I’ve been renting this house for 7 months and now one tenant is leaving and a new one is coming in. We are doing all the process from the beginning, also check of myself and the landlord asked us to provide with a guarantor.
What the landlord is asking me to do, and I don’t find anywhere in the contract is: he will give me my deposit back, and I have to pay it again.
Now that the new contract will start tomorrow, I still didn’t receive my deposit back and he’s asking me to pay the new one first and then he will release the old one.
The point is: I can’t and I don’t want to pay the deposit if I’m not receiving the previous one back. Then, I need to know exactly where is this written in the contract and if the landlord is allowed to do that.
As you’ve mentioned, where there’s a change of tenants in the property this is treated as a brand new tenancy. This means the application process, payments, etc. are the same as if you were moving to a tenancy at a different property.
This is done to ensure your new tenancy is legally valid, and accurately represents the people living in the property.
As the deposit is protected with the DPS, your money is protected. It can understandably cause a cashflow issue to pay a new deposit like this, so I recommended discussing this with your landlord if this is going to be a problem.
You can also contact us using the ‘Need Help’ box on any OpenRent page, if you’d like us to advise on your specific application.