Advice on a tenancy agreement required please

Gazbarn

Hello All,

I am a newbie here but I wondered if someone could offer me some advice please?
I recently left a flat where I had lived for two years, I had faxed the letting agent two months prior to the end of the tenancy agreement to let them know I was leaving. (I do not have a copy of this fax).

When I renewed my tenancy initially for a further 12 months it was following a letter sent two months prior from the letting agents with a revised rental offer etc, as I had heard nothing from them this year I assumed all was ok.

I then contacted them a few weeks ago to enquire about a reference and they said they had received no prior contact from me. I send another letter via email and fax this time and they then advised me I was due to give a full months notice even though my 12 month renewal had ended. I asked them to point this out in my tenancy agreement twice and received no reply. There is nothing mentioning any notice that the tenant must give in my agreement.

I considered the matter closed thereafter.

My tenancy agreement is headed up as an assured shorthold tenancy agreement.
I have now been contacted by my landlord chasing me for the additional months rent. I have finally received some advices from the letting agent and they have pointed me in the direction of the landlordzone website

“At the end of this fixed term the tenancy rolled into a periodic contract whereby 1 months notice was required under Statute Law. Please see link below explaining procedure for serving notice by a tenant.”


Can anyone advise me exactly where I stand as the advice I have read online seems contradictory at best, regardless of how unfair it seems to me that I should be due to pay additional rent after the end of my agreement following no contact whatsoever from the letting agent with a revised offer or anything of the sort as I had received prior to the end of my initial 12 months.

Worst case scenario am I due to pay an additional months rent? I have also found that the flat became occupied again on the 15th of this month (my tenancy expired on the 3rd June would this affect how much I may be due for?)

Thanks for your help in advance.

jjlandlord

When did the last tenancy agreement started? How long was the term?
When did you vacate?
Did you inform the agent/landlord?
When did you stop paying rent?

If they re-let the flat, you tenancy ended when the new one began, and you're not liable for rent from then on.

BitterAndTwisted

The OP claims he informed the agent by fax. A fax which they now claim they did not receive.

I'd like the OP to confirm but the their post sounded to me like they signed a second 12 month AST and thought they were giving two month's written notice. Two month's notice which they were not legally-bound to give.

Note: the landlord will have a hard job persuading the deposit-protection scheme's arbitrators that they were entitled to claim two lots of rent for the same period.

Kynthia

I'm confused, are you trying to leave at the end of the fixed term or after? If you are trying to leave after the fixed term has expired you are on a Statutory Periodic Tenancy and have to give one month's notice aligned to the tenancy periods.

BitterAndTwisted

Have left.

"I had faxed the letting agent two months prior to the end of the tenancy agreement". Sounds pretty clear to me that the OP wasn't on a periodic and never had been

G_M

The OP'spost is a bit confused, so just to be sure, we need to know:

* date tenancy started?
* Tenancy was 12 months, yes?
* Date tenancy was renewed?
* for another 12 months?

If the last 12 month tenancy has already ended, you are on a Periodic tenancy and have to give a full rental period notice, preferably by letter to the address "for the serving of notices".

If you left on or before the end of the 12 month fixed term, you do not have to give ANY notice, but must pay rent up till the end of the fixed term.

More here.