I currently have 1 property on rent, it is selective licensed. We found the tenant ourselves in April 2023 but went with an agent for management. After discussing this with our tenant, this month we have decided to take the tenancy away from the agent to manage ourselves due to poor service. The original agreement was fixed for 6 months to November 2023 and then month to month.
I have a couple of questions I was hoping to get help with:
Do I need to do anything with the tenancy agreement, e.g. renew it again now seeing as we have taken it from the agent? Or is there a recommendation of what needs to be done, or any ammendments that might need to be made, and does anything need signing again?
The agent has returned the deposit to us, following on from above, do I create a new agreement and get it signed by the tenant and then secure the deposit, or can I secure the deposit with a scheme immediately?
2a. - When securing deposit, if the agreement is not to change, would I give the starting date as April 2023 and then end date the original 6 months to November 2023 in the scheme, or should I ideally be giving a future date from now?
Any recommendations for which scheme people have had good experiences with, mydeposits seems not to be the best in terms of recommendations here?
I think you need some urgent training. The penalties for the simplest mistakes are punitive and there are over 160 laws and regulations you could inadvertently breach. I would suggest a basic course with one of the landlord associations.
In answer to your specific questions:
The tenant is not obliged to sign a new agreement if they dont want to and provided you have copies of everything and are happy with the wording of the agreement the agent used, its in your interest to leave it to go periodic. You need to get copies of all the documents the agent served on the tenant - deposit PI, EPC, GSC, How to Rent, Right to Rent checks, EICR etc. You also need to let the tenant know of the change of payment details.
You need to deal with the deposit IMMEDIATELY. I suggest you quickly create a custodial account with any of the 3 providers, lodge the deposit with them, let the tenant know of the change and serve a new PI on them, (prescribed information). The deposit scheme will record the date you pay it and when referring to the tenancy dates you put the actual start and end dates.
Theres not much to choose between the schemes. Im with DPS and happy enough with it.
I have requested all the information from the agent, and the agent has said they informed the tenant of the change of payment details.
With regards to the agreement then, essentially, does nothing need to happen, as in I do not need to ammend the original agreement to remove the agent from there, and can leave that in place as is, as long as the tenant is informed and aware of the current situation.
I am just confused about what, if anything I need to do from an agreement perspective or whether I need to serve any official notice to the tenant regarding this change beyond what has already been done. I.e. Spoken in person about this, the agent has informed the tenant as well about the tenancy now being self managed.
Do I amend anything and get the tenant to re-sign if they are happy to do so, or the original agreement continues to stand unaltered, and I do not need to take any action regarding this, despite the agent being remove?
I will secure the deposit as well, though the agent informed me it has to be within 14 days of them giving it back, so there is some time just while I gain some clarity on the best way to proceed here, unless they are incorrect in their assumption.
As long as you were named as landlord on the original TA then there is no change other than the removal of the agent. It is and always was your tenancy.