A 70-year-old daughter inherited two properties from her mum, including a rental whose paperwork had never been done properly.
Margaret's case at a glance:
Inherited two properties from her mum: her mum's home and a rental
Had never been a landlord and wasn’t equipped to manage it
The letting agency hadn't protected the deposit or served the right paperwork
The tenants had stopped paying rent on her request that they move out
Paying her own rent, plus bills and council tax on the empty property
Solicitors had asked for £5,000 upfront to deal with the issues
Let's call the client Margaret.
Margaret's mum passed away at 99 and left her two properties: the home she'd lived in, and a house she'd been letting through an agency. Margaret was 70 and had never been a landlord.
Margaret's instinct was to ask the tenants to leave and sell on the open market. It was her mum's house and she wanted to sell it, which is completely understandable.
Then the problems came to light - the agency hadn't protected the tenants' deposit or served the right paperwork.
The tenants now knew the paperwork was wrong, and that they were in a position to fight it. Grief doesn't make any of us diplomatic, and the relationship broke down. Meanwhile, the costs kept coming.
Margaret was renting her own home, while also paying the utilities and council tax on her mum's empty house. When she asked solicitors about sorting out the tenancy, she was asked for £5,000 upfront, which she didn’t have.
All of this while she was grieving. She needed someone to take the problem off her plate.
Sometimes just a change of face is all it needs.
I bought the rental with the tenants in place, then went to meet them. We talked it through, and I agreed to return their original deposit so we could hit the reset button. I redid all of the paperwork properly, and we started afresh.
Coming in as someone new, without any of the history, made all the difference.
For Margaret, selling with the tenants in situ was her preferred route. It took away the admin and the financial burden of inheriting a rental she'd never wanted to manage. Dealing with tenants who were already upset would only have added to the stress of a very hard time.
Inheriting a rental property with tenants in situ
When a rental property passes through probate with tenants in it, the tenancy carries on. Before deciding what to do with it, check:
the deposit is protected, and the tenants were given the prescribed information
the gas safety record, electrical report (EICR) and EPC are in date
what paperwork was served, including the Renters' Rights Act information sheet
the rent records, and what the letting agent is contracted to do
Gaps here can leave you facing a claim from the tenants and make it much harder to regain possession.
Then, you have three paths:
Keep it and manage it. Yourself or through an agent.
Sell on the open market. This usually means getting possession first. Since 1 May 2026, that means a Section 8 ground, and the ground for selling needs at least four months' notice.
Sell with the tenants in situ to a buyer who takes on the tenancy, so nobody has to move out.
For executors and probate solicitors, a tenanted property can be one of the slowest assets in an estate to resolve. A tenanted sale can let the estate move forward sooner.