Are these terms fair? Tenancy question.

MoonJelly

Hello All. I have a question and maybe you can offer some insight into this, please? We are a UK family living abroad. For health and school reasons I am returning to the UK with our son. My husband will stay in the Gulf to work and will be paying my rent in the UK. We liked one property and entered negotiations with the agent. We provided full references and salary certificate from my husband's employer. The agent however came back saying that because I'm a housewife (at the moment, hoping to find a job in the UK when I return) the LL wanted 6 months paid in advanced. We said yes. Then the agent came back saying that because of tax reasons the LL wanted monthly payments instead. Again we said yes. Then the agent came back and said the LL had changed her mind and now wanted all 12 months in advance. We said yes but requested a copy of the rental agreement to see the T&C. We got a blank, generic form, not filled at all but it says that if we choose to move out before the end of the contract we won't see any money back (after all we already paid for the year in advance). Sorry for the long post but my question is this: How far are these terms? Is it normal to ask for a whole year in advance in these circumstances? Is the agent or LL is so flaky at the moment, how are they likely to be once they've got a year's rent in their pockets? Help.

poppysarah

Find another landlord.

Take the hint that they are not cut out to be landlords.

princeofpounds

It isn't that normal to ask for a whole year in advance, although I can understand it if the contract is 12 months without a break clause and the landlord is super-conservative. The logic being that the paying tenant/guarantor is not chase-able abroad if they stop paying. 6 months is more conventional, but it's nothing more than a convention.

The clause isn't particularly regular but neither is is all that necessary. Once you sign a rental contract you have to pay that money anyway, unless there are very exceptional circumstances like the contract being frustrated as the house falls down. So without a break clause I don't know how you would move out without owning the money anyway.

I would have some concerns that the landlord has cashflow issues if they are so keen to get so much money upfront. 6 months is less of an issue as if the landlord gets repossessed you probably won't lose much if any money given the amount of time the process takes. 12 months is a risk.

But overall, it seems most likely to me that the landlord is just very conservative and somewhat indecisive.

Have you considered just doing an intial 6 month deal?

MoonJelly

princeofpounds wrote: »

I would have some concerns that the landlord has cashflow issues if they are so keen to get so much money upfront. 6 months is less of an issue as if the landlord gets repossessed you probably won't lose much if any money given the amount of time the process takes. 12 months is a risk.

But overall, it seems most likely to me that the landlord is just very conservative and somewhat indecisive.

Have you considered just doing an intial 6 month deal?

I have just emailed the agent asking for a 6 months deal. I know the LL wants a whole year but it is a lot of money to put in the hands of a indecisive LL. What bothers me most is the fact the agent cannot be bothered to produce a contract and emails a blank proforma instead, with strange innacuracies such as a reference to mowing the lawn when there there isn't a lawn -it is a flat! :shocked: , as well as payment by instalments when this clearly doesn't apply. :huh:. It looks to me like the agent hope to muddle through and somehow hope that it will be sorted on the day. Or is it that this is what agents do until the moment of signing a contract?

propertyman

Relax, you could be overthinking this

Paying 6 or 12 months rent in advance is unusual, and landlords used to monthly payments might be a little confused and become indecisive until they are comfortable with it. They might have called their accountant who said not to worry about the tax issue.

At this early stage it is unlikely that the agent will go to trouble of taking a pro-forma agreement and putting in the details, as after all that is all that they will do....

Just cross out mowing the lawn....some flats do have gardens. You can set out any amendments you need in reply.

If it is 12 month tenancy with no tenants break clause then you are stuck with 12 months anyway! You can move out early but are on the hook.

A recent case in Brighton ruled that 6 month in advance might be a deposit so the agreement must say that rent is x for the year, due as, say, 1st August £ ( 6 months rent) and then 1st February £ (one month) etc.

Good luck with the deal

MoonJelly

Thank you for the replies. I have sent an email to the agent so we'll see what they say. I understand the LL is an elderly lady and her affairs are handled by a daughter so maybe this is why they keep going back and forth about how much money they want in advance. We wanted monthly payments but they might worry about hubby not paying -I can understand this. I certainly didn't want a 12 month month tenancy with no tenants break clause -it was the LL's idea!

In the meantime we are looking at another property because we don't want to end up empty handed.

MoonJelly

Well the agent replied to ask if why we have problems paying for a year in advance (we don't) and that they don't do a fully filled contract. Given that I am 4 days away from signing over £8k I really would appreciate seeing a fully filled draft of a contract. I am traveling from abroad the day before the signing of this lease and I'm boud to be jet-lagged (and dragging a tired 6yo to boot) so I am worried abou putting my name to a document without having proper time to read it. I'm thinking about pulling out of the deal. I will be loosing the reference admin fee but...

BitterAndTwisted

Tell them that you won't have a problem paying the 12 months in advance because you've budgeted for it but you don't want to be tied into such a very long contract in the first instance with a landlord who is an unknown quantity to you. I think that's a perfectly fair position.

jamie11

There is a possibility that because you are paying 6/12 months rent all in one go then any statutory periodic tenancy that may follow would also be 6/12 months.

You may not know what a SPT is. Recently there have been thoughts that if you are paying 6 months up front then the agreement should in fact be for 7 months with the final month's rent to be paid at the 6 month point, this will then mean any SPT that follows will be monthly. It is important that you understand what an SPT is, so do a little reading.

Another thing, a judge in Brighton has recently ruled that in a tenancy where the 6 months was paid in full then the whole of the 6 months rent was in fact a deposit and should have been protected in a deposit protection scheme. Crazy decision but he's the judge.