Renting help

Denster83

I am about to complete my 6mth tenancy agreement. During this time my GF and i found out she was pregnant. After speaking to the landlord about this directly he is happy for us to stay in the prperty but doesnt want us to sign a further fixed tenancy agreement. The estate agent however want to charge us £50 plus VAT to change the tenacy to a rolling contract. Can they do this? Please help?

BitterAndTwisted

Ignore the agent. Continue paying the rent as normal.

Denster83

This is the letter/email we received

Dear XXXXXX

We recently contacted you to advise that your landlord would be happy to renew your tenancy but this would be on the Contractual periodic tenancy, a rolling contract.

A rolling contract is whereby your tenancy rolls on without an expiry date. This is a more flexible agreement as either party can bring the agreement to an end at any time by giving two months notice to terminate the agreement and has only has one renewal fee for the issuing of the rolling contract.

If you could confirm you are happy to proceed on this basis so we may notify your landlord and organise new agreements for you to sign.

Best wishes

Werdnal

Agent's letter is wrong, you only need give 1 month's written notice to end the tenancy once its rolling, not 2. Agent/LL needs to give you 2 months.

By law, a tenancy automatically becomes rolling or periodic 1 minute past midnight on the day after the fixed term ends. Greedy LA is implying you need to sign something to accept this - you don't. All the terms and conditions of your original fixed term agreement remain unchanged, other than the notice details I stated above. You do not need to sign or renew anything!

I would politely write back to the agent and tell them that is the legal position and they can stick their renewal fee where the sun don't shine.

G_M

If you could confirm you are happy to proceed on this basis so we may notify your landlord and organise new agreements for you to sign.

The whole point about a rolling periodic contract is that it is a continuation of the existing contract. Therefore no new agreement needs to be signed!
Write back to the landlord, sending a copy to the agent, saying you are happy for the existing contract to continue on a roling periodic basis. Do and say nothing about the renewal fee.
Perhaps speak to the LL and check that he realises there is no need for a new contract. The agent is probobly trying to charge him an unecessary fee too!

Werdnal

OP remember, some LAs are devious and try to catch the unwary tenant and/or landlord for every penny they can squeeze out of them, whilst some are just plain ignorant (there is no minimum qualification to become an agent so anyone can do it), and they may not even understand the laws themselves.

Give them the benefit of the doubt that it is the latter!!!

theartfullodger

The Agent is proposing a NEW agreement but with no initial fixed term, and wants to charge £50 for this.

He can propose this (it's legal) - you can get the same result by ignoring them and saving £50. They'll hate you if yo take this approach.

It really is exttraordinary the lengths agents will go to to charge a fee.

Some consider that adding a clause with 2months notice creates a CONTRACTUAL tenancy with that notice period. You'd only find out if this is the case when the matter got to court.

What's weird is all this palaver must be costing agent more than £50....

Denster83

This is my reply. Is this ok?

Thanks all


We are very happy at the above address and after speaking to the landlord in person he is more than happy for us to stay as tenants. We are happy to continue on a rolling contractual basis. I do not however understand the need to charge a fee for this as other agencies we have dealt with have just rolled the contract on automatically. I would be more than happy to pay the charge if the contract was for a fixed term i do however feel that the contract terms your proposing are the same as if we had just come out of a fixed base contract. Therefore no charge should be required for us to do this.

theartfullodger

I wouldn't even bother to reply, but that's not what you are asking...


You're offerring to pay a fee if there is an initial fixed term: So they offer a contract with an initial fixed term of 1 month?? (Almost never happens but legal..).


In you shoes I'd thank them kindly for their hard work, interest and offer but decline it..

skintandscared_2

We switched to a rolling contract as we weren't prepared to pay the £50 for renewing the contract. You don't sign anything new, that's the whole point. You don't need to do anything at all. Good luck with the new baby

G_M

Far too long and complicated a reply. Keep it simple. Don't even mention the fee. It's irrelevant.

Write to your landlord, not the agent. That's who your contract is with. Out of politeness, send the agent a copy.

Dear Mr Landlord,
Further to our conversation I am writing to confirm that we are happy to continue to rent your property. The existing contract will therefore continue from (date of end of Fixed Term) on a Periodic basis.

Although we currently have no plans to leave, we will, of course, give appropriate notice to end the contract as and when the time comes.

I'd like to thank you for your ongoing support which has enabled us to live here happily.

With best wishes

A Tenant.