Continuing tenancy agreement – admin charge?

laurapeura

Hi everyone, here's an update on how things went. Sorry that it's a long description but the communication has been weird and we don't really know what to do!

I sent a letter to both LA and LL and rang up a couple of days later. We received an expected cold response from the LA – they said that we either pay the £160 or move out as they will not consider a roll over contract or reducing the fee. I mentioned how other agencies don't actually charge or if they do it's more like £40 and no VAT charged on the tenant. They said that it's their "company policy" and this is the way they've been doing it for the past 15 years. I mentioned we had seeked advice from Citizens Advice Bureau who were concerned for these proceedings.

I then brought up the fact that we don't seem to have a notice – our contract states nothing about a notice nor have we been given one. This is when I sure hit the sore spot as they realised checking their records that (oops!) they hadn't indeed issued us one as they usually do at the start of the tenancy. The LA almost hung up on me at this point, trying to end the phone call. I simply asked her then to give us the due one month's notice in writing – the LA didn't reply. I repeated my request and then she retorted that our signed tenancy agreement is a legally binding document and states the end date for our tenancy. I still pushed on to demand a notice to which she vaguely agreed.

After this phone call I'm not sure what to do. We don't really want to give up just because this seems to be more like them bullying us into moving out when we actually have right to stay.

Should we simply stay and make sure we get a written month's notice? Or do they have a stand saying our contract dates bind us to move out? We also considered sending them a rent check for next month – but obviously this might be more risky and useless.

Any suggestions? We have two weeks of our contract left and really wouldn't want to let these people bully us about if we actually have a right to stay till we get a valid notice.

Thanks for reading and thanks for any advice on what we can do!!!!

Laura & Matt

neverdespairgirl

Your contract doesn't mean you have to move out.

They need to give you 2 months' notice, not 1. You need to give 1. And it's 2 months from the next rent day, not from the day the notice is sent.

laurapeura

Thanks – that's what I thought but the constant bullying from the LA has made me a bit paranoid about what's actually true...

I'd like to stick to my position as this LA is truly unprofessional. I'm actually a bit worried they might try and come up with some excuse/reason to get us out.

chewmylegoff

laurapeura wrote: »

Hi everyone,

This is my first post as I couldn't find an answer on this forum (although it looks busy and well-used which is great!)

Me and my partner have had an awful experience with a letting agency and are approaching the end of our AST 12-month contract. Nonetheless we are both quite broke (would be cheaper to stay than to move) and we recently enquired about continuing our stay, but as we might be relocating next year, we didn't want to get into an another 12-month contract.

Our letting agents have agreed to offer us to stay for another 6 months but also requested an admin fee of £160. We think it's unfair as we only sign a piece of paper and our contract should just roll over anyway. Is there anything we can do about this charge? Our agency has been extremely poor with maintenance and made us move into a flat in the middle of renovation claiming it was ready. We also found afterwards that they are nor registered with any official organisations – they really don't seem to know what they're doing.

We would go private but there isn't much around at the moment.

Can we just stay in our flat and have the contract rolled over? I couldn't find anything in our contract stating notice or us having to move out.

Any advice would be fantastic – this forum seems like a gem!

Thanks!

similar situation for me. when i moved in to the house the letting agent served notice of termination on me 12 months in advance and a bit of paper saying it would be £150 to renew the AST at the end of the term. smooth.

Premier_2

laurapeura wrote: »

... I mentioned how other agencies don't actually charge or if they do it's more like £40 and no VAT charged on the tenant...

Such fees are subject to VAT at the standard rate. If you know LAs that don't charge VAT on such a fee, it is because they are so small that their resultant annual turnover means they do not need to be registered for VAT (or they are acting illegally)

tbs624

Just wanted to mention once again that there is a petition online, set up by another MSEer on the subject of Letting Agents and their outrageous fees. The deadline is 28 August so if these fees seem unfair to you please think about signing up at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/lettingfees/.

Tenants also need to be highlighting this issue to the Housing Minister and to their own MP, as is there is currently a review of the lettings market in progress. You can contact your MP via http://www.writetothem.com/

It's expected that there will be greater regulation of letting agents but if people don't make any fuss and just on keep paying these fees, nothing will ever change IMO

laurapeura

I signed for the previous petition and will do so for this one too. Thanks for letting me know! I was planning to write to my MP too – good timing then.

We have discussed staying in our property till we get our notice – but slightly worried about the LA trying to get us out somehow... should we be worried?

We thought of sending a cheque for next month's rent in recorded
delivery – should we do this? Or should we wait for our notice? I have a feeling they are trying to avoid sending the notice and see if we are scared enough to move out...