Tenant Notice in Short Term Agreement

mikegeordie

I've been reading the posts and came to conclusion that tenants have to give 1 month notice and LL 2months notice. In the past I remember LL asking me to give 2 months of notice.

I checked the agreement but couldn't find this clauses, may be I need to read it again.

Question is what is law, can LL impose 2 months notice clause for tenants?

N79

Assuming English law and an AST:

T can leave at the end of a fixed term without giving notice (although it is polite and normal practice to give as much notice as possible).

T can leave a periodic tenancy with a least 1 months notice ending on the final day of a rental period.

Jeffrey_Shaw

N79 wrote: »

Assuming English law and an AST:

T can leave at the end of a fixed term without giving notice (although it is polite and normal practice to give as much notice as possible).

T can leave a periodic tenancy with a least 1 months notice ending on the final day of a rental period.

Yes, plus:
a. that applies also to a Standard Assured Tenancy (not just an AST); and
b. T may also be able to use a break clause, if there is one.

theartfullodger

N79 wrote: »

...........

T can leave a periodic tenancy with a least 1 months notice ending on the final day of a rental period.

...at least one month's notice ending on 1st day or final day of a subsequent rental period - see..
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/renting_and_leasehold/private_tenancies/assured_shorthold_tenancies#2

Notice

If you have a periodic tenancy (which means that the original fixed-term has ended and your tenancy runs from week to week or month to month), you have to give one month's notice in writing, or longer if you pay your rent less often. The notice should end on the first or last day of the period of a tenancy. Once the notice ends, your tenancy ends and you no longer have any right to live in your home.

Case law - Crate V Miller, 1947 I think..

Jeffrey_Shaw

I would not say The notice should end on the first or last day of the period of a tenancy.
The Notice period end has to coincide with an SPT period end. 'On' a day is asking for trouble. 'Up to and including' is better.

may_fair

theartfullodger wrote: »

Case law - Crate V Miller, 1947 I think..

Correct.

I've never been able to find the actual judgment online, but it's referred to in McDonald v Fernandez 2003 - "This was followed in Crate v Miller [1947] 1 KB 946, where this Court held that a weekly tenancy which begins on Saturday may be determined validly by notice to quit either on Friday or Saturday. Both are equally intimations that tenant is to quit when the current period ends."

Jeffrey_Shaw

But beware of over-reliance on elderly caselaw relating to common-law lettings. The 1988 Act is more relevant, surely.

may_fair

Jeffrey_Shaw wrote: »

But beware of over-reliance on elderly caselaw relating to common-law lettings. The 1988 Act is more relevant, surely.

If you mean s.21, this does not indicate the requirements for a T's notice to quit; s.21(4)(a) specifies that the LL's notice must expire "after a date specified in the notice, being the last day of a period of the tenancy" but this does not imply that a T's NTQ must be expressed in the same way, e.g. "after 12th May 2011".

Crate v Miller appears to have established that a T's notice to quit expiring on the last or first day of a period indicates that the tenant's notice expires at the end of a tenancy period, i.e. at midnight of the last day of the period - not in the middle of the last or first day. One assumes that this is why Shelter advises the same.

Can you cite any recent case law to support your ["better"] suggestion that T's NTQ should be expressed as expiring "up to and including 12th May 2011"?

Jeffrey_Shaw

No, other than that legislation post-dating reported caselaw generally makes the caselaw unreliable.

may_fair

From Laine v Cadwallader [2000] EWCA Civ 5562:

"In the present case the judge...seems to have overlooked the tenant's obligation to serve notice to quit if he wishes unilaterally to determine a periodic tenancy, an obligation which is not ousted by any statutory provision in the Housing Act 1988."

Jeffrey_Shaw

Excellent news. Thanks for the pointer.