hi,
I'm hoping someone can offer some guidance towards a problem that might arise.

My son is renting a flat at the moment,and is out of the tenancy aggreement, due to the landlord putting the flat up for sale.
If and when the flat is sold, will he have any rights to stay until he find's somewhere? or can he in theory be kicked out as soon as the other party exchanges contracts and be asked to leave.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Petralva,

My pleasure, and that is my understanding of the shrthold tenancy law, but the other sources will know for sure.

As he knows the landlord, perhaps they can come to some sort of agreement?

The agreement does not rollover for another similar period. It turns into something called a statutory assured shorthold tenancy, which effectively has the same terms as the original tenancy except that the landlord needs to give the tenant two months' notice to expire on a rent day, whereas the tenant leaving needs to give one months' notice, again expiring on a rent day.

There are however some differences in certain unusual cases, e.g. if the rent is paid weekly rather than monthly, so the suggestion to get advice from the CAB (or there is plenty of info on the web) is a good one.

The landlord can sell the property with a tenant in residence although of course most sales are with vacant possession and the landlord would be in serious problems if he did not manage to obtain it by the day of completion. For this reason most landlords would negotiate a free month or two at the end or whatever to try to ensure the tenant left, but there is certainly no right to compensation. Most sales take two months or more from the time the price is agreed so I would suspect that the landlord is relying on the good relationship with the tenant.

Kayak,

Well done, I hoped you would spot this thread.

If your son is happy in the place, do as a pall of my daughter's did negotiate for a free or reduced rent, just for keeping the place clean and tidy, and allowing them to look around the place, (at short notice). Your son still has the right to ask for notice if the landlord or anyone enters His rent paid up home.