I am a landlord. I have tenants for past 11 months under a 12 months rental agreement. Both me and my tenants agreed to continue with the tenancy for another 12 months. As per the new law, I have to reduce the DPS deposit money so that it comes under the 5 weeks rent amount. To reduce the deposit money amount, I have decided to re-sign the contract with low deposit money for DPS. The other things in the contract remains exactly the same.
My question here is that this is going to be a new rental agreement hence do I have to take their (tenants) IDs etc again and file it for this new rental agreement?
You just have to satisfy the Right to Rent legislation. If the documents you used last time are still valid then you don’t need to go through the process again. You can simply keep the old proofs of R2R with the new tenancy agreement. Surprisingly a UK passport doesn’t have to be currently valid. As long at the tenant ever qualified for one, then they are assumed to still have a R2R.
Hope this is useful. I’m not legally qualified and the above is just my understanding of the rules.
You are better off to have a roll on or periodic contract. That way you don’t even have to follow the new law. You stay with the old law and old law allows you to keep 6 weeks deposit.
I thought of doing it but then I decided to go ahead with making the changes (lowering the deposit to its new legal limits). This way, my tenants would also be able to use their money wisely.
