Landlord wants to change contract

ValHaller

absolute0 wrote: »

Am I within my rights to ask for proof of the mortgage criteria?
The agency were indicating that it would be confidential.

Absolutely within your rights to ask, just as much as if you asked the colour of their underwear. But less likely to get the information.

But what good is proof going to do you? You sound like if they proved it to you, you would pay up. It is more sensible to accept the argument about the mortgage at face value and say that it is the Landlord's problem not yours, so the Landlord should pay the agreement fee.

Excited13

Have you contacted your landlord? When my initial 6 months came up the agent contacted me to resign and wanted another £120. I contacted my landlord and he agreed to get another contract drawn up and we could sign it privately. I am just about to sign again although I am in the process of looking to buy I wanted the security and last time I was in the process of buying the first property fell through.

thelem

All the advice above assumes you are in England or Wales.

The landlord's mortgage criteria are irrelevant - what matters is the contract you have with your landlord, and that says that after the fixed period if no action is taken then you will go on to a rolling contract where you need to give one month's notice, and the landlord needs to give two. The only benefit to you of signing a new contract is that the landlord would need to give you upto five months notice, instead of the two he'd need to give you anyway. Disadvantages are the agents fees, hassle and the longer notice period that you would need to give the landlord.

This is just a trick by the agency to fleece you and the landlord out of £50. My advice is to say you are not willing to discuss it any further with the agency, but will happily discuss it with the landlord directly.

Worst case scenario of ignoring the agent is that you get served two month's notice of eviction, but even if that happens you could still agree to renew and they would be unlikely to still want to evict you.

rpc

Aside from the advice given above regarding your statutory rights, you cannot backdate a contract.

If you want the security of a 6 month fixed term, by all means sign it.

If you don't want that security, don't sign it.