Costs of Renewing A Private Tenancy??

essexhoney

I moved into my current property back in November last year. It's a 2 bedroom second floor flat, the rent is £600pcm.

I initially paid a total deposit of £1550. This consisted of
£200 Initial Deposit
£1200 Security Payment
£150 Admin Fee

My tenancy is due to expire on the 8th May 2007. I have this morning recieved a letter from the letting agents saying:

The tenancy agreement for the above property is due to oexpire on the 8th May 2007. However we need to know if you would like to renew the tenancy as you are required to give two months notice should you wish to vacate.

We would also like to carry out a routine inspection of your property so i would be grateful if you could contact me to make an appointment.

Please could you sign and date the enclosed letter, delete the applicable line and return it in the pre paid envelope.

If you would like to renew your agreement, please enclose a cheque for £20 made payable to northwood to cover the cost of the new agreement and a new contract will be sent to you in due course. if for any reason we are unable to renew your agreement the £20 administration fee will be refunded to you.

Now there are a couple of things that appear a bit strange to me in that letter.

The first is a routine inspection was done unannounced about 3 weeks ago.
The other is the £20 administration fee for renewing my tenancy. There is nothing in any of the paperwork to say that if i wished to continue my tenancy after the 6 months had ended i needed to pay further administration fees on top of what i have already paid, and they certainly didnt mention it at the time neither.

Can they do this? Its not so much the £20 thats a problem, its more the principle of it and the fact that they never bothered to tell me about it before i signed the tenancy.
With my previous tenancy I paid a one off payment of £150 for admin fees and i was charged no more than that over the period of 4 years i was living there.

If anyone could offer any advice i would really appreciate it.

clutton_2

if it is not in any paper work which you have signed, then i doubt they can charge. £20 is very very low for a resign fee. Re inspection - if you arfe leaving (which they dont yet know) they will need to do a final inspection for you to get your deposit back.

olly300

They can't inspect or enter the property without giving you "reasonable" notice, in your contract it's probably 24 hours. So it's a violation of the agreement if they turned up and enter the property without telling you.

As clutton said they do need to inspect the property to give you your deposit back. This can be done after you leave the property but then you risk not getting your deposit back at all, so it's better to have it done while you are there and in your presence.

If you have all the paperwork from that letting agent and they don't indicate that they will charge you for continuing your tenancy then it's an unfair charge and you shouldn't pay it.

You can probably tell them on your own that you are not going to pay it but if you feel intimidated i.e think the letting agent will try and let the place to someone else, I would contact the CAB and get them to contact the letting agent for you. If you do go the CAB reason the point about the letting agent entering the property without giving you notice.

prudryden

The one thing that bothers me about your letting agent is the fact they say you have to give them two months notice. If this is a 6 month AST, you do not have to give any notice to leave on the last day of the contract, because the contract is terminated automatically unless you stay pass the deadline.

Tell them you want to go periodic or you want a longer extension than 6 months.

MissMuppet

I recently had a similar problem. I signed a 6 month tenancy last January and then in July went on to periodic... Since then the landlord changed and he wanted to increase my rent. He had to give me 2 months notice of the increase or I had to give 2 months notice to leave.

Anyway I arranged a date to go and sign the new tenancy and the day before they decided to tell me I had to pay a £50 + VAT admin fee for the new tenancy. I wasn't very happy!!! I got my agreement out and it did say in it that this was the case so I didn't really have a hope in hell. I couldn't stay on periodic as the rent had changed and apparently they have to draw up a new tenancy.

So I paid the money... anyway I now need to end my tenancy early as I'm being made redundant, and guess what they want £250 off me!!

Estate agents are money grabbing b******s!! :mad:

essexhoney

I have an attached sheet of paper attached to my tenancy which says:

Attaching to and forming part of an assured shorthold tenancy agreement.

it is hereby understood and agreed that the following conditions shall apply to this tenancy:

the tenant agrees
not to enter into tenancy agreement or contractual commitment in respect of the premises with the superior landlord either during or up to 6 months after the determination of the tenancy.

that where the tenant is in breach of this clause hereof to pay the landlord the equivalent of 4 months rent as defined in this agreement.

Clause (16) give the landlord at least 2 calendar months notice in writing when the tenant wishes to end the tenancy provided always that such notice shall not expire earlier than the end of the fixed term (in simple terms this means any notice to the landlord to end this agreement can only be given on month four of any six month term)

All other terms and conditions remain unchanged.

I have agreed to this and signed it

With regards to the unannounced inspection i didnt think too much of it at the time, i just presumed that i had agreed to that time and date when i was signing all the paperwork and had forgotten about it however looking back through the paperwork there is nothing in there to state when they would be doing an inspection - just that i agree to an inspection in 3 months time

prudryden

Go to the SHELTER website. It states that a tenant does not have to give notice to leave at the end of a fixed term contract. My Letting Agents have told me that this is correct. Hopefully, SHELTER doesn't provide erroneous information as important as this.

My contracts have the same clause about notification, but, evidently, it isn't worth much at the end of an AST period.

I know you aren't looking to leave, but it just bothers me that Letting Agents may have gotten this wrong.

essexhoney

To be honest i sort of am looking to leave, but didnt exactly feel ready to make that desicion if you know what i mean.

Although i havent been here long a lot of stuff has happened and there are a lot of bad memories here. Im just not sure of the best way to go about it at the moment.

It also states in my tenancy that they wont give my deposit back until the 28th day after me vacating the premises which leaves me stuck as i cant afford a deposit on another place without it

olly300

The service provided by the OP Letting Agent seems to fall foul of the unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations so it doesn't matter whether the agreement is signed or not. If a contract is unfair it can't be enforced.

The inspection thing is unreasonable. What does your actual tenancy agreement say about the landlord or their agents giving notice to enter the premises? Normal agreements give 48 to 24 hours notice. So even if you agreed for them to come in 3 months time they needed to have given you a specific date and time. The letting agent is an agent of the landlord as they act for them. However they are not the landlord unless they have been written on your tenancy agreement as the landlord of the property.

The ending contracts thing definitely falls foul of the unfair terms in consumer contracts.

The right to not go directly with the landlord seems the only fair clause you have signed.

Shelter gives good housing advice and the OP should try and contact them via the phone or by email. Alternatively make an appointment at your local CAB to see a housing advisor, and take all the tenancy information with you. Mention the agency you contacted when you talk to the letting agent as they know you are not talking rubbish.

I would also be tempted to inform the local trading standards about this letting agent due to their actions and the wording of the contracts.

essexhoney

The only things it says in the tenancy about access are:

Permit the landlord or workmen appointed by the landlord to enter the property at reasonable hours during the tenancy subject to prior notice except in an emergency to view the state and condition and to carry out any necessary repairs or for any other reason required under the super lease being the lease granted by the superior landlord to the landlord.

permit the landlord at reasonable hours in the daytime within the last 28 days of the tenancy to enter and view the property with prospective tenants.

thesaint

Whatever the tenancy says, you do not have to let anyone in.
Your statuory rights supercede the ones in your tenancy agreement.
It would not be a good idea to refuse them willy nilly, because of them asking you to leave after giving the correct notice.

Who is the superior landlord?