Scope: England, with the Welsh position flagged. In Wales the tenancy is an occupation contract and you must register with Rent Smart Wales before you become a landlord there. Verified against the legislation on 10 August 2026.
Buying tenanted looks like buying a property with income attached. It is closer to buying a property with someone else's compliance history attached — and the parts that transfer are not the parts most buyers check.
What transfers
The tenancy itself
You become the landlord on completion. The tenant's rights are unchanged, the terms are unchanged, and you cannot rewrite the agreement by presenting a new one. See selling a tenanted property for the same transaction from the other side.
The deposit — and the liability that comes with it
This is the one that costs money. The deposit must be transferred to you and re-protected in your name, with fresh prescribed information served on the tenant. If the seller never protected it, or protected it late, the exposure does not vanish at completion. A tenant can still bring a claim for one to three times the deposit, and you are the landlord they will bring it against.
So the deposit is a due-diligence item, not a completion formality. Ask for the scheme name, the reference, the date of protection and the prescribed information served. If the seller cannot produce all four, price it or walk.
Compliance history
Improvement notices, licence conditions and outstanding hazards attach to the property and its state, not to the person who owned it when they arose. An improvement notice that has not been complied with becomes your problem.
What does NOT transfer
The licence
A property licence is personal to the licence holder. It does not run with the land, and it is not assigned on sale. The seller's licence dies with the sale and you must apply in your own name.
This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in a tenanted purchase, because the moment you complete on a licensable property without your own licence you are committing an offence — exposure to a civil penalty of up to £30,000 and a rent repayment order. Apply before completion where the council allows it. Check the council's position first.
Gas Safe and electrical work
The records transfer as documents, but the duty is yours from day one. If the Gas Safety Record expires three weeks after completion, that is your deadline now.
The documents to demand before exchange
- The tenancy agreement, and any renewal or variation.
- Deposit: scheme, reference, date protected, and the prescribed information as served.
- Current Gas Safety Record and the previous one.
- EICR and evidence that any C1 or C2 remedials were completed.
- EPC, and its band — a band F or G property cannot lawfully be let.
- The licence, if any, plus its conditions and expiry.
- The inventory signed at the start of the tenancy.
- Rent history and any arrears — see the arrears sequence.
- Which version of the How to Rent guide was served, and when.
A seller who cannot produce these is not necessarily hiding anything, but you are buying their gaps either way.
Day one
Serve your own name and address on the tenant. Section 3 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires notice of the new landlord, and section 48 requires an address in England or Wales for service of notices — without it, rent is not lawfully due. That is a small letter with a large consequence, and it is the first thing to do after completion.
Run the free compliance check on the property before you exchange.