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Tenants Notice To End Tenancy - letter template

Hi everyone,

as we are in the process of moving due to work commitments, I was doing some research online for a suitable letter template to send to my letting agency (one of the nationals). I though I would post it on MSE for other tenants to use if they wish. Hope you find it useful. This letter should be sent by recorded delivery to your landlord of a shorthold assured tenancy. The required notice period of 28 days or one calendar month before the end of your tenancy contract date or if in a rolling week-by-week or month-by-month rolling, notice until your next rent date is due.
[FONT=&quot]
Tenant’s Notice to End the Tenancy[/FONT]

Name of Landlord / Letting Agency

Address Line 1

Address Line 2

County
Postcode

Day/Month/Year (In Full)

Dear landlords' name / letting agency,


I hereby give notice to terminate my tenancy at address of your rented property, address line 2, town, county, postcode.

I am hereby sendinglandlords' name / letting agency an advanced notice of 28 days’ notice, in accordance with my rental agreement.

The last day of my tenancy will be the Day/Month/Year (In Full). I request the right to be present during inspection of the premises for damages. To the best of my knowledge the current state of the property matches the initial inventory and description when I entered into the rental agreement with you on the Day/Month/Year (In Full). I have time stamped images taken from the start of the tenancy to corroborate that no damage has occurred to the property during the duration of my tenancy. Fair wear and tear may not be deducted from my deposit amount of £ amount.

I shall advise landlords' name / letting agency of my forwarding address when this has been confirmed or insert if known.

Pursuant to the terms of my rental agreement, please return my security deposit within 14 days of the end of my tenancy agreement on the day/month/year (in full).

Thank you.

Your Current Rental Address
«1

Comments

  • tbs624
    tbs624 Posts: 10,816 Forumite
    edited 28 August 2012 at 9:11AM
    Welcome as a newbie poster.

    Notwithstanding your good intentions, some clarifications:

    (a) for properties in Eng/Wales there is no need for a T to give formal notice to the LL if they are merely moving out at the expiry date of their Fixed Term. It is courteous though for a T to let the LL know of their plans.

    (b) under a statutory periodic agreement the tenancy period does not always align with a rent due date - if the Fixed Term ends on say the 15th of the month then the subsequent tenancy periods (where rent is payable pcm) will run on from 16th of one month to the 15th of the following. LL would need to have received notice by the 15th of the month, even if the rent due date was the 1st of the month

    (c) it is better to send Notice (in good time) by first class post using a certificate of posting, or hand deliver with a witness. Intended recipients can refuse to sign for/fail to go and collect RD mail.

    (d) a T already *has* the right to attend a check out inspection: they do not need to seek to be granted it by the LL although it may be worthwhile for the T to state that they intend to be there.

    (e) you mention 28 days notice in the template - this would only be the case if rent was paid "lunar monthly" or weekly.

    (f) the tenancy deposit schemes processes mean that a T can begin reclaiming their tenancy deposit via the scheme itself as soon as the tenancy has ended.

    Edited to add - one of the regular posters , G_M, has a post with useful guidance on bringing a tenancy to an end. Someone will jopefully have bookmarked the link and will post it up :smiley:
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977
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    OP - you meant well, but unfortunately made a number of errors.

    Thanks tbs, for correcting the errors in the OP's post.

    This post here may also be useful:

    Ending/Renewing an AST
  • northcoms wrote: »
    ..........This letter should be sent by recorded delivery to your landlord of a shorthold assured tenancy.
    .....

    Northcoms:

    You say "Shorthold assured tenancy". It's not by any chance a Scottish "Short Assured tenancy" is it as if so yes you may need to give notice to leave at end of fixed term...
  • jjlandlord
    jjlandlord Posts: 5,099 Forumite
    edited 28 August 2012 at 4:03PM
    tbs624 wrote: »
    (d) a T already *has* the right to attend a check out inspection: they do not need to seek to be granted it by the LL although it may be worthwhile for the T to state that they intend to be there.

    If inspection takes place before the end of the tenancy, obviously nothing can prevent T from being there.
    However, if landlord inspects after tenancy has ended I believe that T has no automatic right to be there since he has no right to be at property at all without landlord's express invitation.

    tbs624 wrote: »
    (e) you mention 28 days notice in the template - this would only be the case if rent was paid "lunar monthly" or weekly.

    4 week notice is for any tenancy period not exceeding 4 weeks. [in England or Wales]
    Edit: Just to add that "rent was paid monthly" does not always imply that the period of the tenancy is 1 month.
  • tbs624
    tbs624 Posts: 10,816 Forumite
    jjlandlord wrote: »
    4 week notice is for any tenancy period not exceeding 4 weeks. [in England or Wales]
    Thanks for your respond post :) You are of course right - but usually a tenancy "not exceeding 4 weeks" would be, as I said, either a weekly tenancy or one where the rent is payable per "lunar month", ie every 28 days/4 weeks
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977
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    Northcoms:

    You say "Shorthold assured tenancy". It's not by any chance a Scottish "Short Assured tenancy" is it as if so yes you may need to give notice to leave at end of fixed term...
    This is an importantpoint since much of the advice given relates to Eng/Wales and NOT Scotland.
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977
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    edited 28 August 2012 at 3:22PM
    Eton_Rifle wrote: »
    I fear the tone of your letter, comically pompous yet belligerent, is perhaps not the best approach. Just state the cold facts as the experts above set out.

    I really would give the agent's integrity the benefit of the doubt at this stage. Trying to intimidate someone and implying they are untrustworthy is rarely well received.
    I tend to agree with this.

    Actually, unless your relationship has benn totally destryed already, I would use a friendly letter style. Yes, include the important info (address, dates etc) but combine it with thanks for their help over the years etc etc - a bit of civility goes a long way!

    There is no requirement for the notice to be in any particular format, provided it contains the key info - so why be confrontational/legalistic.

    Unless, as I say, you want to be confrontational/legalistic.

    Perhaps instead of " the right to be present during inspection " why not a more cooperative "I shall give you a ring around the (date a few days ahead of last date) to arrange a mutually convenient time for inspection, hand-over of keys, and final meter readings etc, and look forward to seeing you then."

    As a landlord, I know which approach would make me morelikely to overlook a few paint scrapes on the walls etc, and which would make me record/photograph every speck of dust!
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977
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    Eton_Rifle wrote: »
    This has made me wonder about the photographs.
    I take them too in an attempt to protect myself as a tenant (although I shoot in raw format so I can theoretically prove they are undoctored) but how would they be regarded by a resolution service?

    Would they be merely circumstantial evidence because they're not on the signed inventory? A tenant could easily fake a set of timestamped photos and it would be interesting to know how such photos, or even raw format photos, would be received if presented as evidence.
    An interesting question - I have no idea/experience!

    we regularly advise both tenants and landlords here to use photos, but I don't actually know how the 3 arbitration services treat them in practice.

    Why not start a new thread with relevant title asking for people's experience?
  • JonnyBravo
    JonnyBravo Posts: 4,103
    Mortgage-free Glee!
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    As a landlord I use a video camera to film myself and my tenant carrying out the inventory.
    I've never had recourse to use any of them, but had tenants more than happy with the process as I've pointed out it helps stop abuse of the process by either side!
  • tbs624
    tbs624 Posts: 10,816 Forumite
    G_M wrote: »
    An interesting question - I have no idea/experience!

    we regularly advise both tenants and landlords here to use photos, but I don't actually know how the 3 arbitration services treat them in practice.

    There is some useful guidance on the use of photos from TDS

    http://www.thedisputeservice.co.uk/resources/files/Use-of-photographs,-videos-and-DVDs-v20110308.pdf

    Having both parties sign the back of the photos shows that they are an agreed representation of the property's condition, in the same way that the jointly signed inventory does.
This discussion has been closed.
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