Tenants care about being able to stay in a rented property if their landlord sells up, online property marketplace, Vesta Property has found.
In contrast the research claimed that tenants don’t care about who their landlord is or locking into a long-term tenancy.
Some 75% of renters said they wouldn’t care if their landlord sold as long as their existing contract and rent remained the same and four out of five tenants (78%) said that they want the option to stay in their homes even if their landlord sells.
Russell Gould, chief executive, Vesta Property, said: “Discussions such as enforcing three-year tenancies have raised strong reactions from both landlords and tenants who do not want to have their hands tied.
“This is not to say that tenants do not want to stay in their homes - far from it. But the answer is not to make the system more rigid, it is to move with the times and mould it into something that works for both landlords and tenants alike.
“If a landlord needs to sell their property they should absolutely have the right to do that within a time frame that suits them and ideally without losing rental income. But equally, their settled tenants should not suffer and lose their home because of it.
“Nor do they need to. The practice of advising a landlord to evict tenants in order to sell a property is outdated. New models like Vesta offering tenant in place sale and purchase, satisfy both the needs of tenants who want to keep their home and landlords or investors who wish to sell or buy.”
Over three quarters of renters (79%) thought it was ridiculous for a landlord to evict a settled tenant simply for the new landlord to replace them.
This practice hurts the landlord, with landlords expected to lose £550m each year in lost rental income due to early eviction, the void during the selling and purchase process, and the delays in finding a new tenant when a property is purchased.
Nearly one in nine tenants have been forced to leave their home before they are ready due to a change in ownership, with many of these people suffering financially or mentally due to being evicted prematurely. This increases to one in five tenants in the 25-34 year old bracket.
