Advice on rental payment up front – LA asking for too much?

suestew

Will try & explain our situation clearly. We moved in to rented accommodation in January this year, we are looking to buy in the area and wanted to make sure we liked it first. We signed a year’s tenancy agreement with a break clause after 6 months to give 2 months’ notice at any time.

As we are not working andour rent was to be paid by independent means we agreed to pay 6 mon ths rent in advance,therefore we are paid up until mid July. Further rental payments after the first 6 months were not agreed on.

The LA’s have been in touch to find out what we propose to do, we explained we are buying a property and that it needs a complete refurb so we will be here for some months yet but can’t say when we will give notice. We said we are happy to pay a further 2 months’rent up front and they have gone away and 15 minutes later text my husband to ask for 3 months up front ‘as this is the least we can do without being referenced’

So where do we stand can we refuse and say we are only paying 2? My worry is that we may give notice in month 6 and then they owe us money and it would just complicate things on moving out. They can’t reference us as we are not working, they did normal credit checks before wemoved in and of course we paid their extortionate agents fee. We even offered a guarantor but they never asked for it when we signed paper work.

Can they legally ask us to pay 3 months I am unsure what the law is (if there is one) on reference checks.

Thanks in advance

martinsurrey

suestew wrote: »

Can they legally ask us to pay 3 months I am unsure what the law is (if there is one) on reference checks.

Thanks in advance

They can legally ask you to do anything, if it’s not in the contract though, they can’t force you to comply.

BUT, if you might need the house for longer than 6 months, I would consider your next move, as a s21 might be in the post sooner than you would like if you play hardball.

suestew

theartfullodger wrote: »

Please quote the EXACT wording (no names & addresses..) of the break clause as without seeing that any advice may be incorrect or downright dangerous..

(eg break clause only allows notice exactly at 6months, any time before 6 months, any time after 6months.... )

Agent sounds a buffoon: How surprising

Pretty sure we are covered here, I made sure there was nothing in the clause that would say we can only give notice on month 6.

A One year tenancy agreement is given with a break clause that after the first 6 months the tenants can give two months notice

martinsurrey wrote: »

They can legally ask you to do anything, if it’s not in the contract though, they can’t force you to comply.

BUT, if you might need the house for longer than 6 months, I would consider your next move, as a s21 might be in the post sooner than you would like if you play hardball.

I know you can never say what a landlord would do, but this property was empty for quite a while before we took it and expect they would rather have good tenants paying than it being empty. We recently had an inspection and the property is really looked after.

So where do we stand?

Guest101

You do not have to comply, but he can choose to give notice for any reason. So basically it's a case of yours and their relaxed nature.

I cannot think a landlord would kick up too much fuss if you paid 2 months, instead of 3, but he may be a right fusspot!

Personally after the first 6 months i would pay monthly, i have proven myself trustworthy as far as i'm concerned.

suestew

Guest101 wrote: »

You do not have to comply, but he can choose to give notice for any reason. So basically it's a case of yours and their relaxed nature.

I cannot think a landlord would kick up too much fuss if you paid 2 months, instead of 3, but he may be a right fusspot!

Personally after the first 6 months i would pay monthly, i have proven myself trustworthy as far as i'm concerned.

We did say we would pay monthly, but they said 'we will have to reference you then' they can't, we are not working but expect they want to charge us to do the referencing. I think we are being pretty reasonable but you know what LA's are like? I doubt they have even spoke to the landlord in the time it took them to get back to us by text. We don't have the landlords details so can't contact them direct

Guest101

Say go ahead and reference me, but at your own cost.

You've got a tenancy, unless it says you must pay in 3 month payments upfront, i'd just tell em to stick it.

Probably trying to earn abit of extra interest or try 'sell' you referencing.

rpc

That is a very odd break clause. Is there anything more?

As you have written it, the T can end the contract early but the LL is bound until the 12 months are up. Normally break clauses would be reciprocal.

Your risk is that the LL has an option to serve notice on you and if you don't comply with the demands, you will be given notice regardless what the contract says. LA will spin a story about how dangerous you are as a tenant and the LL would be better off paying them to find someone else.

If the LL can't evict before the end of the 12 months, then you are only obliged to pay in line with your contract. Anything else is up to you to agree to or reject.

suestew

rpc wrote: »

That is a very odd break clause. Is there anything more?

As you have written it, the T can end the contract early but the LL is bound until the 12 months are up. Normally break clauses would be reciprocal.

Your risk is that the LL has an option to serve notice on you and if you don't comply with the demands, you will be given notice regardless what the contract says. LA will spin a story about how dangerous you are as a tenant and the LL would be better off paying them to find someone else.

If the LL can't evict before the end of the 12 months, then you are only obliged to pay in line with your contract. Anything else is up to you to agree to or reject.

Yes it is a bit odd. We asked for the break clause and they didn't put it in so they added it to the end and must have rushed it.

Looking at the agreement a few things

Term: 12 months (term must be at least 6 months) The period mentioned here will form the basis of any subsequent periodic tenancy)
Payment: to be paid on the 17th of each calendar month (no mention of payment in advance)

NB: The rent will be reviewed every 6 months

The Landlord may give a minimum of 2 months notice (from the following rent day) to end the tenancy but this will not take effect before the end of the fixed term
One month's termination notice (from the following rent day) must be given by the tenant(s). One month's written notice is required before the expiry of the fixed term if the tenant wish to end the tenancy. Please note notice period cannot be given during the fixed term as there is no break-clause (there is a break clause though)

rpc

Then I would tell them that the contract stipulates that rent will be due monthly on the 17th and that is when you intend to pay it.

You may get turfed out after the end of the fixed term, but LL would be daft to do so if you were reliable.

martinsurrey

rpc wrote: »

Then I would tell them that the contract stipulates that rent will be due monthly on the 17th and that is when you intend to pay it.

You may get turfed out after the end of the fixed term, but LL would be daft to do so if you were reliable.

and they say "okay it was due on the 17th of every month since you moved in (Jan), so you owe 4 months’ rent (with the 5 month being just 17th June)” they issue a s8 notice as the OP is in effect 4 months behind, OP now has to pay 5 months instead of the 3 the EA wants.

All I'm saying is be careful with your next move...

ValHaller

martinsurrey wrote: »

and they say "okay it was due on the 17th of every month since you moved in (Jan), so you owe 4 months’ rent (with the 5 month being just 17th June)” they issue a s8 notice as the OP is in effect 4 months behind, OP now has to pay 5 months instead of the 3 the EA wants.

All I'm saying is be careful with your next move...

That would mean that the advance rent had to be kept topped up which would effectively turn it into a deposit. And there is a limit to how much deposit can be taken, much less than 6 months iirc