Question on tenancies for knowledgeable landlords

FlorayG

I posted a little while ago about someone selling her flat and continuing to live in it as a paying tenant.

Now I hear that she is engaging a solicitor to draft a tenancy agreement that gives her a secure tenancy - owners not able to evict her.

I'm pretty sure myself that this isn't possible in the private rental sector am I correct? A HA gives a secure tenancy because they never want or need to sell their properties. A private landlord can't give that assurance.

( This person btw won't listen to advice from anyone, so please don't offer any. I'm just curious to find out if my understanding of the situation is correct)

subjecttocontract

Surely anyone can get a secure tenancy drafted but it needs to be authorised by both parties......won't that be a problem for her ?

For a normal shorthold tenancy I didn't think a written agreement was actually needed. So, if she is currently paying rent then a tenancy is already in place.

user1977

It could be made a secure one by e.g. being a long lease rather than a standard short term residential tenancy.

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82163696#Comment_82163696

You would need to read the following older thread, to understand the sad back story here -

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6675375/selling-and-renting-back

FlorayG

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82163705#Comment_82163705

How does a lease differ from a tenancy? Don't you have to purchase a lease and then be responsible for all upkeep? That wouldn't work for either party in this case

user1977

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82163732#Comment_82163732

Lease and tenancy are different words for the same thing (the latter more commonly used for shorter term leases). You don't need to "purchase" a leasehold interest or necessarily be responsible for maintenance, we don't know what terms they've agreed in principle (I assume they have agreed something in principle, otherwise her solicitor is wasting their time drafting anything in detail).

StewedApple

Sounds like the French viager system might benefit some people here.

silvercar

leases over a certain length need to be registered with Land Registry.

Under the renter rights act, tenancies don’t have fixed terms, so it would need to be a lease rather than a tenancy if she wanted a documented right. She needs to watch for the landlord deciding to sell up, as that is one of the eviction grounds and also implementing a rent increase that she couldn’t afford.

FlorayG

@silvercar how does a lease work?

silvercar

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82164361#Comment_82164361

It is registered on the deeds of the property, in the same way that people “buy” a leasehold flat. The downside is that it would be for a length of time that isn’t pre-determined, and I’m not sure how that would be written into the lease. It would also have clauses about rent increases written into it, to protect both tenant and landlord.

HouseHuntingAmy

You're basically right. A secure tenancy is council and housing association tenure - a private landlord simply can't grant one, whatever gets drafted. What a private landlord CAN grant is an assured tenancy (rather than an assured shorthold one), which gives much stronger long-term security and very limited possession grounds. Legally possible, but it would make the flat nearly impossible to sell with vacant posession, which rather defeats the object of selling it.

And under the new tenancy rules that have just come in, private tenancies are all periodic now anyway, with landlords still able to sell using the proper ground and notice. So she risks paying a solicitor to produce something that gives her less protection than she imagines while making her own sale far harder. Her solicitor should spell that out - and if they don't, that tells you something too.