How much notice to end a rolling tenancy?

Nenen

My son and his gf have been renting a house for the last 5 years. At first they were on an AST, then went over to a rolling tenancy. Their contract for the rolling tenancy states that they have to give 2 full months notice. As the usual legal requirement is a one month notice period for a rolling contract, can the two months be enforced?

They are buying their first house and the vendors are buying a new build. After 5 months waiting for the new build to be ready, they have just been told by the builders that they must both exchange this Friday and complete on 27th September. They are ready to exchange (have been for some time) but doing so with such a short period between exchange and completion will mean they have to pay both their mortgage and rent for over 2 months.

They have asked the letting agency if, once they have exchanged, it will be possible for the agency to relet the property asap and the agency has said they will try. However, I have a fuzzy memory of reading on MSE some time ago that the one month notice is all that is necessary for tenants on a rolling contract to give, whatever the contract says.

They have also suggested that the vendor and/or builder (Wimpey) pays at least some, if not all, of their rent if they want 2 weeks between exchange and completion but have been told they either suck it up themselves or their vendor loses his deal and so will pull out of selling to them, whereupon they will lose all their fees (solicitors, searches, mortgage fees, survey etc)to date.

Any advice which might help them will be gratefully received.

McKneff

It;'s only my opinion, but I would think that their conditions cannot over ride the law. Which, as you say is 1 month.

More people wil be along to clarify.

Guest101

Its definitely 1 month, no matter what contract says.

The developer is being bold, but for one months rent its quite usual to pay both

Nenen

Guest101 wrote: »

Its definitely 1 month, no matter what contract says.

Many thanks - any idea where I can find something on this stated formally for ds to be able to show the letting agency?

jamie11

Nenen wrote: »

Many thanks - any idea where I can find something on this stated formally for ds to be able to show the letting agency?

It's statute and statute always trumps contracts, try the Housing act 1988

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?28889-Housing-Act-1988-(as-amended)-for-reference/page2

Cissi

Not an expert so can't quote legalese, but I just wanted to point out that while they are only required to give one month's notice this isn't from any random date but from the date set by the tenancy. If their original AST started on, say, the 15th of the month, then their rolling contract will also have started on the 15th - this may or may not coincide with the date on which their rent is paid. Assuming that their rental period is a month (ie rent paid monthly), then they would need to give notice no later than the 15th of any month to vacate the property on the 14th of the following month. Note that if they stay after midnight and leave on the 15th they would be liable for another full month's rent.

After selling our previous house we rented for a few years while searching for our "forever home". Our tenancy started on the 5th of September 2005; we didn't renew our 12-month contract after the first 2 years and so were on a rolling contract. We exchanged contracts on our purchase after just 3 (very stressful!) weeks, at 4 pm on June 5th, 2009, and by 5 pm that same day I handed our notice to the letting agent by hand, to vacate the house on July 4th. We completed on our purchase on the 3rd, leaving us a day to clean the house, so timings worked out perfectly in our case.

I hope that helps!

G_M

It is NOT 1 month!

It one full tenancy period.

So depending on the timing it could be nearly 2 months.

Full details 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?)



Also, the Housing Act 1988 says nothing about the length of notice a tenant must give - it only stipulates the notice a landlord must give.

The relevant law comes from a decision by the Court of Appeal (Laine and Mitchellv Cadwallader & Cadwallader (2001) )

theartfullodger

Surely AT LEAST one tenancy period & at least 28 days?