Sorry if this is a lite long. I just want to check the order of things here, if I have got it right or am missing anything. Thanks!
One tenant is leaving - 2 months notice break clause. They will/have served notice and have a replacement in mind.
Checks need to be made on this replacement - then once good everyone on the existing tenancy should sign a deed of surrender to confirm that the original tenancy has ended - or only the one that is leaving needs to sign it?
The deed of surrender from OpenRent says - “The Tenant confirms that he has received his deposit from The Landlord and that no further payments are due to him.” - But also somewhere on the site is says that the deposit can be paid from the new tenant to the leaving one between themselves. - Can the wording on the deed of surrender be changed to state this. Is this the best way or does anything from my deposits need to be updated or changed.
I then go to renewal options and renew the tenancy then create a new tenancy then add/remove tenants, confirm and sign everything once confirmed. Now is there another £50 charge for this, will the tenancy be for the remaining months or a whole new term?
Firstly, if this tenancy is still in the fixed/initial term, then unless the tenancy agreement says otherwise, a tenants notice is of no effect. If this is a joint tenancy and its in the periodic phase, then a valid tenants notice will end the tenancy for everyone on expiry. If you allow the others to continue living there at this point, then a new undocumented tenancy would arise automatically, so the timing of any replacement is important. A deed of surrender would be unnecessary in this case. Its therefore vital to firstly establish if the tenants notice is valid.
I have no experience of the Openrent replacement option so cannot comment on whether it is legally water-tight. It will be a brand new tenancy because the tenants are a different group so a whole new term.
Getting an incoming tenant to pay the deposit to the outgoing one is a breach of the deposit regulations and could get you into difficulty. Before the existing tenancy ends, you need to do an end of tenancy inspection, make any proposed deductions from the deposit, refund the balance to the tenants and take a whole new deposit for the new tenancy, which would need to be protected in the usual way.
There is lots going on here.
Are the outgoing tenants signing a surrender because they are still within a fixed term. ? If not, they just need to give you a months notice then done. Inspect and deal with their deposit through the deposit agency. There is no mechanism for it to be transferred elsewhere.
You need to set up a complete new tenancy and take a new deposit from the new tenants if, and only if, you are sure the property will be empty on the start date.
The dashboard says Break Clause so 2 months notice.
All other tenants will stay, only one going out and being replaced.
On this page https://help.openrent.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/360011458098 it says “In this instance, the tenant that is leaving will need to receive their share of the deposit back and the new incoming tenant will need to pay their share of the deposit. This can be handled most easily directly between the tenants themselves. If there are no deductions to be made, the incoming tenant can simply pay the amount directly to the outgoing tenant.”
In my view that is unhelpful advice in that the money paid by the incoming tenant must either be a deposit, in which case you need to protect it and refund the outgoing tenant yourself, or it is not a deposit in which case its a prohibited payment under the tenant fees act if you require it to be paid to the outgoing tenant.
I suggest you join NRLA and get slme help from their advice line.