Fee for rolling contract

BillNBob

Ive lost the will to live..............we have just decided to go from a 12 month contract to a month to month contract.
I have just spoken to the agent who said thats fine, I said great as it doesnt incur a fee.
He said it does, he will send out the contract for us to sign and we can pay the £60!!

Does it say anywhere on any legal forms that theres no fee, I havent got the strength to argue this, weve been down that road and I dont want to seem like a tenant who makes a fuss, agent does also charge the LL.
Someone please let me know!

martinsurrey

send a letter to the landlord and the agent stating the following (tart it up if you want):

When the Assured short hold tenancy agreement on XXX house comes to an end on XXX date it will automatically become a Statutory Periodic Tenancy (SPT) as provided by law.

A SPT keeps all terms of the contract the same as the original contract, with the landlord having to provide two months notice and me the tenant one (full rental period months).

As no new contract is required, or will be signed, there will be no fee payable.

chris_m

BillNBob wrote: »

Ive lost the will to live..............we have just decided to go from a 12 month contract to a month to month contract.
I have just spoken to the agent who said thats fine, I said great as it doesnt incur a fee.
He said it does, he will send out the contract for us to sign and we can pay the £60!!

Just to be clear - this is changing to a monthly periodic tenancy at the end of a fixed term, isn't it?
Not somehow having a fixed term changed to a periodic before the expiry of the fixed term? I suspect this is not the case but clarification would be helpful.

If the former, then as martinsurrey said, it would happen by default, therefore no new contract would be required nor any fees due.

If the latter, that would be a different case and the agent might well feel able to justify a fee.

martinsurrey

chris_m wrote: »

Just to be clear - this is changing to a monthly periodic tenancy at the end of a fixed term, isn't it?
Not somehow having a fixed term changed to a periodic before the expiry of the fixed term? I suspect this is not the case but clarification would be helpful.

If the former, then as martinsurrey said, it would happen by default, therefore no new contract would be required nor any fees due.

If the latter, that would be a different case and the agent might well feel able to justify a fee.

What the EA is proposing is to create a new contract that is in effect a SPT, so a new contract with no fixed term, unnecessary, but they’ll get their fees!

dtsazza

BillNBob wrote: »

He said it does, he will send out the contract for us to sign and we can pay the £60!!

The very short answer is that there is no legal need whatsoever to pay this money, or even deal with the agent.

Your current contract will revert to a periodic tenancy at the end of the fixed term. So the new contract that the agent wants to send over (and get paid for) is effectively identical to what would happen if no-one did anything.

No point in paying the agent money for "work" that leads to zero change in circumstances...

G_M

martinsurrey wrote: »

What the EA is proposing is to create a new contract that is in effect a SPT, so a new contract with no fixed term, unnecessary, but they’ll get their fees!

Sort of.

He is proposing to create a Contractual Periodic Tenancy (CPT) instead of a Statutory Periodic Tenancy (SPT).

They are identical, except that the CPT is created by contract (for which he is charging) whereas the SPT is created automatically by Statute (law), so no fee should be charged.

Do NOT sign anything! If you do, you create a CPT!

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?)

BillNBob

I have just received a request to sign an agreement to change our 12 month contract to a rolling month to month which I am happy to do.

I do understand that there should be no charge for this.
I have been told this new agreement will be a Periodic Assured Shorthold Tenancy.
I am reading this to be a contradiction, if it is Assured then should there not be a 6/12 month period and vice versa.

Agent is asking a fee of £60 for this which my landlord is happy to pay her amount (agent doesnt manage this property she does, agent prepares paperwork and thats it) so she doesnt want to upset them by contradicting the agreement.

Can anyone tell me if this is legal or not, do I have to pay this as it seems very contradictory also??

G_M

No. An AST is an AST, whether of a fixed term or periodic.

As was explained earlier he is offering you a Contractual Periodic Assured Shorthold Tenancy.

Just drop it in the bin ans either

* ignore. Do nothing. The day after your fixed term AST expires you will move to a Statutory Periodic (Assured Shorthold) Tenancy.

* or if you are keen to maintain relations, write to the landlord and/or agent, thanking them for the contract but saying you prefer to move to a SPT so the contract is not required.

Since however you have, I understand, already corresponded on this, to no avail, I would not bother.