short term agreement

huwgus

my wife and i are hoping to move soon, but the new house needs a lot of work carried out and we cannot move straight in. the buyer of our house is happy for us to stay in our sold house for a month while the other house is being done up. however, he does want some kind of agreement drawn up. would this legally tie us in for 6 months, or can we draw up an agreement with a clause to only stay for a month? any advice?

Planner

You could use a standard AST agreemnt for one month - the down side for buyer of your house being that if you decided not to move out after a month (dont know whay you would do this) he will not be able to remove you for at least 6 months.

OR

You could also get a solicitor to write up some kind of commonlaw tenancy agrement.

huwgus

asked my solicitor doing the conveyancing, but he advised against a short term agreement saying that the buyer could, if he wanted to, hold us to 6 months since a 6 month agreement is the shortest one available
what is a standard AST agreement?

theartfullodger

Google.
assured shorthold tenancy agreement

Or, tell the buyer he'll have to wait..

(Do you play Poker??)

Cheers

Lodger

huwgus

no i wouldn't be much good at poker
looked up in google, certainly seems like an AST can cover only 1 month. (although it seems to be something he should be drawing up for us). maybe i'll speak to buyer and see if he's ok to do this
thanks

theartfullodger

certainly seems like an AST can cover only 1 month

AST could cover 2 days, or 3 weeks... Yes, absolutely: BUT there is no way a Landlord can rely on (starting) getting a tenant out through the courts before 6 months is up (See planner's comments).

Cheers!

Lodger

tbs624

huwgus wrote: »

asked my solicitor doing the conveyancing, but he advised against a short term agreement saying that the buyer could, if he wanted to, hold us to 6 months since a 6 month agreement is the shortest one available
what is a standard AST agreement?

Dear, oh dear, perhaps you should suggest to your solicitor that he sticks to his ploddy conveyancing and leaves the LL & T stuff alone, as he doesn't know what he is talking about & clearly hasn't read up on this topic for many years. Does the dust rise when he moves about his office?;)

As has already been explained, a LL *can* grant an AST for a period shorter than 6 months - the problem is not that the LL can enforce a min of 6 months upon the T, regardless of an agreement for say 2 months, but rather that if the T outstayed his/her welcome then s/he cannot be kicked out prior to the expiry of an initial 6 month period (except due to specific breach). If the new owner has a mortgage on the property then any arrangement with you will have to be agreed to by the lender.