How to File the New-Landlord Notice After You Buy with Sitting Tenants
After buying with sitting tenants in England or Wales, file the assignment notice, the Act’s timing, and proof the deposit stayed protected.
Rental operations notes from the IziRento team. Not legal advice.
Key takeaways
After you complete a purchase in England or Wales with sitting tenants, you are the landlord and the tenancy continues. Give written notice of the assignment date, your name and address, and an address in England and Wales, in the time set by section 3(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. File the scheme’s confirmation that the deposit stayed protected, or a dated note if there was none. Put where future rent should be sent on that notice.
Completion has happened, and the tenant still has the seller’s name. The purchase file has no writing that states the assignment date (the completion date), the new landlord’s name and address, and an address in England and Wales at which notices may be served. Give that writing in the time set by section 3(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, then file the deposit scheme’s confirmation that the money stayed protected, or a dated note if there was no deposit. Where future rent should be sent is one line on the same notice.
Disclaimer: IziRento is operations software, not legal advice. Local tenancy rules vary; check a qualified adviser for binding decisions.
The notice the tenant does not have yet
On completion the buyer is the landlord and the tenancy continues, so these papers are a notice, not a new agreement. Section 3(3) of the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 makes the assignee bound by the landlord covenants and entitled to the benefit of the tenant covenants, except covenants that did not bind the seller immediately before, or that relate to premises not included. Shelter Legal, updated on 1 May 2026, says no new agreement is required. These rules are for tenancies, not licences. This notice is for England and Wales.
There is no prescribed form. The writing states the completion date, the new landlord’s name and address, and an address in England and Wales at which notices, including notices in proceedings, may be served. Section 3(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires notice of the assignment and of that name and address. Section 48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 requires the address for service. Use the same address in both places only when the landlord’s own address is already in England and Wales. If that address is outside England and Wales, section 48 still requires one in England and Wales.
Until that address is given, section 48(2) treats rent, service charge, or administration charge as not due. Shelter Legal says rent is not lawfully due until the address is provided, and that it becomes due once the details are given. A mortgage or a charge is not this notice: section 3(4)(b) counts a conveyance and excludes a mortgage or charge.
The buyer still gives the notice. A message from the seller does not replace it. Section 3(3) of the 1985 Act makes failure without reasonable excuse a summary offence, with a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale. The subsection states no pound figure. Until the new name and address are notified, the old landlord can remain liable for breaches in the gap. The old landlord’s notice can end that liability, and it is not the subsection (1) notice.
If trustees are the new landlord, section 3(2) allows a collective description of the trustees as the name, and the address from which the trust’s affairs are conducted. Changing which individuals are the trustees is then not an assignment. First protection of a deposit, the tenant’s notice that ends the tenancy, and an export from a letting agent’s portal are other files.
The timing in section 3(1)
Section 3(1) comes before any date in a diary. The sentence depends on the next day on which rent is payable, and on whether that day falls within two months of the assignment.
Keep the Act’s timing sentence
Section 3(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires written notice of the assignment and of the new landlord’s name and address, given “not later than the next day on which rent is payable under the tenancy or, if that is within two months of the assignment, the end of that period of two months.” Keep that sentence. Do not replace it with “within two months”. The section states no fee, and it states no pound figure for level 4 on the standard scale.
Where rent is payable on the 1st and completion was on 9 October, the next day rent is payable is 1 November. That day is within two months of the assignment, so the sentence points to the end of that period of two months, not to 1 November. Where no rent day falls in those two months, the sentence names that next rent day.
The purchase file, in order
Section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 requires a tenancy deposit to be dealt with under an authorised scheme from the time it is received, and the initial requirements and the prescribed information (the deposit details given to the tenant) within 30 days beginning with the date the landlord receives the deposit. GOV.UK names the England and Wales schemes as the Deposit Protection Service, mydeposits (including deposits that were held by Capita), and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. The 30 days run from receipt. They are not a fee, and completion does not restart them when the money never left the scheme.
If the scheme asks for the prescribed information again, keep a copy and use the prescribed-information form. Future rent is one line on the notice: the payee and the account. A template reviewed on 23 July 2026 keeps bank details optional and separate from the two addresses. A schedule of who paid which period is a different record.
Build the purchase-handoff file
Write the notice from the completion date
Put the completion date on the notice as the assignment date, with the new landlord’s name and address and an address in England and Wales for service of notices. Use one address for both only when the landlord’s address is already in England and Wales. A mortgage or a charge is not this notice.
Apply the sentence before you diary a date
Find the next day rent is payable. If that day is within two months of the assignment, the timing in the sentence is the end of that period of two months. If no rent is payable in that period, the timing is that next rent day. Give the notice in writing within the time that sentence names.
Give the writing and note how it was given
Section 3 requires the notice in writing. It does not prescribe how the writing is sent. Keep a copy, and a note of the way it was actually given.
File the scheme confirmation, or a note if there was no deposit
Ask the scheme which change-of-landlord path is its own, and file the confirmation that the money stayed protected. Deposit Protection Service custodial terms use a Change of Landlord Form, online or from the contact centre, and state no fee. DPS registers the change only when the receiving landlord is registered and holds a valid Landlord ID, then confirms it to the outgoing party, the incoming party, and the tenant. A Tenancy Deposit Scheme insured registration cannot move between insured accounts: the seller passes the deposit after the buyer registers it and can show the registration, and the new landlord tells the tenants where it is protected. On a custodial account the seller moves the record onto the buyer’s membership number. The scheme’s note states no fee. mydeposits requires the selling member to report the tenancy and the deposit, and states no fee. The member cannot unprotect early unless the tenant agrees in writing, the deposit was returned, or it was protected again. On an agent account, the June 2024 custodial amendments say to record the deposit again under the new landlord and request an email transfer at any time before release. The insured amendments add an email of the new protection reference so the old record can be unprotected, and a new membership on a sale. If no deposit was handed over, file a dated note, not a scheme certificate. Deposit money you receive that was never protected is first protection, and the 30 days run from that receipt.
Add one line for where future rent should be sent
Name the payee and the account for future rent. Past payments and any completion apportionment stay off the notice.
Stop when those papers are together
Stop once the notice, the note of how it was given, and the scheme confirmation or the no-deposit note are together. The tenancy continues. A possession notice stays off this file, and so does a renewal of the gas safety record, the electrical report, or the energy performance certificate.
Future rent is already named on the notice. IziRento stores the notice, the note of how it was given, and the scheme confirmation or the no-deposit note. It does not serve the notice or hold the deposit.
FAQ
What if completion was some time ago and no notice went out?
Give the section 3(1) writing now, with the real assignment date, the new landlord’s name and address, and an address in England and Wales for service. There is no second period and no fee for lateness. Failure without reasonable excuse remains the offence in section 3(3). The seller’s earlier message does not replace it, and until the new name and address are notified the old landlord can remain liable for breaches in the gap.
Who tells the deposit scheme, the buyer or the seller?
Whoever that scheme’s steps name. Shelter Legal says the seller should inform the scheme and the buyer should make sure the deposit stays protected. Deposit Protection Service confirms the change to both sides and the tenant once the receiving landlord has a Landlord ID. On a Tenancy Deposit Scheme custodial account the seller moves the record onto the buyer’s membership, and mydeposits expects the selling member to inform the scheme. The buyer files the confirmation either way.
What do I file if there is no deposit?
A dated note that none was handed over at completion. There is no scheme certificate to file. Money you later receive that was never protected belongs on the first-protection file, not in this note.
After buying with sitting tenants in England or Wales, file the assignment notice, the Act’s timing, and proof the deposit stayed protected.
Sources
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 3
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, section 48
- Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995, section 3
- Housing Act 2004, section 213
- Shelter Legal — Tenant’s rights when a landlord sells
- GOV.UK — Tenancy deposit protection
- DPS custodial terms and conditions
- TDS — Deposits when you buy or sell a tenanted property
- mydeposits scheme rules
- mydeposits custodial amendments, June 2024
- Landlord Guild — notice after purchase or assignment
Next steps
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This material is for information only and is not legal advice.