Terminating a tenancy -sale of rented dwelling.

[Meath Lady]

Good morning.
I am about to start this process to sell a rented dwelling.
I am assuming that it is in order to have the statutory declaration signed at any time before serving the NOT and that it doesn't have to be signed on the day of serving the NOT.
Can anyone who has done this confirm as want to be certain everything is done correctly.

 

[Greenbook]

Honestly, I'd advise going to a solicitor. As far as I know everything - statutory declaration and the notice to the tenant - must be signed and served on the tenant on the same day. Copies of those two documents and a form (available from the RTB website) must then be sent to the RTB on the same day as well by post or email.

The RTB website is a good place to start. The notices and statutory declarations are there with some guidance.

But do be careful, they have made this as difficult as possible so that the ordinary person will get something wrong. I don't personally think that existing tenancies are converting to 6 year or permanent tenancies in March 2026, but you never know and more and more people seem to be saying that this is the case. So you don't want to get the paperwork wrong here and find that you've missed the boat.

 

[Meath Lady]

Thanks Greenbook
I have downloaded the forms and am aware that notices to tenants and rtb must be served the same day.
However it is not clear to me (but I am totally confused at this stage) if that declaration also needs to be signed on that particular day or can it be done beforehand.

Also wondering if there are 3 apartments in the one house do I need 3 individual declarations or will 1 which is copied suffice.
I have taken your previous advice and made an appointment with a solicitor who is well versed on housing issues etc. However he then cancelled appointment returned upfront money and said it would be unfair to proceed with advice as everything was on the rtb site.
Maybe my best bet is to email rtb.
In the meantime anyone else who has done the statutory declaring can you advise please.

 

[DannyBoyD]

that declaration also needs to be signed on that particular day or can it be done beforehand.

Beforehand is fine, as long as its within a reasonable timeframe, that week say.

Also wondering if there are 3 apartments in the one house do I need 3 individual declarations or will 1 which is copied suffice.

If you have three tenants, I would serve notice to each tenant.

Maybe my best bet is to email rtb.

They'll just copy and paste from the website at best.

In the meantime anyone else who has done the statutory declaring can you advise please.

IANAL

The above is the approach I have taken.

My bit of advice is to add at least two more weeks to your notice period; use several methods of delivery if you think your tenants will act the maggot.

It is courtesy in my view to speak to your tenants first & let them know what is happening, that its 6 months notice & that the paper work will follow. At the end of the day, they are losing their home, a bit of empathy will go a long way.

Yes your tenants could bring a complaint to the RTB, but unless you've acted egregiously the worst outcome is that the RTB will tell you your notice was incorrect. In which case you correct it & start again.

Whilst that will cost you time; in the current market your sale price will likely have increased.

The biggest risk, in my view, is that your tenants will stop paying the rent during the notice period. So keep up your checks & inspection routine.

IANAL

 

[Meath Lady]

Thanks DannyBoy.
Situation is a big house with 3 individual apartments in it. A 4 bed with 4 tenants , a 3 bed with 3 tenants and a 2 bed with 2 tenants.
So do u mean serve 9 notices or 3 notices?
Is 1 statutory declaration sufficient and copy it to each apartment or should I do 3 statutory declarations.

I have already spoken with the tenants and told them I will be issuing a termination notice in the coming week and they are currently ok with this as have time to relocate
I am more than happy to give them six months plus a week or 2.

Problem today is one tenant from the 4 bed wishes to now move in the coming weeks, where does this leave the 3 she shares with. It is one rent in total for the 4 bed.
I know this is difficult for the tenants as they had hoped to stay but at least it is not a family. It is also a difficult decision for us but feel the time has come before any further government interference.

 

[DannyBoyD]

So this is what I would do.

1. No one new moves in as of today.

2. If people leave voluntarily between now & D-Day, thats fine - let them go.

3. If you were collecting rents on an individual basis, you will be at a loss for that rent. Nothing you can do I'm afraid.

As regards notice - this is what I understand from your post:

You have three registered (with RTB) properties.

Each of those properties must be served their own notice, with their own declaration (don't photocopy).

Each notice should be addressed to the tenants per your RTB registration so everything matches up.

one tenant from the 4 bed wishes to now move in the coming weeks, where does this leave the 3 she shares with. It is one rent in total for the 4 bed.

Is the person leaving your registered tenant or a sharer?

 

[Meath Lady]

The person leaving is registered along with 2 others in that property and a 4th person that moved in unknowns to us when another tenant left without notifying us.
However I notified rtb of the 4th person leaving and being replaced by another. So all 4 are currently known to Rtb.

Whilst we clearly have it on the tenancy that subletting is not permitted without our written consent it continually occurs as the tenant leaving just wants their deposit back and swaps over with another without our consent and the remaining tenants are happy enough cos I guess it means they don't have to vacate.

I suppose we should then probably serve a notice for breach of lease but we never have as we generally feel we are putting 3 tenants out plus the 4th who has just moved in to move in 4 new people if you get my drift.

I will get 3 declarations next week and serve them.

On point 3 above we do not collect rent individually for each person just per apartment. So if 1 person leaves and I don't permit a sublet which I intend not to is it reasonable to expect them to pay all the rent.
It was not let individually originally and 1 monthly rent is paid in full for all 4 not 4 individual rents.
On another note if they don't pay the full rent between 3 rather than 4 I guess I can in the meantime serve a different ntq for arrears although I would prefer not to.

Thanks for your help I appreciate it and always good to have another opinion.

 

[Greenbook]

On point 3 above we do not collect rent individually for each person just per apartment. So if 1 person leaves and I don't permit a sublet which I intend not to is it reasonable to expect them to pay all the rent.

I think this might be risky if your lease doesn't clearly say that the tenants are jointly responsible for the entire rent.

I know you'll be down money, but as you'll want them to go as quickly and as quietly as possible, it may be better to swallow the loss. If you get in a fight with them over the fourth person's rent, it may encourage them to take a case to the RTB. They are at no loss even if the case they take is a spurious one.

 

[DannyBoyD]

don't permit a sublet which I intend not to is it reasonable to expect them to pay all the rent.

If you do what seems fair, on the face of it, i.e. accept 3/4 rent until the termination date, the difficulty arises where you might have 2 or even 1 tenant left paying 25% of the rent happily occupying a 4 bed property.

If they refuse to vacate, you then have a 2 year process to get them out.

I recently was offered such a property to purchase with tenant in situ; so its not that rare.

So, you need to stick with the expectation of the full rent for the property; you cannot add a new tenant as you have given notice.