I have a tenant wanting to change rooms in the HMO she is in. She wants to move into the master bedroom which has just become available. The rent is higher than the room she is currently in and she is happy to pay the premium.
Do I need to end her tenancy contract for her current room and issue a new tenancy document/ contract. I’ve noticed on Openrent I can serve notice and increase the rent through their rent collection facility which I don’t use anyway and it’s not a typical rent increase - it’s taking up tenancy in a more expensive room. Any advice on best way around this?
I would suggest ending the tenancy through a deed of surrender, which ends it without notice at the moment its executed. You can then create a new tenancy for the new room.
Surrender and regrant is right, but sort the deposit before you do it. The Deregulation Act relief that saves you re-protecting on a renewal only applies where the premises under both tenancies are the same or substantially the same, Housing Act 2004 s.215B(4). A different room might well not be.
If a judge takes that view you’ve received a deposit on a new tenancy and not protected it, and that’s one to three times the deposit under s.214. Re-protecting and re-serving the prescribed information takes ten minutes and costs nothing. Just do it.