Change of landlord letter to tenants. Section 3 notice and section 48 address, in one letter.

When a let home is sold with the tenant in place, the tenancy goes with it. For a tenancy granted since 1 January 1996, the buyer becomes bound by the landlord’s side of it, and entitled to the tenant’s, from the sale (Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 s.3), so the tenant signs nothing new and the rent stays the same. What changes is who the tenant pays, who they call and where they send a notice, and the law makes the buyer tell them.

Section 3 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 says the new landlord “shall give notice in writing of the assignment, and of his name and address, to the tenant not later than the next day on which rent is payable under the tenancy or, if that is within two months of the assignment, the end of that period of two months”. Rent due weekly to monthly always falls due again within two months, so for those the latest day is the end of the two months; the form takes the cautious reading, the day before the same date two months on. Failing to give the notice without reasonable excuse is a summary offence with a fine of up to level 4, £2,500 (Sentencing Act 2020 s.122).

The seller has a reason to write too. Until notice of the sale and of the buyer’s name and address is given to the tenant, the old landlord stays liable to the tenant for any breach of the tenancy, jointly and severally with the buyer (s.3(3A) and (3B)). Notice from either side ends that liability under section 3: from the buyer with their own address, or from the seller with the buyer’s name and last-known address. The seller’s version of the letter is that notice. It does not release the seller from the tenancy itself: for a tenancy granted since 1 January 1996, a seller is released from the landlord’s side of it only on a notice under section 8 of the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995, served before the sale or within four weeks of it (ss.6(2) and 8(1)). The release follows if the tenant does not object in writing within four weeks of the notice being served, or agrees to it in writing, or, after an objection, the county court declares it reasonable (s.8(2)).

The buyer’s letter also gives the address for notices. Under section 48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 a landlord must give the tenant an address in England and Wales at which notices, including notices in proceedings, may be served, and until it is given any rent is treated as not due. Every written demand for rent must also carry the landlord’s name and address (s.47). Whether a letting agent’s address counts has not been decided by an appeal court, so give your own. Part VI of the 1987 Act does not apply in Wales to an occupation contract (s.46(1A)), so the letter is written for England.

The deposit needs its own steps. It has to stay with an authorised scheme (Housing Act 2004 s.213), and the Prescribed Information names the landlord (SI 2007/797 art 2), so the copy the tenant holds names the seller: giving fresh Prescribed Information naming the buyer within 30 days of completion is the cautious course. The Deposit Protection Service moves a deposit to another landlord through the online account; under TDS Insured the registration cannot be transferred between two accounts, so the buyer registers it; for mydeposits, ask it for its process on a sale before completion.

LetCompliance is landlord software that runs the whole let, and a let you have bought goes in as it stands, on every plan: your address for notices is saved once and printed on the tenancy agreements, Section 13 notices and Prescribed Information the account builds; the deposit is recorded as taken over, with the day it was protected again, and the Prescribed Information is built naming every landlord; and each tenant gets a portal link. On the 3-day trial and paid plans the rent moves to Direct Debit into your own Stripe account, each tenant authorising a new mandate.