What to do if your tenant hands in their notice to leave your property
As a landlord, it's easy to start to feel comfortable with your tenants very quickly.
They are happy, friendly people that are looking after the property.
They pay their rent every month without fail.
You're used to receiving that rental payment from your agent each month and have come to rely on the income.
And then, the tenants get in touch to say that they are leaving!
Panic!
What if you can't find another tenant?
What if you can’t find another tenant as good as this one?
What if you lose that regular income each month?
First, if your tenant decides to leave, you absolutely can't stop them, regardless of their reason.
It may be worth asking them if there's anything that you could do to make them stay.
But, if they're resolute and have given you their moving out date, you have to let them go.
A month or two without rental income is far from ideal for a landlord as it can take years to recover that lost income.
So, what should you do to mitigate these losses?
As with all things like this, preparation is key.
Timing: If you wait for the current tenants to vacate before you start searching for a new tenant, you risk being without income for at least a few months.
Your new tenant will be ready to move in quickly after the old tenant vacates the property in a perfect world. But to pull this off requires a military level of precision.
You need to have the property back on the market and viewings/references conducted BEFORE the outgoing tenancy expires.
However, don't be tempted to rush the moving in date too much. There needs to be enough time to carry out the check out thoroughly and deal with any potential repairs or maintenance before you can move the new tenant in.
Photography/marketing: To remarket the property, you’ll need to have marketing materials prepared. The gold standard would be to hold excellent marketing and photography on file, taken BETWEEN tenancies. That way, there are no furnishings belonging to past tenants, and you're not trying to renew photos whilst a tenant's also trying to pack up and move out.
If you don't have this, perhaps ask your tenants if it'd be possible to take some photographs before they begin packing to get the property on the market. But then, once the tenants have moved out, update them so that you have a set of good quality images of the property for future remarketing.
Access for viewings: You’ll need to access the property for potential new tenants to view. This is quite invasive for the existing tenants and will require some finesse and collaboration.
In my experience, it's best to limit the number of visits and book as many viewers in one sitting as possible. So perhaps you arrange to hold viewings on a Tuesday afternoon - booking potential tenants in at 10-minute intervals. Rather than booking appointments for every day of the week which would be very irritating and unsettling for your current tenants. They may decide to prevent access for viewings until they've moved out, which they can do if they wish.
This would be bad news for you. If you can't carry out viewings until the tenants have moved out, you won't be receiving any rental income for at least an additional month whilst marketing takes place. After a tenant is selected, they must be referenced and will likely have a month's notice to give to their current landlord. This will mean that you'll miss 2 months' income. And then, there will be fees to pay the agent for all of their work in marketing, referencing and preparing the legal paperwork to move the new tenant in. This will probably mean that you miss out on up to 3 months' income.
So you can see, the shorter you can make this time gap, the less money you will miss out on. Co-operation with your existing tenant is the key to getting a new tenant into referencing ASAP.
If your tenant has just given their notice and you are unsure what to do, contact our expert team today.