Right to Buy or Right of First Refusal?

[zebra]

Would appreciate some advice urgently.

Background: As landlord we own a property which has now been let out to the same tenant for circa 4 years, we have issued a number of assured shorthold tenancy agreements over the period.

Somenone said to me the other day, that as the tenant has lived in the property for more than 3 years they now hold the right to buy the property if the tenant wished. They mentioned that this right to buy had come about because of some changes to law recently.

Is this correct? If not, is there anything similar etc.? If what has been said is true, as landlord do you have the right to say no? At what price do you sell (current price or price when the tenant moved in).

I thought right to buy was only linked to council housing.

Please help. Much appreciated.

[Editor]

The right to buy applies to public sector tenancies and not private sector tenancies - certainly not to ASTs.
However, the exception to this is where the tenant is on a regulated tenancy - ie pre 1989 tenancies sometimes called Rent Act Tenancies.
Here, it seems, the tenant has a "right of first refusal" when the landlord wants to sell. See this recent post: http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=495