Letting agent wants to charge me for rolling contract

marvelman1985

Hi everyone,

I am currently the tenant renting a 2-bed property where the original tenancy agreement expired in June 2012.

My tenancy agreement states...

"1.6.1 The Term shall be from and including 22 December 2011 to and including 21 June 2012 and the Monthly periodic."

I have just this week received a letter from my letting agent stating that "it has come to our attention that the tenancy agreement for [the property] expired on 21/06/2012. We require confirmation whether you would like to renew the tenancy or terminate the agreement, which requires you to give two months' notice should you wish to vacate."

It then presents me with three options...

1. Renew the tenancy for a further 6 months.
2. Renew the tenancy for a further 12 months.
3. Continue the tenancy on a periodic basis (on a two month rolling contract) where all the T&C's of the original agreement will still stand [i.e. what am I currently doing and have been doing for the last 4 months!]

All well and good, but for all three options I am asked to pay them £50 for the privilege!

As it is my intention to take option 3 (as I already have been doing!), my understanding of the original agreement (as quoted above) is that I do not have to confirm anything with them, and certainly do not have to pay any fee for them to effectively to do nothing!

Any help or advice from you guys appreciated - am I going mad?!

Thanks in advance.

Fire_Fox

It's worth running an advanced search, this has come up many times.

The tenancy agreement has not expired, the FIXED TERM has expired. If you are in England or Wales tenants must give ONE months notice to quit - assuming you pay monthly - coinciding with a rent period.
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/notice_to_quit.htm

You do not have to pay anything to continue on a periodic tenancy, that would be deemed and unfair and unenforceable charge since there is no administration work required. Check your AST and associated documents for notification of any charges, write directly to your landlord confirming you intend to do nothing and remain on a statutory periodic tenancy if you want to bypass the agency. Or you can just ignore the letter!

G_M

Dear Mr Landlord,

Thank you for your letter dated xx/xx/xxxx.

You are correct that my 6 month fixed term contract ended on 21st June of this year.

Since that time I have been on a monthly Statutory Periodic Tenancy and as you are aware there is no requirement for any further action at this time.

I continue to be happy with the property and have no immediate plans to leave. Should my plans change, I shall, of course, let you know in writing with the requisite notice.

Yours sincerely,

A Tenant

Post it to the LL at the address on your tenancy agreement "for the serving of notices", and send a copy to the agent.

Do not enclose or otherwise pay their £50!

read more here:

Ending/Renewing an AST (what happens when the Fixed Term ends?)(What is a Periodic Tenancy?)(How can a LL remove a tenant?)(How can a tenant end a tenancy?)

marvelman1985

Fire_Fox wrote: »

It's worth running an advanced search, this has come up many times.

The tenancy agreement has not expired, the FIXED TERM has expired. If you are in England or Wales tenants must give ONE months notice to quit - assuming you pay monthly - coinciding with a rent period.

You do not have to pay anything to continue on a periodic tenancy, that would be deemed and unfair and unenforceable charge since there is no administration work required. Check your AST and associated documents for notification of any charges, write directly to your landlord confirming you intend to do nothing and remain on a statutory periodic tenancy if you want to bypass the agency. Or you can just ignore the letter!

Thanks Fire Fox - I should have done a search. I've seen how many people have been the victim of this little money making scheme.

There's no mention of any extra charges in my AST pertaining to new agreements or renewals - does anyone have any advice on what my reply to the letter should be? Any particular legislation I can throw at them (I saw something about Housing Act 1985, Section 5) to just nip this in bud without further aggro?

I don't actually know my landlord's contact details but I've also seen in the forum that I can request this within 21 days under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985!

marvelman1985

G_M wrote: »

Dear Mr Landlord,

Thank you for your letter dated xx/xx/xxxx.

You are correct that my 6 month fixed term contract ended on 21st June of this year.

Since that time I have been on a monthly Statutory Periodic Tenancy and as you are aware there is no requirement for any further action at this time.

I continue to be happy with the property and have no immediate plans to leave. Should my plans change, I shall, of course, let you know in writing with the requisite notice.

Yours sincerely,

A Tenant

Post it to the LL at the address on your tenancy agreement "for the serving of notices", and send a copy to the agent.

Do not enclose or otherwise pay their £50!

Gaah! Sorry G_M, I was posting my previous post while you were answering!

Fire_Fox

marvelman1985 wrote: »

Thanks Fire Fox - I should have done a search. I've seen how many people have been the victim of this little money making scheme.

There's no mention of any extra charges in my AST pertaining to new agreements or renewals - does anyone have any advice on what my reply to the letter should be? Any particular legislation I can throw at them (I saw something about Housing Act 1985, Section 5) to just nip this in bud without further aggro?

I don't actually know my landlord's contact details but I've also seen in the forum that I can request this within 21 days under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985!

Good letter from G_M. Yes write the agent for your landlord's address, that sometimes scares agents! http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/landlord's_address.htm

If I were in a vindictive mood I might point out the agent is misleading his tenants and conjuring up charges for a tenancy that has not, in fact, expired at all. And trying to insist on a notice period that is unfair and unenforceable perhaps by adding "requisite notice ... of one full rent period" to G_M's letter. http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/notice_to_quit.htm

G_M

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Good letter from G_M. If I were in a vindictive mood I might point out the agent is misleading his tenants and conjuring up charges for a tenancy that has not, in fact, expired at all. And trying to insist on a notice period that is unfair and unenforceable. Would have thought he is paying them to ensure everything is legal and above board. http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/notice_to_quit.htm

Yup, always tempting, but not worth alienating them unless you're leaving...!

Any particular legislation I can throw at them (I saw something about
Housing Act 1985, Section 5) to just nip this in bud without further aggro?

Housing Act 1988 (section 5)

I don't actually know my landlord's contact details but I've also seen in the
forum that I can request this within 21 days under the Landlord and Tenant Act
1985!

Correct, but more relevant is the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 which says you must have an address "for the serving of notices", and that is where you should write. It may be c/o the agents, or his mum, but that's fine
edit: if you do not have an address "for the serving of notices", you do not have to pay rent.

pinkshoes

Personally I'd just ignore it, as there's nothing they can do!

Fire_Fox

G_M wrote: »

Yup, always tempting, but not worth alienating them unless you're leaving...!

Housing Act 1988 (section 5)


Correct, but more relevant is the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 which says you must have an address "for the serving of notices", and that is where you should write. It may be c/o the agents, or his mum, but that's fine

Sorry, I did my usual edit several times trick whilst you were posting!

cotleigh

Greedy agents often tell tenants that their T.A. has "expired" and then try to make them sign a new one.

From a greedy letting agent's point of view, it's a "win-win":

if the tenant is persuaded to sign up for another 6 / 12 month T.A. then the agent can charge various "renewal" fees to both the landlord and the tenant, for doing almost no work.

if the tenant doesn't want to commit to another fixed term, but believes the agents' lies that if he does not sign a new T.A. he must leave the property, then the agent gets more fees from the landlord for finding a new tenant, and also more fees from the new tenant for "credit checks", inventories, "admin" etc etc.

The landlord would usually be happy for the tenant to stay on, on a periodic tenancy for as long as they want, giving a month's notice whenever they want to move, but the greedy agents don't like that, because it offers less opportunity for them to rip both sides off!

Fire_Fox

I don't have an inherent objection to letting agents turning a profit, but renewal should be controlled by legislation the way notice to quit and rent increase notices are. They should not be permitted to indicate the tenant has no contract, must either leave or pay to renew.