Selling a house with a tenant in it after the Renters' Rights Act

Until 1 May 2026, a landlord who wanted to sell would usually serve a Section 21 notice and market the house empty. That route has gone. What replaced it is workable, but it runs on a longer clock and has firm conditions. Here is how the choice looks now.

If you let a house in Tunbridge Wells and have decided to sell, you have two routes. You can sell with the tenant in place, or you can regain possession and sell the house empty. They suit different houses, different tenancies and different timetables, and the Renters’ Rights Act has changed the cost of the second.

The two routes

Selling with the tenant in place means the tenancy simply carries on. The rent continues until completion, the tenant keeps their home, and the buyer becomes the landlord. There is no possession notice and no court claim, and no gap between tenants. The buyer, as new landlord, has to tell the tenant in writing, and the deposit has to be handled properly in the sale; your solicitor will cover both.

Regaining possession first means using a statutory ground to end the tenancy, waiting for the tenant to leave, and then selling a vacant house. It opens the sale to every kind of buyer. It also means a wait, a void, and rules that bite if the order of events is wrong.

What a tenanted sale does to your buyers

A buyer who wants to live in the house cannot move in on completion, because somebody else already lives there. That tends to leave buyers who want a rented home as it stands, typically investors. A smaller pool can mean less competition for the house, which is worth bearing in mind when you set the price.

We will not quote a discount here, because there is no honest single figure. It depends on the house, the tenancy, the rent and who is buying. What an investor looks at is the tenancy as much as the building: how long it has run, how the rent compares with the market, and whether the paperwork is in order. A valuation that prices both routes is the useful number.

Regaining possession: the selling ground

The Act’s route is Ground 1A. In outline, and as set out in GOV.UK’s guidance on grounds for possession:

• It is a mandatory ground. If you prove you intend to sell, and the procedure was followed correctly, the court must make a possession order.
• The notice is four months. It goes on Form 3A, and must set out the ground and your reasons for relying on it.
• It cannot be used in the first 12 months of a tenancy. You may serve notice earlier, but the date in it must fall after those 12 months are up.
• The deposit rules must have been met.GOV.UK says the court will only make an order if the deposit was protected in an approved scheme and the prescribed information given, or the deposit has been returned, or the tenant’s challenge has been dealt with.
• It is not available for every tenancy. GOV.UK says it cannot be used where the tenancy was an assured tenancy, not a shorthold, created before 1 May 2026.

If the tenant has not left when the notice ends, you apply to the court. GOV.UK lists evidence of your intention to sell as something you may need to show, and gives proof that you have instructed an estate agent as an example. A tenant can also end their own tenancy on two months’ notice, so some will leave before your notice runs out. Our Renters’ Rights Act guide for landlords covers the wider changes.

The twelve months afterwards

Once you rely on the selling ground, the Act generally bars you from letting the property, or marketing it to let, for a restricted period. Going by the Act’s explanatory notes, that period starts when the notice is served and ends twelve months after the date in the notice as the earliest day proceedings can begin. The twelve months are counted from the date in the notice, not from the day the tenant actually leaves.

Viewings with a tenant in the house

The house is still the tenant’s home, and the law treats it that way. GOV.UK says a landlord must give at least 24 hours’ notice of access and visit at a reasonable time of day, unless it is an emergency. That guidance is about inspections and repairs; it gives no right to bring buyers in. Treat every viewing as something the tenant has to agree to, and give them notice.

In practice that makes the tenant the most important person in a tenanted sale. A few habits help: agree viewing windows in writing, keep to them, group viewings rather than spreading them across the week, and do the photography and floorplan once, early, rather than asking for repeat visits.

Which route suits which landlord

Questions that usually settle it:

• How long has the tenancy run? Inside its first year, the date in your notice must still fall after the first 12 months.
• Is the sale certain? If your plans could change, weigh the re-letting restriction above before relying on the selling ground.
• Do you need the widest possible market? Buyers who want to live in the house need it empty.
• Do you need the timing to be firm? Regaining possession depends on the tenant leaving or on the court.
• Is the tenancy good? A long-standing tenant paying the rent on time is an asset to the right buyer.

Whether to sell at all, or hold and let, is a different question. We cover it in should I sell or let, and the sell-or-let guide puts the figures side by side.

Before you serve anything

The notice is a legal document, and an error in it can delay or sink a possession claim. Have a solicitor check the dates and the form before it is served, and ask an accountant what a sale will mean for your tax position. Both are advice about your own case, which an article cannot give.

Book a valuation when you are ready, and tell us the house has a tenant in it. We can then talk through both routes with the facts of your tenancy in front of us.