Landlords and letting agents face a mounting compliance burden as tenant
swaps look set to become a routine feature of private rented housing under
the Renters’ Rights Act
.
That’s according to deposit protection provider mydeposits, which says that
landlords will need to be on their toes with clear, documented records.
Of the 4.7 million households renting privately in England, a significant
proportion live in shared accommodation.
These include houses in multiple occupation (HMO) and flatshare
arrangements, where changes in occupancy happen frequently.
Since fixed-term tenancies have been replaced by periodic agreements, the
deposit firm warns that
the managed swap of one or more tenants
mid-tenancy will shift from an occasional complication to a standard
operational task.
Periodic tenancy issues
Before the Act took effect, fixed terms provided a natural break point: a
check-out, agreement on condition and a fresh check-in for whoever is moving
in.
That endpoint disappeared under the new regime.
Landlords and agents instead face an open-ended tenancy in which occupancy
changes, and the question of who is responsible for what must be managed
without any clear moment of reset.
Tim Frome, the head of government schemes at mydeposits, said: “The removal
of fixed terms changes the rhythm of tenancy management.
“Agents are used to working with a clear endpoint where responsibility is
agreed and documented.
“Without that, the focus shifts to how those responsibilities are managed as
tenants come and go.”
New tenant must understand
When a swap occurs, agents and landlords can treat the change as a full
reset, conducting a check-out for the departing tenant and a fresh check-in
for the replacement.
Or they can continue running on the original inventory and documentation,
avoiding the cost and time of a full process.
Doing so means placing greater reliance on ensuring any incoming tenant is
unambiguously tied to that earlier paperwork.
The platform admits that the second route is likely to prove more attractive
in practice, but it carries risk if the documentation trail is not
watertight.
Need more than a check-in report
Mr Frome said: “It is not enough for a check-in report to exist.
“Incoming tenants must have access to it, understand it and explicitly agree
to it.
“Without that, there is a real risk that responsibility becomes blurred,
which can lead to disputes further down the line.”
That means keeping a clear, dated record confirming that each incoming
tenant has been provided with and has agreed to the original check-in
report.
Without that evidence, assigning responsibility for damage or deterioration
becomes significantly harder.
More tenancy disputes predicted
mydeposits also anticipates an increase in disputes, particularly in shared
properties.
Where the tenancy rolls on but the occupants change, arguments can arise
over exactly when damage occurred and who was present at the time.
Problems that might previously have come to light and been resolved at
check-out may now surface during the tenancy itself, without the structured
endpoint that historically allowed them to be addressed.
Mr Frome said: “Disputes are not always just between landlord and tenant.
“In shared households, disagreements between tenants themselves are not
uncommon.”
He added: “As tenant swaps become more frequent, so too does the likelihood
of these situations arising, particularly if processes are not clearly
followed.
“Tenant swaps will become a routine part of managing tenancies in a periodic
system
“Clear documentation and tenant agreement will be key to avoiding disputes
and protecting both agents and landlords.”
Landlords need to be wary
The managing director of Accommodation for Students, Simon Thompson, said:
“With the Renters’ Rights Act abolishing fixed-term agreements, it also
means removing the natural checkpoint landlords have relied upon to assess
the property’s condition.
“With periodic tenancies rolling forward indefinitely, every swap of one
tenant for another must now be managed without any built-in moment of reset,
placing the entire burden of proof on whatever paperwork exists at the time
of change.”
He added: “As mydeposits make clear, a check-in report alone offers no
protection unless the incoming occupant has visibly received it, understood
the contents and formally confirmed agreement to the condition described.
“Shared properties carry the greatest exposure, as damage or deterioration
can go unattributed across multiple occupancy changes, making it
progressively harder to establish who was responsible and at what point
problems arose.”
