I am writing about a friend of mine who decided to sell his property this year for personal financial reasons and he informed his tenant about his plans in March this year. The tenancy hadn't been renewed after the first 11 month contract ended in 2012 but both parties appeared happy with this less than formal arrangement.

The owner advised the tenant that should he find a buyer he would allow them a 3 month period to find another property. He found a buyer in June and advised the buyer that completion could take until the end of September which is 7 months since he informed the tenants. The tenants wrote to the owner recently saying they taken legal advice and they had been advised that they could remain residents for up to 3 years under current tenancy law and they didn't want to move until they were ready!

I was reading the Mark Stucklin article this month about recent changes to the Landlord/Tenant law in June 2013.

I have copied a section of Mark's article below that could be interpreted to apply to current tenancies?

[The landlord may now sell the property and the new owner may terminate the existing tenancy agreement so long as it is not lodged at the Land Registry. Before this law, the new owner was forced to respect the existing mandatory tenancy until it ended. This is a very welcome measure indeed. So for all new contracts signed after the 5th of June 2013 it would be advisable for a tenant to have their tenancy agreement lodged at the Land Registry if they want some degree of protection against the owner selling the property. 

The question I have from anyone qualified to offer advice is, would this new law have any relevance to the owners responsibility to his existing tenant when he is currently trying to proceed with a sale?

I spoke with my own lawyer today and he was surprised to learn that there had been changes to the existing law so I sent him a copy of Marks article.

http://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7022&p=65538#p65538/