The purchase LTV looked fine. Title was freehold. Then credit asked for the tenancy PDF and the zip came back with a marketing brochure, a rent figure typed into an email and no deposit certificate. The bridging loan did not die on value. It stalled on occupancy papers nobody had filed.
StatusKWO prices short commercial facilities for professional landlords, investors and SPVs. Owner-occupier main-home work sits on a different shelf. The published schedule currently shows a monthly rate from 1.25%, an entry fee of 2%, an exit fee of 1.5%, LTV up to 85%, loans from £10,000 to £10,000,000+ and terms up to 16 months. Those are card figures. They do not cure a missing tenancy agreement or an unprotected deposit.
The tenanted DIP that stalls when the agreement zip never arrives
A tidy decision in principle on vacant stock does not transfer to a let house with three months of rent already clearing. Income changes the security story. Brokers who reuse the vacant covering email force a second round of questions that should have been page one.
Our general bridging pack note covers identity, companies and exits. The portfolio rent-roll pack covers multi-title schedules. The page you are reading is narrower. It is the single-asset tenancy and deposit-protection evidence a specialist desk wants before it prices a tenanted buy-to-let bridge.
Start the enquiry with one page. Address and title number. Vacant or let. Tenant name. Contracted rent and payment day. Deposit amount and scheme. Gross and net loan. Term. Use of funds. Named exit. Borrower and guarantor names. Then attach the tenancy agreement. Credit can read a brochure in five minutes. They cannot invent a deposit certificate from a line that says “tenanted BTL”.
GOV.UK’s private renting pages set the baseline for how a landlord holds a let home in England. Specialist credit is not running a consumer mortgage. It still needs papers that match the occupancy claim on the application. A verbal “fully let” without the agreement is hope, not evidence.
What the tenancy agreement must show after the Renters Rights Act switch
England’s private renting rules changed on 1 May 2026. You cannot create a new assured shorthold tenancy. Assured shortholds that were live on that date became assured periodic tenancies. GOV.UK’s landlord guide to assured periodic tenancies is blunt. Rolling weekly or monthly terms replace fixed end dates. An end date written into a new agreement will not apply.
Credit does not need a law essay. It needs the live contract.
Send the signed tenancy agreement PDF. Name the landlord and the tenant. Show the rent, the payment frequency and the deposit figure. If the tenancy started before 1 May 2026, say so and attach the written agreement that already existed. If a new let started after that date, show the rolling form and the written key terms the landlord had to give. Oral-only arrangements still need the written particulars GOV.UK requires. A WhatsApp thread is not a substitute.
Joint tenancies need every named tenant on the papers. Company lets need the corporate tenant’s details and who actually occupies. Licences and holiday-style arrangements need a clear explanation. Do not bury a short-stay model inside a covering line that says “AST”. Credit will ask. Answer before valuation.
Rent review and increase papers matter when the exit assumes a higher rent mid-bridge. Attach any Form 4A notice or agreed variation that is already live. Do not model tomorrow’s rent as today’s contracted figure. The bank credits have to match the agreement that sits in the zip today.
HMO or multi-let stock brings a second layer. Council licensing sits beside the tenancy papers. Our HMO licensing evidence note covers the licence. The tenancy still has to allow the letting pattern you are underwriting. A clean licence with the wrong form of occupation still stalls.
Leasehold flats add consent-to-sublet risk. Our leasehold and ground rent pack covers tenure. If the lease bans Assured Shorthold style lets or demands landlord consent for every new tenant, put that clause on page one of the solicitor note. Do not wait for the lender’s lawyer to find it on day nine of an auction finance clock.
Deposit protection certificates and prescribed information credit will open
Deposit protection is not a landlord nicety on a commercial bridge. It is a chargeability and refinance risk. An unprotected deposit can create claims and court noise that a take-out lender will not absorb. Credit opens the certificate early for that reason.
GOV.UK’s deposit protection schemes for landlords page sets the duty. Where a money deposit was taken on a relevant tenancy, it must sit in an authorised scheme within thirty days of receipt. England and Wales schemes include the Deposit Protection Service, MyDeposits and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. Custodial and insured routes both count. What does not count is a covering email that says “deposit held by agent” with no certificate.
Attach the scheme certificate or membership confirmation that names the property, the deposit amount and the protection date. Attach the prescribed information given to the tenant. GOV.UK’s information you must give to your tenants list covers the property address, the deposit figure, how the deposit is protected, scheme contact details, landlord or agent details, third-party payers, the reasons a landlord may retain money and the dispute route. Credit wants those papers in the zip, not a promise that the agent “usually sends them”.
Holding deposits paid before a tenancy starts sit outside the scheme until the tenancy begins. Once the person becomes a tenant, the holding money becomes a deposit and must be protected. Say which pot is which. Third-party deposits still need scheme protection. Parents paying the deposit does not waive the duty. GOV.UK’s tenancy deposit protection overview makes that plain for tenants and landlords alike.
Arrears of unprotected or late-protected deposits are a red flag. If protection was late, say so and attach the remediation steps. Silence until the solicitor raises it burns a week. Auction buyers who discover the gap after the hammer burn deposit equity twice.
Zero-deposit products and insurance-backed alternatives need the product paperwork in the same zip. Name the provider. Show what the tenant paid. Show what sits behind a claim. Do not label the unit “no deposit” without explaining the substitute. Credit prices risk. They cannot price a blank.
Rent bank credits that prove the schedule is live
The agreement sets the contracted rent. The bank proves what cleared.
Three months of rent-account statements are the usual ask. Credits should line up with the tenancy figure within a sensible timing tolerance. A schedule that shows £1,450 a month and an account that shows £900 is not a rounding issue. It is the file.
Put the landlord or SPV name on the statements. Screenshots that crop the account holder fail. Joint accounts need the other name explained. Agent-collected rent needs the agent statement beside the landlord account. Net of management fees is fine when the fee is shown. Net of unexplained deductions is not.
Arrears need dates and balances. A tenant two months behind changes coverage and can change the exit. Put the arrears next to the loan amount. If the borrower plans to clear arrears from their own cash on completion, show the source. Our source-of-funds pack covers deposit trails. Arrears clearance cash sits in the same zip when the borrower is funding it.
Voids need honesty. Empty units need the leave date, the works plan and the assumed re-let rent. A full asking rent in the total with a blank void date overstates coverage. Credit will cut it. Better to show the void and the plan than to invent a tenant.
Portfolio finance files still need the multi-title rent roll when several units sit in one facility. This single-asset pack does not replace that schedule. It is what you send when the bridge is one let house or flat and the income claim has to clear before pricing.
Sitting tenants vacant possession and how exits change
Occupancy changes the exit clock. Say the plan on page one.
A sale exit with vacant possession needs a lawful route to empty the property. Under the assured periodic regime, landlords use section 8 grounds rather than the old section 21 path. Notice periods and grounds matter. A brochure that promises “vacant in eight weeks” without a solicitor note and a diary fails. Our sale-exit evidence note covers diaries and Plan B. The tenancy papers still have to support that diary.
A sale with the tenant in situ needs a buyer who will take the income. Price and marketing change. So does the take-out story if the buyer needs finance. Do not underwrite a vacant sale price on a let asset without saying so. Valuers will not.
A refinance exit that assumes rental coverage needs the live rent and the deposit papers the term lender will also want. Soft buyer demand and tighter secured credit in recent prints make weak tenancy files less forgiving, not more. Plan B belongs in writing. Sale if refinance shortens. Refinance if the sale stalls. Equity if both slip.
Light works with a sitting tenant add consent and access risk. A schedule that assumes empty rooms for a full refurb while the tenant remains in occupation needs a written works agreement. Heavy structural programmes often belong on development finance with staged drawdowns rather than on a short bridge that assumed vacant access. Mixing a gut-out into a tenanted covering email is how files bounce between desks.
Insurance matters beside the tenancy. Landlord buildings cover with the lender noted is the baseline ask on many files. A landlord policy that excludes vacant periods needs a flag if the exit plan empties the house mid-term. Say who holds the policy and when it renews.
How the tenancy pack sits with EPC HMO leasehold and rent-roll evidence
Tenancy evidence is one zip in a larger file. It does not replace energy, licensing, tenure or money papers.
Energy compliance still has to clear on tenanted stock. Our EPC and MEES pack covers band E duties, exemptions and the path toward tighter standards. A clean tenancy with an F-rated certificate still stalls. Send both zips together.
HMO licensing still sits beside room-by-room lets. Multi-title books still need the rent-roll schedule. Leasehold still needs the lease PDF and consent clauses. Redemption statements still sit on refinance bridges. Auction lots still need the legal pack and memorandum papers already on the newsroom. The tenancy pages above sit inside those packs when the asset is let. They are not optional extras.
Identity and company papers still sit at the front. Passport. Proof of address. SPV and PSC extracts. Personal guarantees when the structure needs them. Tenancy papers do not waive KYC. They add occupancy risk on top of it.
Brokers who work with StatusKWO through the broker desk should treat vacant and tenanted as different first emails. The rate card is the same only when the papers match. The rate card does not cure a missing deposit certificate.
Our earlier Renters Rights Act phase 2 roadmap note covered database and ombudsman timing for investors. This pack is the day-one evidence ask on a live tenanted bridge, not another regulatory reprint.
What brokers should send with the first tenanted enquiry
Send one zip. Name the files so a human can open them without decoding “scan4”.
- One-pager with address, title number, vacant or let, tenant name, rent, deposit, scheme, loan, exit and borrower names.
- Signed tenancy agreement PDF, plus written key terms or Renters Rights Act information sheet where those apply.
- Deposit protection certificate and prescribed information, or a clear zero-deposit product pack.
- Three months of rent-account or agent statements that match the contracted rent.
- Arrears schedule with dates and balances, or a nil statement.
- Void dates and re-let plan where any unit is empty.
- Exit note that survives sitting tenants, including Plan B.
- EPC and any MEES exemption papers for the let unit.
- HMO licence where the letting pattern requires one.
- Identity, SPV and charge papers that match the borrower who will own the asset.
If the lot is an auction purchase of a tenanted house, add memorandum, deposit receipt and special conditions from the auction packs. If the bridge is a refinance, add the redemption statement. If works sit inside the facility, add a costed schedule and flag every access or consent issue the tenancy creates.
Do not wait for credit to ask for the agreement. The vacant twin may have cleared without it. The tenanted file will not.
A practical next step is a decision in principle with the tenancy PDF and deposit certificate attached on day one. Credit can then say whether the occupancy, rent and protection papers are workable before the borrower spends on valuation and legal work that was never going to clear.
Frequently asked questions
Does a specialist bridging lender accept properties with sitting tenants?
Yes, when the tenancy papers, rent proof and exit still work. Credit prices the income and the legal route to vacant possession or to a sale with tenants in situ. A covering line that says “tenanted” without the agreement and deposit certificate usually stalls the file.
Is a rent figure in an email enough without the tenancy PDF?
No. The agreement shows the parties, the rent, the deposit and the form of occupation. Bank credits prove what cleared. GOV.UK landlord guidance expects written tenancy particulars. Specialist desks take the same view on commercial bridges.
What deposit papers does credit want on a tenanted bridge?
The scheme certificate or confirmation, the protected amount, the protection date and the prescribed information given to the tenant. Zero-deposit or insurance-backed products need the provider pack instead. A verbal “agent holds the deposit” without papers fails.
How do assured periodic tenancies change the bridging pack after 1 May 2026?
New fixed-term ASTs are not created. Live ASTs became rolling assured periodic tenancies. Credit wants the live agreement and any written key terms or information sheet the landlord had to serve. Do not send an expired fixed-term template as if it still governs the end date.
Do multi-title portfolio bridges still need this single-asset pack?
They need the rent-roll schedule for every unit, plus tenancy and deposit papers for the units that drive coverage or that look weak. Use the portfolio rent-roll note for the book. Use this pack when the facility is one let asset or when a single unit inside a book needs a deeper zip.
