Renewal Tenancies and Tenant Swap Information

Tenant swap on renewal of tenancies 

Should you wish to renew your contract but perhaps have either a tenant swap or you wish to resign the house but do not have the numbers just yet please see the following guidelines.

We appreciate some of the processes may seem a little confusing/long winded however we as agents MUST comply with the very strict regulations regarding your deposit. All of these guidelines are in place to protect you and your deposit.

 Deposit information for various regular scenarios regarding renewal tenancies

1. You wish to keep the property but there will be a tenant swap between the current and renewal tenancy. You have already found replacements.

Your existing deposit will be returned to you at the end of the contract. All people currently on the tenancy will have their share awarded to them either directly via the DPS or from the Head Tenant via the DPS depending on the way YOU decide to divide the deposit. 

For the NEW contract - a NEW deposit will unfortunately be due. Therefore in order to renew the contract you will need to pay a second deposit but don’t forget in the summer will have your original deposit returned.

To begin the process of drawing up a new contact  - we will collect either the full deposit or take a holding payment of £60 per person and the remaining balance of the deposit will be due in one week (unless other requests have been agreed for an extension of payment). 

2. You wish to keep the house but have one or more people leaving and have yet to find replacement tenants

Your existing deposit will be returned to you at the end of the contract. All people currently on the tenancy will have their share awarded to them either directly via the DPS or from the Head Tenant via the DPS depending on the way YOU decide to divide the deposit. 

For the NEW contract - a NEW deposit will unfortunately be due. Therefore in order to renew the contract you will need to pay a second deposit but don’t forget in the summer will have your original deposit returned.

The deposit will be the same regardless of the amount of people renewing the contract.  We will collect either the full deposit or take an holding payment of £60 per ROOM and the remaining balance of the deposit will be due in one week (unless other requests have been agreed for an extension of payment). 

This will likely mean that you pay an increased deposit per person if you wish to secure the property without a full house. 

Please see examples:

Example 1

Deposit due £1200 for a three bedroom house (£400 pp) and 2 wish to renew the contract while they find a third person. 

Remaining tenants pay either £180 (£60 * 3 rooms = £180) to secure the property and then the balance of £1020 within a week (unless other provisions have been arranged).

Example 2

Deposit due £3015 for a 9 bedroom house (£335 pp) and 7 wish to renew the contract while they find 2 new replacement tenants.

Remaining tenants pay either £540 (£60 * 9 rooms = £540) to secure the property and then the balance of £2475 within a week (unless other provisions have been arranged)

Please note that in addition to the deposit, you will also be required to sign a contract for the full rent irrespective of the number of people who have signed for the house. Your Guarantor (if you have one) also takes on the responsibility for the potential increased rental amount if you do not secure replacement tenants.

Examples

Rent £1200 for a 3 person house - if only 2 sign for it will take on the rent which will be £600 pp ppm instead of £400 if they do not secure a new third person 

Rent of 3015 for a 9 person house - if only 7 sign for it will take on the rent which will be £430.71 pp ppm instead of £335 if they do not secure two more tenants.

What happens when new tenants are found?

When the new tenants are found they can pay their share of the deposit and send it to us and we will send this to the Deposit Protection Scheme who protect your deposit. 

They DPS will then issue a refund to the Lead tenant for the balance of the new monies received. The lead tenant can then split this between the original people who paid the original deposit. 

If you are looking for more than one tenant - we will not be able to accept for example one persons deposit and then a second and then a third due to the processes in place via the DPS. They will only allow one refund per tenancy so we will need to send them the total funds for the additional tenants in order to receive the refund from the original group who booked.

Can’t we just leave the current deposit and just swap the new tenants for the old tenants?

Unfortunately we can not do this as at the point of issuing the contract - the names on the contract must mirror the names held against the deposit. Should we issue the contract and swap the names now, tenants who do not move in until July would have a claim to the current deposit.

We can do not want to pay a new deposit but do want to keep the house - what can we do 

It is very unlikely that your landlord will allow you to re-book the house if you do not have a group who can commit to the property nor you are able to pay the deposit to show your intention to keep the property. 

Very often there is a very small window for landlords to secure groups for properties and whilst most of the time they would rather keep the same tenants - they can not risk not having a group signed up for the property with the deposit paid.

‘Holding over’ / Checking out of the property

This is a very important decision that will have to be made between all parties in the NEW GROUP  but ultimately we can only take the decision from the Head Tenant of the group so it is very important that you are aware of their instructions to us before you decide to renew your tenancy / join the group. 

At the end of the original tenancy there are two ways in which the original deposit can be returned

1. No check out instructed - tenants do not move out - all belongings stay in the property -  property is not cleaned etc.

The deposit returned to tenants on the original tenancy less any rent arrears / unpaid tenancy charges. 

If you opt for this option - there will NOT BE A NEW INVENTORY. This means that the new tenants take responsibility of the ORIGINAL inventory and claims will be made against that at the end of the tenancy. 

This also means that we will not inspect the house, arrange cleaners or carry out any decorating and general upgrades that we would normally do in between tenancies.

*****REPLACEMENT TENANTS*****

If you want to move into a house that has a brand new inventory, has been professionally cleaned and thoroughly inspected then you should NOT move into a house where the tenants are opting to ‘hold over’.

Reasons for holding over

Most households will opt to ‘hold over’ as they then do not need to move out and move all of their belongings out of the property. The new tenancy is an extension of the original tenancy irrespective of the new deposit being protected. 

New tenancy renewal (not holding over) 

We thoroughly recommend for the protection in particular of incoming tenants, that all renewal tenancies, where there is a turnover in tenants opt for a brand new tenancy. 

This means at the end of the existing tenancy everyone must move themselves and their belongings out. 

A check out inspection is carried out and any deductions are made against the original deposit.

The property is thoroughly cleaned and any maintenance due is picked up, logged and instructed. 

A new inventory is taken and at the end of the tenancy only this inventory will be used to determine the condition at the point of check out.

The main differences are listed below 

Please note that you can not mix both options, EG Hold over so that all of your belongings stay in the property but also have the house cleaned. It is not the landlords responsibility to clean the house whilst it is under contract. 

If you want the property deep cleaned - you will have to move yourself and your belongings out, a check out inspection will be carried out and the property cleaned. Depending on the efforts made, the claim for the cleaning may be made against the original deposit. Therefore if you want the property cleaned, you should carry this out yourself or we can supply the number of our cleaning contractors.  

We can not stress enough that if you opt to move into a property which is ‘Holding Over’ - you should inspect the room and the original inventory before agreeing to take on the tenancy. 

Sales and Lettings Angels have previously not offered ‘Hold Over’ tenancies however given the inconvenience caused to tenants trying to find accommodation for a few days in-between their original tenancy and new tenancy starting in the same house, we do now offer this. 

Where there are no changes in tenancies, there is no reason not to ‘hold over’ as all things are as equal for one term as they are two or three terms. 

All replacement tenants will be required to acknowledge the important factors of a ‘hold over’ tenancy before we commence referencing then and drawing up contracts.