Morgans City Living being pains in the a**

realmanproject

Hi all

Is it legal for a letting agency to stipulate that the tenants have to sign a new contract at the end of an agreed term contract, even if this isn't specifically the wishes of the landlord?

I'm currently letting a property from Morgans City Living in Leeds. We are on a 6 month agreed term contract, which is coming to an end in about 6 weeks time.

On about the 4 month mark (2 months before the fxed term was up) they sent us a letter saying that our contract was finishing soon, and as such they were issuing a section 21 notice to quit, or alternatively we could sign a new contract, at a cost of £50 per person, but only at a slightly higher rent.

Obviously I would rather avoid paying the contract fees, but when I went to speak to Morgans, the guy that I spoke to said that it was a company policy of theirs that there was NO possibility of having a rolling contract. Is this legal? Can they enforce this?

ValHaller

What does the Landlord say? The Landlord calls the shots over the agent, unless he has been intimidated.

BitterAndTwisted

Of course it's company policy to make you feel forced to sign another fixed-term. How would they make their fees targets otherwise?

Any landlord who would be happy to have decent and reliable tenants evicted so the agent can charge them yet another tenant-finding fee (which is very likely to be substantially more than that re-signing fee you mentioned) is an idiot.

The best way around all this is to contact your landlord direct and sound out what their view is of their agent's strong-arming tactics.

Still, there's nothing anyone can do to prevent a rolling, periodic tenancy arising. That happens automatically the day after your fixed-term expires, whether the LL/agent likes it or not.

realmanproject

True... but they can boot me out using the section 21 Notice to Quit!

I think it might be part of the terms and conditions that the Landlord has with the letting agency. This is the only reason I can think of that the landlord would accept this, as according to the guy that I was speaking to the landlord also has to pay a fee whenever the contract gets re-signed!

realmanproject

I don't have any direct contact with the landlord yet... though their address is on the section 21 that the letting agency sent out, so I think my next move is to write a letter...