“What are my options under the new TOPA laws?”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Erin

“Dear PoPville,

I’ve been renting an English basement of a townhouse for several years, am happy with my living situation, and have maintained a friendly relationship with the landlords.

They’ve had some recent life changes and appear to be preparing to sell the house. But I would like to stay put, or at least be compensated reasonably for suddenly being put out.

I know that sometimes a new owner will keep an old tenant once buying the property, or that sometimes owners will often pay the tenant to minimize the burden on them (they’ll give them a security fee+rent for a month or two+moving costs, for example).

But that was under the old TOPA laws, which were recently changed so that people in my situation are no longer given priority.

For the record, I’m not the kind of tenant who seeks to give a landlord a hard time, and I agree that the old TOPA laws were exploitative of landlords — and I personally wouldn’t have done something like selling my TOPA rights to a third party, as the landlords have been kind and reasonable to me over the years.

But now that the laws have changed, I’m worried I’ll be disadvantaged in a big way in which I won’t have any control or redress for a sudden change in ownership.

My question for the community is, what are my options under the new TOPA laws? What rights can I legally expect, and are there reasonable requests I can make if the current or future owners seek to vacate my apartment? Or will I be forced to move with no redress at all for the burden I will personally have because of this?”