Renting question - contracts

brewster85

Hi,

Just a quick question for those in the know...

I've been living in a rented flat for just over a year now. The contract term we agreed to initially was 6 months, so have renewed the contract once so far, and the renewal date for the current 6 month period was at the beginning of the month.

I did recieve an email from our Letting Agents regarding some improvements to the flat, with a side note about renewing the contract. As this was quite an insignificant seeming email I replied we would be continuing our tenancy but deleted the mail soon after.

Now my situation has changed slightly and I am considering not continuing the tenancy. As I have not signed anything saying I will be there for 6 months, can I effectively just up and leave? Obviously I wouldn't do this, I'd give them a decent amount of notice, but all they have (I assume) to say I'll stay is an email...

Is that legally binding?!

I would assume also staying somewhere without a contract is kind of a slippery situation for all involved (me/LL/LA)...but hopefully will work in my favour if I decide to leave

N79

You have a periodic tenancy. You need to give at least 1 months notice to end at the end of a rental period.

brewster85

Yeah I understand that is the case while I'm within contract period, but seeing as my contract ran out end of Jan, and LA have seemingly forgotten to write up new contracts is that still the case?

G_M

I would assume also staying somewhere without a contract is kind of a slippery situation for all involved

You have a contract.

You moved from a (6 month) fixed term contract to a (monthly) periodic contract. This happens automatically when the fixed term expires if no new contract is signed. The terms of the periodic tenancy are exactly the same as the original 6 month contract except with regards notice:

The LL has to give you 2 months notice ending on a rent payment day
You have to give the LL 1 months notice ending on a rent payment day

as N79 says above

N79

brewster85 wrote: »

Yeah I understand that is the case while I'm within contract period, but seeing as my contract ran out end of Jan, and LA have seemingly forgotten to write up new contracts is that still the case?

Of course - why did you think I posted it?

brewster85

Sorry N79, must have misunderstood your answer, but rereading along with G_M's post it makes perfect sense, thanks very much. Suits me down to the ground