I have had to do this before and will need to do it again in the near future.
I have a property where the lead tenant is staying, but one of the named tenants is leaving.
This doesn’t affect the RGI (because the RGI is for the rent, not specific people - so I was told).
What I had to do last time was end the tenancy, re-advertise on OpenRent and get the new people to sign up. Doesn’t seem so bad, does it? £49 for OpenRent to do the hard work and no need for re-referencing the old tenants, just the £20 for the new one.
HOWEVER. I also have to refund the deposit and take the EXACT SAME AMOUNT as a deposit for this “new” AST. And I paid OpenRent as if it were a new tenancy (because, in the eyes of the law, it is!) so they sorted out all the wasteful paper-chasing of “how to rent” and deposit protection (yeuk).
My next one is just one person leaving. Yet I have to go through the same rigmarole for a simple removal of a name from an agreement.
The Question:
Since this is likely to have happened for many other people, is OpenRent likely to give us an option to do a “change of AST” and save the actual advertising application?
I am happy to pay something for the re-creation of the AST (as I already did).
Thanks for this feedback. We understand that this isn’t an ideal process - especially from a tenant cashflow point of view. That’s why we recommend you look into how you can organise this directly with the tenants (we never tie you into using our processes).
We’re planning to make it easier for you to change the parties on contracts easier in future. We unfortunately don’t have a date we can give you for when this will be ready. But we want to be able to offer it as soon as possible, while making sure we get it right (since the consequences of making a mistake are fairly severe). Thanks again for this feedback, it reinforces why improving this process is a top priority for us.
If you have more questions, please do send the team a message directly. We’ll be happy to clarify any other questions.
That’s why we recommend you look into how you can organise this directly with the tenants
The lead tenant is the same but his partner has left. The duration is coming up to 3 years (on a periodic basis since the first year ended) and nothing has changed (rent, deposit, etc). Can I just remove the second tenants name from the current contract (the tenant is happy with this) or am I forced to relist etc to ensure the deposit and contract are legally binding? Thanks.