Useless agents made a mistake in tenancy agreement

elvis86

Let me start by explaining that our letting agents are absolutely useless. Nothing is ever resolved by just one phone call. Without fail, the umpteenth time you call to chase something, you are told that "X is on holiday, that's probably why it's not been progressed" (in my office we have this clever system whereby someone goes on leave, and their colleagues cover them, I suggested that my letting agents may wish to adopt this model, but they weren't keen).

But, we like our flat and as we're looking to make a big move next year, we don't want to move in the meantime. So, we dutifully attended at the letting agents' office yesterday, our £30 (each) renewal fee in hand (don't get me started on that!:mad:), to renew our tenancy. In email exchanges with the letting agents, we had agreed to renew on the proviso that our sofas (which were riffy when we moved in 3 years ago, and are now falling to bits) were replaced and some repairs (which have been required for 2 years) were made to the bathrooms. We also agreed to the obligatory £20 rent increase that our landlord likes to hit us with in return for being such good tenants.:cool:

Anyway, upon reading the contract that both we and the letting agents' representative (on behalf of the landlord) had signed, we realised that the idiots have forgotten to amend the rent payable. Everything else (the dates of the agreements etc) are correct, they just forgot to apply the £20 increase.

My question to you good people is, could their utter carelessness and incompetency actually work in our favour this time? Presumably the new agreement is legally binding?:cool: Hopefully by the time the first payment under the new terms is due, the repairs will have been carried out and the new sofas delivered. If we simply fail to amend our standing order, and when challenged by the letting agents, refer them to the contract that they issued us with, are we legally within our rights to refuse to pay the higher rate?

poppysarah

Is a £20 rent increase still good value compared to having moved? I'd have argued against it.

If it's been signed then technically that's it... if they are that pants though they might not even notice.

terryw

The English courts have used the equitable doctrine of rectification as a remedy to amend the terms of a written contract where such terms do not accurately reflect what was agreed between the parties. This is usually because one or both of the parties has made a mistake in stating the terms of the contract or because certain terms have been excluded from the contract altogether.

Having said that, just pay the amount in the contract and hope that it does not get noticed!

elvis86

Oh, I'm sure it will be noticed. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I assume we pay rent to the letting agents and they pass it on (less their commission?) to our landlord. He'll notice.

I have gotten frustrated with our landlord in the past, but in fairness most of that is probably down to the agents making communication between us difficult (eg never being able to get hold of the landlord to approve repairs etc). I do feel a little bit bad using a technicality to short-change him (I'm a pretty honest person!), but these letting agents have caused us so many problems. I can't help but think of it as compensation!:D

The only potential negative I can think of, is if the landlord sees his !!!!! and decides to serve us notice (we have a 2 month break clause). But if I were the landlord, I wouldn't want to lose good tenants because of my letting agents' !!!!-up. I'd just insist that the letting agents reimbursed me the "lost" rent He pays them to do a job, and they messed up.

sequence

elvis86 wrote: »

The only potential negative I can think of, is if the landlord sees his !!!!! and decides to serve us notice (we have a 2 month break clause). But if I were the landlord, I wouldn't want to lose good tenants because of my letting agents' !!!!-up. I'd just insist that the letting agents reimbursed me the "lost" rent He pays them to do a job, and they messed up.

So you just paid £30 each to have a periodic tenancy you could have gotten for free, doh!

elvis86

sequence wrote: »

So you just paid £30 each to have a periodic tenancy you could have gotten for free, doh!

I'm sorry, I don't understand this?

We have a 12 month tenancy agreement with a 2 month break clause. Each year, the agents contact us a couple of months prior to the expiry of our current agreement and ask us to confirm whether we wish to renew.

A friend has suggested that legally the letting agents shouldn't charge a renewal fee, but their referencing fees are £160 each (despite taking my employers' details, they never contacted them, presumably it costs £160 to run a credit check these days), so I think in that respect they are a law unto themselves!

Werdnal

Personally, I would say if you and the LA (on behalf of the LL) have signed the contract, then leave the rent as it is until the LL notices. Then you can politely point out that the document you signed does not show the increase, so he can pursue the LA to make up the difference due to their incompetence! Obviously, you can then pay the difference if this doesn't work, but the LL should first take it up with them.

Regarding renewing, you do not have to sign a new contract every year to remain in the property. Once the existing fixed term contract has expired, you automatically get a periodic tenancy, with all the terms still in place, except you only have to give 1 month's notice to leave. However, many LLs like the security of having you tied in for another fixed term, and it gives them the opportunity to make revisions to the rent when you sign the new contract - or not in your case LOL! It also gives you the security of a fixed term with no chance of LL giving you notice either, so can work both ways. Your 2 month break clause seems a little unusual though - on a 12 month contract its more normal to set a 6 month break, so basically any security of the 12 month contract, seems to be overridden by that.

It obviously also allows the LA to charge you hansomely for the priviledge of printing off almost identical paperwork and asking you to sign it!

elvis86

Werdnal wrote: »

Personally, I would say if you and the LA (on behalf of the LL) have signed the contract, then leave the rent as it is until the LL notices. Then you can politely point out that the document you signed does not show the increase, so he can pursue the LA to make up the difference due to their incompetence!

This is exactly my plan, this doesn't come into effect until the end of June, so I'll hopefully have my nice new sofas by then, and the bathrooms are supposedly being repaired today.:)

Werdnal wrote: »

Regarding renewing, you do not have to sign a new contract every year to remain in the property. Once the existing fixed term contract has expired, you automatically get a periodic tenancy, with all the terms still in place, except you only have to give 1 month's notice to leave.!

Is this a legal entitlement? I don't think my letting agents would allow this. I get the impression when they contact us in tghe last 2 months of our agreements, that if we don't renew we effectively agree to move out? Like it's one or the other?

Werdnal wrote: »

However, many LLs like the security of having you tied in for another fixed term, and it gives them the opportunity to make revisions to the rent when you sign the new contract - or not in your case LOL! It also gives you the security of a fixed term with no chance of LL giving you notice either, so can work both ways.

It obviously also allows the LA to charge you hansomely for the priviledge of printing off almost identical paperwork and asking you to sign it!

You got that bit right.:cool: It's disgusting really, as well as the original marketing fee and percentage of our rent that they must charge the landlord, they've had £440 from us over the last 2 years, all for printing out 3 contracts and providing a pen for us to sign them with! It makes me mad. They could at least provide a decent service to justify the charges!

Werdnal

To be honest, I am not legally qualified, so would hate to give you the wrong advice, but having been a LL for 10 years now, both through an agent and more recently handing it myself, this is what I understand:

Once a fixed term tenancy has expired, you automatically run into a periodic tenancy, providing neither side have given notice.

It seems a bit of a fiddle that the LA/LL contact you 2 months prior to end of your agreement, as if you did refuse to renew, they can then give you a S21 notice to quit within the required 2 months, and you would have to leave.

I think its down to the LL/LA's interpretation of the rules and making them work in their favour.

Every time we have let our flat, we start with a 6 month fixed term and just let it run to periodic once it expires. I have never charged a renewal fee, even when I let with agents, and one tenant started on a 6 month term and was there nearly 6 years!

elvis86

Werdnal wrote: »

To be honest, I am not legally qualified, so would hate to give you the wrong advice, but having been a LL for 10 years now, both through an agent and more recently handing it myself, this is what I understand:

Once a fixed term tenancy has expired, you automatically run into a periodic tenancy, providing neither side have given notice.

It seems a bit of a fiddle that the LA/LL contact you 2 months prior to end of your agreement, as if you did refuse to renew, they can then give you a S21 notice to quit within the required 2 months, and you would have to leave.

I think its down to the LL/LA's interpretation of the rules and making them work in their favour.

Every time we have let our flat, we start with a 6 month fixed term and just let it run to periodic once it expires. I have never charged a renewal fee, even when I let with agents, and one tenant started on a 6 month term and was there nearly 6 years!

Aaaw, you sound like a decent landlord. I'd definitely feel bad fleecing you out of £20 a month!:D

Our tenancy agreement actually states that the tenant must provide confirmation of their intention to renew 2 months prior to the expiration of the current agreement, and that if we don't do so by the time expiration is a month away, it is assumed that we wish to vacate the property and must permit viewings to take place.

We are issued with a Notice Requiring Posession when we sign our contract, presumably this is done so the landlord can turf us out at will?:cool: Well, with 2 months notice as stated in our agreemnts (it says that either party can give 2 months notice at any time to end the agreement).

princeofpounds

Yes it's called a statutory periodic tenancy. You switch over as soon as your fixed term runs out, under law. It is the same as your pre-existing tenancy in all respects except to the terms related to duration and notice. LL must give you 2 rental periods' notice to leave, you must give one.

LLs sometimes don't like this insecurity and insist on another fixed term or nothing, but most are happy to leave a paying tenant in place, perhaps with a rental revision via S13 notice. After all, if you are worried about someone leaving then if you make them leave you just create the circumstance you were afraid of in the first place!

Sometimes LAs issue S21 notices without the consent of LL in order to force people into renewals they then charge for.

No-one can turf you out at will. It requires a court hearing even if an S21 notice issued - all an S21 effectively is is a warning that the LL may go to court to terminate a tenancy. It has no power in itself.

And serving S21s early can often make them become invalid - wrong dates, deposit not protected when served, not clearly dated after contract etc.

As for viewings, you can refuse them. You have a right to quiet enjoyment.