Any Advice? Tenant wanting to move out, sublet then move back after a year

Landlord Discussion
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Hi, I would really love your thoughts on this dilemma - Our 2 tenants who have been with us for just over a year, want to move out for a year whilst working abroad, and then move back.
In the meantime they have suggested that their 2 friends who are a couple, and apparently planning on buying next year, move in whilst paying the rent to them and them in turn paying the rent to me. So from my end nothing changes.

Our current tenants are in their 30s and have been great, so from their perspective this seems totally reasonable but from my end i’m really not sure about it. I would like to help them out as they’re great people and moving back to London next year will be a huge pain for them. And also having no gaps in the tenancy would be great for me. Anyone got any advice on how to deal with this situation?

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In a word no. You need to stay in charge. You would be creating a huge amount of risk. Nice smiles and happy relationships means nothing.

Protect yourself.

You could consider renting to their friends subject to usual referencing process.

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Its possible, but could leave you and your tenants exposed, as they would have landlord duties. I would suggest you offer to reference the new couple and if theyre suitable your tenants can surrender their tenancy and you can start a new tenancy with the couple. If it all works out you could do it in reverse in a years time.

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Agreed with the others. I’m not sure what the benefit would be to sublet it rather than end the tenancy with the current tenants and start a new one with the new couple? If it’s just to avoid the admin effort, as the others have mentioned - this represents considerable risk to all involved and isn’t worth it. Since all parties are lined up, and assuming the references for the new couple are all good, then it’s a straightforward process to end one tenancy and start a new one. It sounds like a hassle (returning deposit, accepting new deposit, contracts etc) but in reality, it’s just a few clicks, and the Openrent interface (if you are using RentNow) is easy.

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Thanks guys, i will take your advice and start a fresh tenancy with the new ppl depending on credit checks and if it works out that they move out when the current tenants return then great but if not we’ll that’s between them. Really appreciate your time!

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