Tenancy advice

katiem188

hello all i’m after some further advice please. 

My family member has a fixed term contract that was recently signed and is in place for another two years. 

The landlord is currently selling and the sale was ready to go through to new landlords, the estate agent had told said family member they had “lost” her contract and needed her to sign a new one, said family member has a copy of the contract recently signed which i already know remains valid and she doesn’t have to sign a new one and she sent this over to the estate agent saying she doesn’t wish to re sign with different terms. 

the new contract they are wanting her to sign has a special added clause stating she can be issued a section 21 after a few months into the contract, i know the renters Bill changes in may 2026, but this means she could be issued a section 21 if she was to sign this contract before that bill becomes law.

she has declined signing this contract twice and the estate agent has been ringing her to try and get her to sign it, she’s also had the landlord on the phone telling her she’s going to evict her if she doesn’t sign it as the buyers won’t agree to the sale if this contract isn’t signed, which in itself seems dodgy that they will only finalise the sale if this contract with this specific clause is signed.
 the estate first told said family member the reason they wanted her to sign one was because they couldn’t locate the original, this seems like she was given false information to be deceived into signing a new one.
this family member also suffers from registered mental health issues and it’s causing them so much distress at this point. 

the landlord has also said once they sell property because they won’t the be landlord so the current fixed tenancy won’t be valid but am i correct in thinking the new buyer by law takes on the current tenancy and becomes the new landlord as it’s a fixed tenancy with no clause for a section 21 to be issued? 🤔 

im just wondering where they stand with everything if anyone has any advice as they feel like they are being harassed to sign this new contract and everything is becoming too much now. We will also be contacting citizens advice. 

thank you in advance. 

katiem188

please also note this is a long sitting tenant, it was previously a rolling contract, they never missed rent payments, have done improvements with permission, rarely ask for anything to be done, generally a good tenant. they signed a fixed contract as it was agreed with the current landlord prior to the offer being made for the buyer so the tenant would have security with said new landlord hence the tenant not wanting to agree to a new contract where that security could be revoked. 

trix-a-belle

Why start a new thread when you already had one running on this mere days ago. Keep the information together, it helps people advising you to see what advice you have already been given. Hopefully a moderator sees this and tacks this into your existing thread.