA was between Landlord and Tenant. Agreement without end date .

saajan_12

You're correct, your agreement is with the LL and you don't HAVE to sign anything again. If you refuse, your tenancy will continue on a periodic basis someone serves notice.  The agency will probably PREFER to have all tenancies they manage using the same deposit scheme and standard contract - nothing inherently "wrong" with that, but you certainly don't HAVE to comply. 

If you do choose to comply with their REQUEST, then watch out for 
* no new minimum term if you prefer to be periodic
* no terms no worse for you eg regarding what in what the LL is responsible for (some exclude white goods), what the notice periods are, etc. 

marcia_

m0bov said:

Only you can tell us if the original TA was between you and the LL or LA. You'd need to check it,

 Its not relevant who wrote up the original tenancy agreement. The agreement is between landlord and tenant even if the LA are the introductory agent and took the deposit 

marcia_

edzusbalodis said:

m0bov said:

Only you can tell us if the original TA was between you and the LL or LA. You'd need to check it,

My appologies. 

TA was between Landlord and Tenant. Agreement without end date .

 It is not your responsibility to request your deposit back or resubmit it to the new one. That is their or your landlords job to ensure your deposit is still protected. 

 You also do not need to sign a new tenancy. 

theartfullodger

You are under no obligation to agree to or sign any new tenancy agreement.

The current one is still valid, continuing periodic.

Suspect it's the agent what wants to change - and will probably charge landlord for it.

Artful, Landlord