A member asked what to do if their tenant wanted to move out, but her daughter - a permitted occupier - wanted to stay on as the main tenant. Here's what our forum had to say.
A member posted on our forum recently a question about their tenant, who wished to move out.
The tenants’ daughter, who was already a permitted occupier, wanted to become the main tenant and the member wanted to clarify any paperwork they needed to complete to reflect this change.
The situation
The landlord had given permission for their tenant's daughter to move in with him following a relationship breakdown a few months earlier.
He then contacted the landlord to say he wanted to leave as he was moving in with his partner, however his daugher wanted to stay and take over the tenancy.
The landlord wanted advice around what the next steps should be, for example whether to issue a brand new tenancy agreement, whether he needed to repeat the EICR and looking for clarification around issues regarding the deposit and contacted the forum.
Members' responses
A member of our expert advice team was the first to comment on this thread.
They confirmed the original tenant would first need to give the landlord written notice.
Once this has expired, the landlord should then complete a new tenancy agreement for the daughter. As this would be a completely new tenancy, the landlord would have to protect the deposit and issue a certificate, along with ALL prescribed information.
More information on what is needed at the start of a tenancy can be read online here.
Our member thanked the advisor for their initial reply but had a further question about the deposit in terms of the statement of condition.
The adviser said the landlord should have a conversation with the tenant about the deposit, to establish whether he wanted the deposit returned to him, or whether he was going to allow his daughter to keep it.
If he was going to do that the landlord was advised to check with the daughter whether she was happy to sign the inventory for the property.
- To read the original forum post, click here