Letting contract renewal issue

garichd

Hi All,

I need advice on two Issues.

1) My current letting contract is due to expire on 10th sept. As I have rented through a letting agency and they are managing the property, they sent me a letter in the month of June that if I wanted to extend my contract. To which I replied yes I want to extend. Now the circumstances have been changed and we are deciding to move to a different city. According to my contract we need to give a two months notice on the day of rent if want to leave the property. So if I give Notice on 10th Aug then I will be able to move on 10 Oct, which will be a month over my contract. I was wondering for that one-month extension do I need to extend/sign new contract?
2) Last year when I extended my contract the letting agency charged me £58.75 as contract renewal fee, today when I was going thru my contract and other documents I found that the renewal fee is actually £35 plus VAT. Which comes to 41.12. Can I claim that I have been charged unfairly and ask for the difference back?

Please advice
Gari..

rosysparkle

When you replied to the extension letter, did you sign for six months or a month by month (periodic) contract? If you signed for six months you are legally obliged to pay the rent for six months.

If your contract says £35 plus VAT, that's what your agent should charge. They have probably put the standard price up since your contract was printed, but you should pay the charge stated in your contract unless there is a clause allowing an increase.

garichd

rosysparkle wrote:

When you replied to the extension letter, did you sign for six months or a month by month (periodic) contract? If you signed for six months you are legally obliged to pay the rent for six months.

If your contract says £35 plus VAT, that's what your agent should charge. They have probably put the standard price up since your contract was printed, but you should pay the charge stated in your contract unless there is a clause allowing an increase.

Some confusion..

I haven’t signed the extended contract as yet. The procedure is agency sent me letter to know my Intentions. If I say yes they then sent a new contract to sign.

Now as we know we are leaving the property, should we sign the new contract, as we will be staying for an extra month..

The current contract or the extended one is/will have a get out clause. Means we can leave the property any time after giving 2 Months notice.

musey

As you are still with in your fixed term (ie. 1st 6 months) you do not actually need to give notice at all to leave at the end of the tenancy regardless of what it says in the tenancy agreement. If your tenancy agreement has clause in that circumvent your statutory rights they are more than likely unfair and therefore unenforceable. For politeness sake I would right to the agents explaining you have decided you no longer wish to extend the contract and will be leaving at the end of your fixed term.

musey

garichd wrote:

Some confusion..

I haven’t signed the extended contract as yet. The procedure is agency sent me letter to know my Intentions. If I say yes they then sent a new contract to sign.

Now as we know we are leaving the property, should we sign the new contract, as we will be staying for an extra month..

The current contract or the extended one is/will have a get out clause. Means we can leave the property any time after giving 2 Months notice.

Not sure what you mean here, your current contract expires on 10th September, do you wish to stay until 10th October?

clutton_2

you can

a) leave at the end of the 6 months;
b) not sign the new contract and stay for the extra time then it goes into "periodic"
c) give ONE months notice (all the law requires of you) when you know your leaving date.

garichd

musey wrote:

Not sure what you mean here, your current contract expires on 10th September, do you wish to stay until 10th October?

Yes My current contract expires on 10th sep ( its not the end of 6 month but the end of 2 years , orignall contract 1 year and then extend to 1 year again last year)

now the notice period requirment is 2 months (as per contract) so if i give notice this month then I will have to stay in this property till 10th oct.

MY question is can letting agency force me to sign the extended contract for that extra month stay.

FilthyLuka

I am in a similar position to yourself garichd

i am leaving my current rental property - i gave 2 months notice as was stated in my contract - i've looked at about 30 different houses and spoken too about 10 different agents - dicussing the new tenancy and telling them when i can move out of my current place and into a new one

Most of them tend to tell me that (even though its in the contract to give 2 months notice) i legally only have to give 1 month notice (think its something to do with Housing Act 1988) - which would suit you down to the ground

apparently its only the landlord who has to give 2 months notice. many agents include it as a term in the contract so they have the extra month to market and find new tenants

maybe the 2 months notice clause is classed as being an 'unfair' term? i think you should investigate this option - with CAB maybe , or somone who knows more about tenancy's

clutton_2

""MY question is can letting agency force me to sign the extended contract for that extra month stay""

no - dont sign anything !!

if you sign a 6 or 12 months contract you will be liable for ALL 6/12 months rent payments - even if you move out in 4 or 8 weeks time.

Legally Tenants ONLY have to give one months notice.

musey

garichd wrote:

Yes My current contract expires on 10th sep ( its not the end of 6 month but the end of 2 years , orignall contract 1 year and then extend to 1 year again last year)

now the notice period requirment is 2 months (as per contract) so if i give notice this month then I will have to stay in this property till 10th oct.

MY question is can letting agency force me to sign the extended contract for that extra month stay.

If you signed a new 12 months contract last year and are coming to the end of the fixed term you do not need to give notice (regardless of what the agreement says) to leave at the end of the fixed term (ie. 10th September) that is why it is a fixed term. For politeness sake I would let the landlord/agent know you will be leaving at the end of the fixed term as is your right.

See information given in this thread which backs up my advice.
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3108&highlight=fixed+term

Do you want to stay until 10th October?

garichd

musey wrote:

If you signed a new 12 months contract last year and are coming to the end of the fixed term you do not need to give notice (regardless of what the agreement says) to leave at the end of the fixed term (ie. 10th September) that is why it is a fixed term. For politeness sake I would let the landlord/agent know you will be leaving at the end of the fixed term as is your right.

See information given in this thread which backs up my advice.
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3108&highlight=fixed+term

Do you want to stay until 10th October?

Hi Musey,

No, I don't want to stay till 10th October.

I didn't sign the new contract last year but extended the contract.
What I sign was just a paper, which summarize that my contract has been extended and there is no change in terms and conditions. (Agency charged my 58 pounds for that)

Also not sure how the contract will be classified as fixed contract.
According to me my contract was fixed for the first six months of tenancy (11 Sep 2004 to 10 March 2005). After that I can leave any time by giving 2 months notice on the rent day. Which is 10th of every month.

Gari…