FAQ
Top 10 Questions About Selling a Tenanted Flat
Letting out a flat and want to sell it? The Renters' Rights Act changed the rules on 1 May 2026, and this page answers the questions landlords now ask most. Sell with the tenant in place or empty, how Ground 1A replaces section 21, what happens to the deposit and the rent, the freeholder, the tax and which route suits. The answers reflect the law in England as it stands in 2026.
Tenanted Flat Sales: The Full Picture
Selling a flat you let out used to be simple. You served a section 21 notice, waited two months and sold with vacant possession. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 ended that on 1 May 2026. Section 21 has gone, and every tenancy is now a periodic assured tenancy, which means it rolls on month to month with no fixed end date. A landlord who wants the flat empty in order to sell now has to use a specific legal ground, with a longer notice, a waiting period and a penalty for changing their mind. The other option, selling with the tenant still in place, has always existed and is now the quicker one.
This page works through the ten questions landlords ask most. Our guide to the steps to take when selling a tenanted flat walks through the sale itself, including how to serve the notice. The fourteen tenanted flat mistakes cover the traps, and renting out your leasehold flat covers what your lease says about letting.
Sell Flat UK is a cash buying company. We buy with vacant possession, so where a flat is tenanted we agree the sale early and complete on the day the tenant leaves. Selling to an investor with the tenant in place is often the better route, and where it is, this page says so. This guide is general information, not legal, financial or tax advice. Ground 1A is new and the first contested cases are only now reaching the courts, so talk to a solicitor before you serve anything.
1. Can I Sell the Flat With the Tenant Still Living in It?
Yes. The flat is sold subject to the tenancy. The buyer becomes the landlord on completion, and the tenant's rights, rent and deposit carry on exactly as before. There is no notice to serve and no waiting period. A tenanted sale can be agreed this week and completed as soon as the legal work allows. The tenant does not have to agree to the sale, but you will need their cooperation over viewings and a valuation.
The buyer will be an investor, because an owner-occupier cannot move into a flat with a tenant in it. Investors price a flat by its yield: the yearly rent as a percentage of the price. That is why a tenanted sale fetches less. Fewer people are bidding, and they are buying an income rather than a home. A reliable tenant paying a market rent makes the flat attractive. A low rent fixed years ago, or a tenant in arrears, makes it attractive only at a lower price.
Selling tenanted suits a landlord who wants out with no gap in rent, who has a good tenant they would rather not disturb, or who cannot wait the months that vacant possession now takes. It is also the only way to sell in the first year of a tenancy without the tenant's help, as the Further FAQs explain.
2. Can I Still Serve a Section 21 Notice to Sell?
No. Section 21 was the no-fault notice that let a landlord end a tenancy with two months' notice and no reason. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 abolished it in England on 1 May 2026. Assured shorthold tenancies went with it. Every existing tenancy became a periodic assured tenancy on that date, and fixed terms no longer exist. A section 21 notice served now has no effect. A landlord who tries to use one, or who pressures a tenant to leave without a valid ground, risks a civil penalty from the council.
In its place, the Act gives landlords a list of specific grounds for possession, served on a section 8 notice. The ground for selling is Ground 1A, which the next question covers. It is a mandatory ground: if the landlord proves a genuine intention to sell, the court must grant possession. What has changed from section 21 is the time it takes, the evidence it needs and the restriction that follows.
Outside England the rules are different. Wales has its own system under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, and Scotland has the private residential tenancy. The Further FAQs set out the main differences.
3. How Does Ground 1A Work, and How Long Does It Take?
Ground 1A is the possession ground for a landlord who intends to sell. You serve a section 8 notice on the current prescribed form, naming the ground and giving at least four months' notice. The ground cannot take effect in the first twelve months of a tenancy. So for a recent letting, the earliest the notice can expire is the one-year point. If the tenant has not left when the notice expires, you apply to the county court for a possession order. If they still do not leave, you apply for bailiffs.
The timings add up. The notice itself runs four months. If the tenant leaves at the end of it, you can market the flat empty and complete a sale to a cash buying company within weeks, or to a mortgage buyer in three to six months. If the tenant stays, allow eight to sixteen weeks for a court hearing, a few weeks more for the order, and longer again if bailiffs are needed. A fully contested case therefore takes seven to nine months from notice to possession. Most tenants leave during the notice period, and most of the rest leave once the order is made.
The court will want proof that you genuinely mean to sell: a valuation, an agent's instruction or an agreed sale, and letters from your solicitor. Keep all of it. A landlord found to have used the ground without meaning to sell faces a civil penalty and, in serious cases, prosecution. Our process guide covers how to draft and serve the notice and what to keep on file, and the government's guide to the Renters' Rights Act is the official reference for the ground.
4. If I Serve Notice to Sell, Can I Change My Mind?
Not without consequences. Once a Ground 1A notice has been served, the flat cannot be let to a new tenant until twelve months after the notice expires. For a standard four-month notice, that is about sixteen months from the day you serve it, and it runs whether or not the tenant leaves early. Re-let inside that window and you breach the Act. The civil penalty is up to £7,000, rising to £40,000 or prosecution for a repeated or continuing breach.
Serving the notice is therefore a commitment to sell. If the sale falls through, you can put the flat back on the market but you cannot re-let it. Should the market turn and you would rather keep the flat as a rental, you have to wait out the restriction. Decide the route first. Get a firm idea of what the flat will fetch empty and what it will fetch tenanted, and only then serve.
The tenant is not tied in the same way. They can leave at any point during the notice period, on their own two months' notice or by agreeing a leaving date with you in writing. Many do once they know the flat is being sold. That brings the sale forward, but it does not shorten the no-relet period.
5. Tenanted or Vacant: Which Gets Me More Money?
Vacant, usually, but by less than the headline figure once you count the months. An empty flat can be sold to owner-occupiers as well as investors, so it fetches full market value. A tenanted flat sells to investors only, and they work backwards from the rent. A flat yielding 5 percent on £1,500 a month is worth about £360,000 to an investor, whatever an owner-occupier would pay. If that is below market value, the gap is your discount. In London, where rents are low against prices, the gap can be 10 to 20 percent. Where rents are strong against prices, it can be small or nothing.
Against that, the vacant route costs time and money. Four months' notice at best, longer if the tenant stays, then marketing, then the sale itself. The rent carries on while the tenant is in the flat, but it stops the day they leave, and from then until completion the flat earns nothing. You still pay the service charge, ground rent, insurance and any mortgage through that gap, and you carry the risk that prices move. A landlord with a £1,500 rent who takes five months from the tenant leaving to completion has given up £7,500 in rent, plus the running costs.
Do the sums for your own flat. Get an investor valuation and an owner-occupier valuation. Take the lost rent and holding costs off the vacant figure, and compare. Where the two land close together, the tenanted sale wins on certainty. Where the flat would appeal to first-time buyers and the rent is low, waiting for vacant possession is worth it. Our pricing mistakes guide covers the valuation side.
6. Do I Have to Tell the Tenant, and How Do Viewings Work?
No law says you must tell the tenant you are marketing the flat. But you cannot sell it without them finding out, and a tenant who hears from the agent, or from a stranger at the door, stops cooperating. Tell them early, in person if you can, and explain what it means for them. On a tenanted sale, nothing changes except the name on the rent demand. On a vacant sale, there is a notice period and a timetable.
Access is where it gets practical. Most tenancy agreements let the landlord show the flat to buyers once notice has been served, with reasonable notice, usually 24 hours in writing. The tenant's right to quiet enjoyment still applies: that is their legal right to live in the flat undisturbed. You cannot let yourself in or send an agent round without their agreement. A tenant who refuses viewings cannot be made to allow them without a court order, and no seller wants to go that far. Most tenants will agree to a few block viewings at times that suit them, especially if you offer something back: a rent reduction for the marketing weeks, help with moving costs or a good reference.
Photographs are the other sore point. Ask before the agent arrives, let the tenant tidy away anything personal, and keep their belongings out of the listing where you can. A tenant treated with courtesy will usually keep the flat presentable for the two months it takes to find a buyer. One who feels pushed will not.
7. What Happens to the Deposit, the Rent and the Tenancy on Completion?
On a tenanted sale, all three pass to the buyer. The tenancy carries on, on the same terms, with the buyer as landlord. The rent is adjusted on the completion statement: you keep rent up to completion day and the buyer takes it from then. If the tenant has paid a month in advance, the buyer is credited with the unused part. Any arrears are dealt with in the contract, either passed to the buyer to collect or kept by you to pursue.
The deposit needs active handling. It stays protected, but it must either be transferred into the buyer's name with the deposit scheme, or returned to the tenant and taken afresh by the buyer. Either way the tenant must be given the scheme's prescribed information again, with the new landlord's details. A deposit left in the old landlord's name causes the buyer trouble later, when they try to end the tenancy and find the paperwork is wrong. Expect the buyer's solicitor to insist it is sorted as part of completion.
Within two months of completion the tenant must also be told in writing who the new landlord is, as the Further FAQs explain. On a vacant sale none of this arises. The tenancy ends when the tenant leaves, you return the deposit through the scheme, less any agreed deductions, and you hand over an empty flat on completion day. Our guide to completion day covers the rest.
8. Did I Need the Freeholder's Permission to Let, and Does It Affect the Sale?
Check the lease. Most long leases allow you to let the whole flat, but with conditions: notice to the freeholder, a registration fee, a copy of the tenancy agreement, and sometimes the freeholder's written consent in advance. Some leases ban short lets, or lets under six months. A few ban letting altogether. If you let without meeting the conditions, you are in breach of the lease. The breach surfaces in the management pack when you sell, because the freeholder is asked whether they know of any.
A breach does not stop a sale, but it needs putting right. The usual fix is to serve the notice and pay the fee late, or to ask the freeholder for consent after the event. Tell your solicitor before you contact the freeholder. An indemnity policy, which is insurance against the freeholder taking action over the breach, may be the cheaper route, and contacting the freeholder first can rule it out. A buyer who plans to keep letting the flat will want to know the lease allows it, so the letting clause affects the price on a tenanted sale in its own right.
The rest of the leasehold work is the same as any flat sale: the management pack from the freeholder or managing agent, service charge and ground rent paid up to completion day and taken over by the buyer from then, and any major works disclosed. Our guides to renting out your leasehold flat and selling with a no-subletting clause go into the detail.
9. Will I Pay Capital Gains Tax When I Sell?
Usually, yes. A flat you let out is not your main home, so the rise in its value since you bought it is taxable. For 2026/27 the rates on residential property are 18 percent on any part of the gain within your unused basic-rate band and 24 percent above that, after the £3,000 annual exempt amount. The gain is the sale price, less what you paid, less the costs of buying and selling, less any improvements. If the flat was your main home at some point, private residence relief takes those years out of the gain, plus the last nine months you owned it.
Two timing points catch landlords out. The date of disposal for capital gains tax is the day contracts are exchanged, not completion, so exchange decides which tax year the gain falls in. And the tax must be reported and paid within 60 days of completion, on a separate online return. It cannot be left to the January self-assessment deadline, and late returns carry penalties.
If you own the flat jointly, each owner has their own allowance and their own band. A couple can sometimes save tax by transferring a share before exchange. That needs advice before you agree a sale, not after. Our guide to capital gains tax when selling a flat has a worked example and the full list of deductible costs.
10. Which Way of Selling Suits a Tenanted Flat?
The route follows the decision in question 5. If you are selling tenanted, you need buyers who want an income. If you are selling vacant, you need the flat empty first, and then any buyer will do.
Estate agency sale
For a vacant sale, this is the usual route and the one that reaches owner-occupiers. For a tenanted sale, choose an agent with investors on their books rather than a family-homes agent, and ask which tenanted flats they have sold in the last year. Your letting agent may offer to sell the flat. Some are good at it and some are not, so judge them on their sales record, not on the fact they already know the tenant. Our guide to choosing an estate agent covers the questions to ask.
Auction
Tenanted flats sell well at auction. The room is mostly investors who buy on yield and expect a tenant in place. The sale is binding when the hammer falls and completes on a fixed date, usually within 28 days. The legal pack needs the tenancy documents as well as the leasehold ones, and the price is whatever the bidding reaches. See our auction guide.
Direct sale to a cash buying company
Most buying companies, including us, buy with vacant possession only. So this route runs alongside the Ground 1A process rather than instead of it. The advantage is certainty. We agree the price before you serve notice, so you know what you will get, and we complete within days of the tenant leaving rather than starting to market at that point. The price is below market value, typically 15 to 30 percent below. In return there is no agent's fee, no public viewings to negotiate with the tenant, and no risk of a buyer withdrawing after months of waiting. Some companies advertise that they buy tenanted flats. Check them carefully: a few drop out at conveyancing or ask for vacant possession after all. Our quick-sale company mistakes guide explains what to ask.
Whichever route you take, settle the tenant question first and in writing: tenanted or vacant, and if vacant, when the notice goes in. Everything else in the sale follows from that.
Related Reading
The tenanted process guide sets out the sale from start to finish, including serving the notice. The fourteen tenanted flat mistakes cover the traps, and renting out your leasehold flat covers what your lease says about letting.
Further FAQs
Three sets. The conveyancing file every sale needs: the title documents and the TA6, TA7 and TA10 property forms. The leasehold management pack from the freeholder or managing agent, covering the service charge, ground rent, buildings insurance and any planned works. And the landlord file: the tenancy agreement and any changes to it, the deposit protection certificate and the prescribed information given to the tenant, the current gas safety certificate, the electrical safety report (EICR), the energy performance certificate, the right-to-rent check and the rent payment history.
Gaps in the landlord file are the usual cause of delay on a tenanted sale, so gather it before you go to market. An investor's solicitor will ask for all of it. A missing deposit certificate or gas record is a price negotiation waiting to happen.
You can still sell. An investor will buy with arrears in place, at a price that reflects them. The right to recover the arrears can pass to the buyer or stay with you, whichever the contract says. If you would rather have the flat empty, serious arrears give you a separate possession ground. Ground 8 is mandatory where the tenant owes at least three months' rent both when the notice is served and at the hearing, and it needs four weeks' notice rather than four months.
Keep a clean rent statement from the start of the tenancy. It is the first thing a buyer, a court or a mediator will ask for.
Yes, and it is worth asking. A sitting tenant knows the flat, has no chain and saves you the cost and delay of marketing. The sale runs like any other: they need a mortgage offer or cash, you each instruct a solicitor, and the tenancy ends on completion because they become the owner. Price it at market value, less a modest allowance for the agent's fee you are not paying. Agree a timetable in writing, so the tenancy does not drift on if their mortgage falls through.
A tenant has no legal right of first refusal. If they decline or cannot proceed, you are free to sell to someone else.
Tenanted, yes, at any time: the tenancy simply passes to the buyer. Vacant, only if the tenant chooses to leave. Ground 1A cannot take effect in the first 12 months of a tenancy, so a notice served at month eight cannot expire before month twelve. In practice most landlords serve at or after the one-year point. A tenant can give their own two months' notice at any time, and some will if you explain the position and give them time to find somewhere.
For a flat let within the last year, the choice is usually between selling tenanted now and waiting until a Ground 1A notice can bite.
No. The Act and Ground 1A apply in England only. Wales has its own system under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. Most Welsh tenants hold an occupation contract, and a landlord who wants to sell needs a six-month no-fault notice, which cannot be served in the first six months. Scotland uses private residential tenancies under its own law, with its own grounds and notice periods. The leasehold parts of this page, such as the freeholder's consent and the management pack, apply in England and Wales. Scotland has no comparable leasehold system.
If the flat is outside England, take advice on the local rules before serving anything.
Yes. Within two months of completion, the tenant must be told in writing the name and address of the new landlord. This is a legal duty under section 3 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Until it is done, you stay liable alongside the new owner for the landlord's obligations. The buyer's solicitor usually sends the letter, but check that it goes. The letter should also say where the deposit is now held and which account the rent should go to.
A short, friendly note from you to the tenant on completion day, confirming the handover and thanking them, costs nothing and makes the buyer's first month easier.