UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello! Hoping to get some advice, as I haven't been able to find any information online specific to my situation.

I have three tenants on separate ASTs. My new mortgage provider wants the tenants to move onto a joint and severally liable AST. All my tenants are happy with this. I've been told it would be best to draw up a replacement joint AST covering the same dates as the existing separate ASTs - so backdated - and have the tenants sign this. They are happy to do this, but I just want to double check that it is ok to backdate an AST like this?

Any help appreciated!

I would avoid this if I were you, it is one thing to allow a follow on Tenancy to be backdated (which I would also avoid), but quite another to have four separate contracts run at the same time.

What if there was a failure to protect the deposit, the new Tenancy would not void the liability.

The best solution is to create a new contract that specifies it ends the previous contracts as specified on Page Z and set the end of the term to be what it was before.

There is no minimum term, just minimum periods for serving notices and the period of such notices, so just write the new contract and be clear. 

You will need to inform the Deposit Protection Scheme of what you have done so that their details match the Tenancy, this is critical on insurance based protection or it will be void, depending on the terms of the scheme.

Quote from: David on November 01, 2023, 04:51:38 PMThe best solution is to create a new contract that specifies it ends the previous contracts as specified on Page Z and set the end of the term to be what it was before.

That only ends the contract(s), but not the original tenancies.