Transfer of Ownership of tenanted property – the practicalities?

Transfer of Ownership of tenanted property – the practicalities?

10:14 AM, 11th November 2022, About 2 years ago 5

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Hello, I have recently sold a tenanted property and the completion date is a week away.

Does anyone have any experience of handover of details/rent accounts to the new owner, especially in regard to UC recipients?

All tenants have UC paid directly to me, but if they list a change of circumstance as a result of a change of Landlord on completion day (and as a result a change to where the direct payment is made), that will trigger the BAP rule to kick in – meaning that the incoming LL will receive the rent for the month period before he actually took ownership.

I could ask the tenants to not tell the DWP of this change of LL until the day after they last rent payment to me is due, and then I could pro rata this according to the completion date and then send the rent after this date to the new LL? (But that would mean trusting the tenant to do this – is that really going to happen??).

Or do I work out what rent I would be due now up to the day of completion for each tenant and request this in payment before completion happens?

Has anyone else been through this and what was the solution? I can’t afford to miss the last month’s rent for all of the tenants this involves.

Dee


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Graham Bowcock

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13:04 PM, 11th November 2022, About 2 years ago

On the day of completion, the solicitors will agree an apportionment of rent. If the tenants have overpaid (e.g. paid for a month on the 1st and completion is on the 15th), then the overpayment is paid by the seller to the owner. Conversely if the tenant has underpaid, then the buyer will add the debt to the purchase price.

In terms of what the tenants may or may not do, that's the buyer's risk really. No harm in co-operating - it is expected - but technically it's not your problem unless there are contractual provisions.

NB - I cannot speak specifically about UC rents.

Reluctant Landlord

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13:13 PM, 11th November 2022, About 2 years ago

interesting post.

Lot of us thinking of selling up and if some have UC benefit tenants in the properties I can see the problem.

HB tenants wont be an issue I presume - tell council day the new owner takes over and and they would pay the old LL up to that date the then new LL after that date?

Ian Narbeth

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15:36 PM, 11th November 2022, About 2 years ago

Dee your contract should provide for apportionment of rents. It is not so straightforward where rent is payable in arrears as you will either need to get paid on completion or to recover it later. Your solicitor might have provided for this in the contract. I suggest you ask him or her.

Reluctant Landlord

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15:44 PM, 11th November 2022, About 2 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 11/11/2022 - 15:36
where would the rent be recoverable from though after the new owner takes over? Payment of rent is down to the tenant no mater if UC pay on their behalf

Im thinking if the tenant changes the LL details as a declared 'change of circumstance' then they will stop rent paid to (old) LL and pay the tenant instead at the next payment date. This would be a month after the new LL took over, but the rent due to being paid in arrears is for the period the old LL had the property.

Normally rent arrears can be got back through the deposit process, but the tenancy wont have actually ended, so does she just have to hope the tenant pays the old LL what's due ??

Mick Roberts

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10:57 AM, 12th November 2022, About 2 years ago

I've had this 3 times in last 2 years. Sold houses & UC keeps paying me for tenants that aren't mine. Link herein is letter from UC DWP after I asked them How can I tell u I've sold a house as you are still paying me several months later for a tenant that is no longer mine. I kid you not, they said there is no way I can tell them, so they still kept paying me. Bonkers.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Rtw782xrHh5MtGrOHf6CvJ8JMElj4nE/view?usp=sharing

But yes, can go the other way which I've had too when tenant moved one day before BAP date, new Landlord got all the rent.
And also this week, had 3 way move where girl moved AFTER the BAP period, UC stopped my payment & paid the girl even though they knew she was in arrears & they should have known the girl was moving into the SAME (Me) Landlords house, so much so I played games with them, the girl writing the below on her journal:

9 Nov 22
Thank you for replying Chris, and setting up the payment to my same Landlord. However you haven't answered my 8 Nov questions to you regarding why you didn't pay my Landlord for the period due on the old house, so I again ask you to refer to the 8th Nov 2022 email from me please and provide me with satisfactory answer.

As I understand it, you can't set payment up to Landlord if gone past the BAP date. However this time, when it means changing the payment which means a severe disadvantage to the security of my tenancy ie. working against the Landlord, UC managed to input changes detrimental to both ourselves and input these changes after the BAP date where normally UC say Nothing can be done after that date.

UC are the thickest most ignorant people on the planet.

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