Selling a rented property

tina1040

If I want to sell a rented property because the cash is genuinely needed now, how does the notice work with the Level 5 lockdown? The tenant is in the property almost 3 years.

Baby01032012

tina1040 wrote: »

If I want to sell a rented property because the cash is genuinely needed now, how does the notice work with the Level 5 lockdown? The tenant is in the property almost 3 years.

You can give notice but we are in an emergency period under level 5 lockdown until 5 March which means the period until then + 10 days is not taken into account when calculating the notice period.

Make sure you follow the correct format for terminating due to selling including the signed declaration your solicitor will need to draft.

dennyk

You can issue notice now, but the notice period won't begin counting until 10 days after the Level 5 restrictions have ended. If the tenant hasn't yet reached three years, the notice period would be 120 days; if you issue notice now, that will be the case even if they pass the three-year mark during the lockdown period pause (or during the notice period itself), so it's best to be quick. If you wait until the tenancy passes the three-year mark before issuing the notice, the notice period will be 180 days instead.

The RTB has detailed information on the notice requirements; be sure to read that and follow all of them to the letter. If you fail to do everything by the book, your tenant can challenge the validity of your notice, and that will delay the process significantly at best or force you to start the whole notice process all over again (quite possibly with a new 180-day notice period if the tenancy has passed three years in the meantime) at worst, depending on what you got wrong.

MacDanger

dennyk wrote: »

You can issue notice now, but the notice period won't begin counting until 10 days after the Level 5 restrictions have ended. If the tenant hasn't yet reached three years, the notice period would be 120 days; if you issue notice now, that will be the case even if they pass the three-year mark during the lockdown period pause (or during the notice period itself), so it's best to be quick. If you wait until the tenancy passes the three-year mark before issuing the notice, the notice period will be 180 days instead.

The RTB has detailed information on the notice requirements; be sure to read that and follow all of them to the letter. If you fail to do everything by the book, your tenant can challenge the validity of your notice, and that will delay the process significantly at best or force you to start the whole notice process all over again (quite possibly with a new 180-day notice period if the tenancy has passed three years in the meantime) at worst, depending on what you got wrong.

I think the amount of time they've been in there (say it's currently 2 years 11 months) is actually less than that for the purposes of calculating notice - the periods when we've been in Level 5 (say it's 8 months) don't count towards that; so in my example, the tenants have been there for 2 years and 3 months when calculating notice period i.e. they'd need to get 120 + 10 days which doesn't begin to tick down until we exit Level 5

dennyk

MacDanger wrote: »

I think the amount of time they've been in there (say it's currently 2 years 11 months) is actually less than that for the purposes of calculating notice - the periods when we've been in Level 5 (say it's 8 months) don't count towards that; so in my example, the tenants have been there for 2 years and 3 months when calculating notice period i.e. they'd need to get 120 + 10 days which doesn't begin to tick down until we exit Level 5

I don't believe that's quite how the legislation works. Emergency periods don't affect the length of an existing tenancy for the purpose of determining the required notice that must be given. However, once notice has been given, the required notice period doesn't change while the notice is "paused" due to the emergency period, even if the tenancy crosses a threshold at which a longer notice requirement would normally take effect during that period. Similarly, if a tenant has been given notice with no reason during an emergency period before a Part 4 or a new Further Part 4 tenancy commenced, then that new Part 4 or Further Part 4 tenancy doesn't begin during the emergency period and the notice is still valid.

Basically a tenant can't acquire additional rights under Part 4 solely because the effective date of a valid notice to quit was delayed due to the emergency period regulations, but otherwise the emergency period has no effect on the duration of existing tenancies, or the rights acquired due to that duration, where the landlord has not currently given notice.

MacDanger

dennyk wrote: »

I don't believe that's quite how the legislation works. Emergency periods don't affect the length of an existing tenancy for the purpose of determining the required notice that must be given. However, once notice has been given, the required notice period doesn't change while the notice is "paused" due to the emergency period, even if the tenancy crosses a threshold at which a longer notice requirement would normally take effect during that period. Similarly, if a tenant has been given notice with no reason during an emergency period before a Part 4 or a new Further Part 4 tenancy commenced, then that new Part 4 or Further Part 4 tenancy doesn't begin during the emergency period and the notice is still valid.

Basically a tenant can't acquire additional rights under Part 4 solely because the effective date of a valid notice to quit was delayed due to the emergency period regulations, but otherwise the emergency period has no effect on the duration of existing tenancies, or the rights acquired due to that duration, where the landlord has not currently given notice.

Apologies, you're right.

I had previously read this piece and assumed from it that all timers were effectively "paused" but that's not the case:

The RTA 2020 provides that a tenant will not acquire any security of tenure rights under Part 4 of the RTA 2004 by virtue of the restrictions imposed on Notices of Terminations taking effect or a tenant being allowed to remain within a dwelling during the Emergency Period. This also applies for Further Part 4 tenancies.

Baby01032012

MacDanger wrote: »

I think the amount of time they've been in there (say it's currently 2 years 11 months) is actually less than that for the purposes of calculating notice - the periods when we've been in Level 5 (say it's 8 months) don't count towards that; so in my example, the tenants have been there for 2 years and 3 months when calculating notice period i.e. they'd need to get 120 + 10 days which doesn't begin to tick down until we exit Level 5

That’s completely wrong. How long a tenant is there is how long a tenant is there ie from day 1 of lease. It’s only for notice period given to a tenant that any covid 19 emergency period is ignored for the purpose of counting down the clock.