landlord query!!!!!

lost_but_looking

hi,

can anybody help shead some light on a problem for us please??

back in november we sent off another 6mts tenancy agreement with the £40 fee but last wk they said they never recieved it! checked bank and no cheque was cashed so it was cancelled.
we are now in the process of buying and are about 6wks from moving at most. letting agent said today that if we had signed the 6mts we would of been liable for the entire term, but as we hadn't signed it was ok to go on a month by month basis......good, ok. but they still demand the £40 fee!!
can they do this??
also they say we can only give notice on the anniversary of the rental due date....being the 4th of the month they say we can only give them a mts notice at the earliest 4 march as the 4th of feb has passed!!! what is all this about??
can anybody shed any light on this please, can do with out the extra blooming costs!!

silvercar

Forget their fee, why are you paying them for nothing?

No contract extension, so your tenancy is deemed periodic. That's fine you just need to give a months notice to leave. It does need to end on a rent day. SO you give notice that you will be leaving on the 4th March before the 4th of Feb or give notice on or before the 4th of March that you will leave by 4th April.

Be very careful of giving notice before you have exchanged contracts, if there is a delay on your sale you will be homeless.

rosysparkle

I doubt you should have to pay the £40 but you need to check your agreement with them to see what it says about contract renewals.

If the rent day is the 4th you give notice by the 4th to leave on the following 3rd of the month (give notice by 4th March to leave 3rd April). 4th of April is the first day of a new tenancy period.

To be fair, if Royal Mail had done their job properly you'd be £40 down plus held to the 6 months contract until it expired unless the property could be relet.

Have you exchanged yet? I would be very wary of assuming a timescale for completion until after exchange.

lost_but_looking

thanks for the replies,
just spoken to the litigation dept of the solicitors firm and they say that we shouldn't need to pay, also they say that we can give notice anytime no matter when as if we were to leave mid month they should allow for part payment so to speak. also they say that when writting our letter we are entitled to state a date but also make sure it is subject to change so long as they are informed of any changes in good time.
they claim that any reputable letting agent should comply with this as its well within the law.

lost_but_looking

also forgot to say that we are about to exchange contracts.....well its sat downstairs waiting for us to have it witnessed, and there are no chains etc and sol believes we'l have keys by end of month anyways.

silvercar

lost_but_looking wrote:

thanks for the replies,
just spoken to the litigation dept of the solicitors firm and they say that we shouldn't need to pay, also they say that we can give notice anytime no matter when as if we were to leave mid month they should allow for part payment so to speak. also they say that when writting our letter we are entitled to state a date but also make sure it is subject to change so long as they are informed of any changes in good time.
they claim that any reputable letting agent should comply with this as its well within the law.

Check CAB and letting websites; you will find this is not true!

lost_but_looking wrote:

also forgot to say that we are about to exchange contracts.....well its sat downstairs waiting for us to have it witnessed, and there are no chains etc and sol believes we'l have keys by end of month anyways.

Once your solicitor receives the contract he will then arrange for exchange to take place. Don't assume that, because you have signed the contract, exchange has happened.

prudryden

lost_but_looking wrote:

thanks for the replies,
just spoken to the litigation dept of the solicitors firm and they say that we shouldn't need to pay, also they say that we can give notice anytime no matter when as if we were to leave mid month they should allow for part payment so to speak. also they say that when writting our letter we are entitled to state a date but also make sure it is subject to change so long as they are informed of any changes in good time.
they claim that any reputable letting agent should comply with this as its well within the law.

£40 fee is probably legally due depending on the contract you agreed to, but you can choose not to pay. I would expect them to write it off as it is fairly small.

Your tenancy automatically rolled over into a periodic by law when they accepted your rent payment for the month after the AST expired.

Read the contract you signed, it probably states that you have to give notice before the next rent day in order to leave the following month, as was pointed out by the others.

I'm surprised at your solicitor's response. Just bear in mind that solicitors generally win only 50% of their cases in court. Where one solicitor wins, another loses. In other words, don't take their word for gospel.

lost_but_looking

think we'l gonna play it by ear for now then having read all your comments...also spend some time to fully read up on the old contract.
though in our last place we rented the letting agent said it's quite common to end mid month as we requested this last time.
anyways off to do some reading i think.

lost_but_looking

not a sausage in my agreement stating notice timescales for moving out, nor if it should be on rent due dates!!!!!!!!!

prudryden

lost_but_looking wrote:

not a sausage in my agreement stating notice timescales for moving out, nor if it should be on rent due dates!!!!!!!!!

That's very interesting. Nothing on or near the last page under the title Early termination?