FAQs: Residential Lettings

A landlord must give a valid legal reason, known as a ground for possession. These can include:

• The landlord or a close family member needs to move into the property.
• The landlord intends to sell the property.
• A student HMO is needed for a new group of students under Ground 4A.
• Rent has not been paid or has repeatedly been paid late.
• The tenancy agreement has been breached.
• The property or its furniture has been damaged.
• There has been antisocial behaviour, nuisance or illegal activity.
• False information was provided to secure the tenancy.
• The property needs significant redevelopment or must be recovered to comply with legal action.

Ground 4A allows a landlord of a qualifying student HMO to regain possession at the end of the academic year so it can be rented to a new group of full-time students.

Assured periodic tenancies do not have a fixed end date, so your tenancy will usually continue until you give notice or your landlord follows the correct legal process to regain possession.

Student landlords may still be able to use Ground 4A at the end of the academic year.

If you have a separate tenancy agreement for your bedroom, your notice will normally end only your tenancy. The other tenants’ individual agreements will continue.

If everyone is named on one tenancy agreement, one tenant can usually serve notice that ends the tenancy for the whole group.

If only one person wants to leave and the others want to stay, please contact Coapt before serving notice. A replacement tenant or new agreement may be possible, but this must be agreed by the landlord and tenants.

Under the new rules you must give at least two months’ notice.

Notice must be given in writing and should end on the day your rent is due or the day before. You must continue paying rent until the tenancy ends unless an earlier date is agreed in writing.

You must continue paying rent until your notice period ends, even if you move out earlier, unless an earlier end date is agreed in writing.

Your notice should include:

Your full name;
The property address;
A clear statement that you are giving notice to end the tenancy;
The date you want the tenancy to end; and
The date the notice is being sent.

Please keep a copy of your notice. It must be sent to belong@coapt.co.uk

The main tenancy changes came into effect in England on 1 May 2026. Most private tenancies are now rolling assured periodic tenancies rather than fixed-term tenancies.

The differences in outgoing costs between traditional deposits and zero-deposit schemes are actually very little! For Reposit you pay one week’s rent to Reposit who act to insure your deposit. This is non-refundable. You then pay the first months’ rent within 15 days as security for the landlord leading up to the tenancy. This is the case with all zero-deposit schemes. For a traditional deposit, you would pay a holding deposit. You then pay 5 weeks’ rent within 15 days for the rest of the deposit, minus the holding deposit you’d already paid. The first month’s rent would then be paid 7 days before the beginning of the tenancy. After this, the differences are minimal until the end of the tenancy. With a traditional deposit, we will send you a breakdown of any deductions within a month of your tenancy end date and then once agreed, will return the balance of the funds to you. With Reposit, we will submit any end of tenancy charges onto their platform with 24 days of the end of your tenancy, you will be notified of these by Reposit and once agreed, you will pay this money to Reposit.

No, we ask you are not present for the checkout. If you are still at the property you will be asked to wait outside while our independent inventory company compiles the report. This is for two reasons; firstly because they want to be able to complete the report independently without distraction and need peace and quiet in order to record it, and secondly to make sure there is no bias affecting the report. The same rules will also apply to your landlord.

• Take meter readings and contact your utility providers. Don’t know your supplier? Call 0870 6081524 for gas, 0845 6015467 for electricity and 0330 303 1263 for water.
• Contact Brighton & Hove City Council You can register online or call the Council on 01273 291291 for further advice.
• Get a TV licence You need a TV licence if you watch or record live TV programmes on any channel, or if you watch or download programmes on BBC iPlayer http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk
• Check your refuse and recycling collection days. Missing a refuse bin or recycling box? You can order one online and find out the collection days for your street by calling 01273 292929 or by visiting www.brighton-hove.gov.uk.
• Get contents insurance  We strongly advise you to invest in your own contents insurance as the landlords insurance does not cover your personal belongings in the event of a fire, burglary or leak. If you have contents insurance included in your rent, confirm your cover here. Not sure? Check your tenancy agreement.

The inventory company we use are normally very accurate, however if you feel there is something not right, it’s important you let us know! If there is something missing on the inventory you have 7 days to make any amendments or comments. The inventory will be emailed to you and it will contain instructions on how to do this.

An inventory is a document compiled the day before your tenancy starts. We use a third party company to ensure there is no bias in the content of this document. It is an itemised and photographic list of contents and conditions. It includes everything from, walls, flooring, fixtures and fittings to furniture and appliances.

We’ll contact you before you tenancy start date to organise checking in to your property. On the day, we’ll double check your payments and paperwork are all complete and explain the inventory process. After this you’ll be given the keys to your new home!

Your deposit will be registered with MyDeposits within 30 days of payment, each tenant will be sent their deposit certificate and some prescribed information about the scheme. If you need any further information please contact our Finance team at finance@coapt.co.uk

If your landlord manages your property and you have paid your deposit directly to them, your landlord will register your deposit with one of the three deposit protection schemes and will send you the details within 30 days of payment.

There are a few requirements we need guarantors to meet for us to be able to approve the application. You need to be a full-time mainland UK resident, be over the age of 25, and earn at least three times the tenant’s share of the rent after tax and deductions. All of your information is stored securely, in line with GDPR.

Please contact the Property Management team if you have any questions at all.

If you are in full time employment, your income is 3x your rent, and pass your credit check + references you do not need to provide a guarantor.

 

Included in your contract is your rent schedule. A standing order is an instruction to your bank to make regular, fixed payments to an organisation or person. We can accept a screenshot as confirmation that this has been set-up if you are using online banking. Alternatively, a scan or clear picture of the confirmation the bank will give you in-branch will work. Just email this to admin@coapt.co.uk

Click here to view our guide to completing your paperwork.

We give all tenants 15 days to complete the paperwork process and pay any outstanding funds. If you are looking to move in sooner than this, we can make this timeframe shorter. Please be aware we will not be able to allow you to move in until this process is complete.

We are so glad you’ve found your potential new home! The property isn’t secured just yet, after you have submitted an application form we’ll then send you a tenancy guide. The tenancy guide

• outlines the terms of the tenancy
• explains the paperwork to be completed
• shows your payment schedule
• enables you to pay you holding deposit and confirms receipt of payment

Once the holding deposit has been paid, the property is off the market! We allow 15 days for the remaining paperwork to be completed and any further funds paid, if this isn’t done within this time frame, the property may go back on the market and depending on the circumstances, your holding deposit retained.

If you think you’ve found where you belong, ask for us to send you an application form. Once you have submitted your application, we will send you a tenancy guide, from here, you can pay your holding deposit. If multiple applications come in at the same time we will submit them to the landlord for approval.

Possibly; we try to limit disruption to the current tenants as much as possible, so if we have multiple enquiries for the same property we will book you in to the same appointment slot at staggered arrival times. We’ll show people in order of booking.

No problem, these things happen! Please call us on 01273 645797 to let us know – we’ll try to wait for you if we can. If it’s more than 5 or 10 minutes we might have another appointment to get to and therefore will be unable to wait. If this is the case we’ll let you know and re-arrange another time.

It’s simple! Once you have found a property you like, just call the office on 01273 645797 and we will book you in for the earliest available appointment that suits your availability. We’ll then send you a text with all the details confirming your appointment.