Terms & Conditions

[allan]

Hi

I have a customer who was renting a property that was sold to a new landlord with her as a sitting tenant. We were paying HB previously to the old l/l in accordance with our safegaurd policy.

The new landlord is not happy with the current agreement and wants her to sign a new agreement with him and basically is saying that the current agreement is no longer in place.

She has refused to sign the new agreement as this will affect her entitlement to a secure tenancy through our housing dept on their advice.

So currently we are wondering if we should continue paying HB on the old agreement i.e. does this pass onto the new l/l? or should be treating her as having no liability as she is refusing to enter into a new agreement with the new l/l?

Any help welcome.

[peterdelamothe]

My view is that you should pay under the existing agreement.

The claimant does have a rental liability …as a sitting tenant. The fact that she does not want to sign away her rights does not mean she is not liable to pay.

This is a less common issue now but when registered rents were abolished (1989?) there were tons of these types of cases. You could buy tenanted properties at auction for a fraction of the market price. Getting the protected tenants in these properties to move out was like winning the jackpot. Some were forced out, others came to a deal and so on. The policy was always to carry on paying based on the existing liability until and unless a legal change was applied.

[allan]

Thank you.

[Author]

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