S21 Notice to force paying renewal fees?

browneyedbazzi

We've received a S21 Notice from our letting agent - the landlord doesn't actually want possession of the property but the agent routinely serves S21 notices on tenants so that you are forced to either leave or renew the tenancy, including paying their astronomical fees for the contract and agreeing to stay a further 12 months.

We're hoping to buy a house in the near future (deposit etc all sorted, just need to find the right place!) so we would much prefer to go onto a periodic tenancy as that will offer a lot more flexibility (and avoid all the fees).

Is what the letting agent doing acceptable and do we have to go along with it, or do we have other options?

(our deposit was correctly protected and I believe we received the correct information within the required timescale)

Voyager2002

Acceptable? That is a matter of opinion, but perfectly legal. Anyway, have you asked your landlord what s/he thinks?

In your situation, I think I would ignore it and continue to pay the rent while not signing a new contract. The landlord could then begin the long and expensive process of getting a court to order you to leave, but might prefer to allow you to remain on a periodic tenancy and so avoid the hassle and expense.

[Deleted User]

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

Is what the letting agent doing acceptable and do we have to go along with it, or do we have other options?

Legally yes, morally... probably not.

Your options are fairly straight forward:

1. You're a tenant of the landlord, the agency is just a middleman, speak to your landlord directly and explain that you can't afford the fees and will be forced to leave if you have to pay them. The landlord will have no reason to evict you -- as he sees nothing of the fees -- and will not want to suffer from the tenancy void.

2. Refuse to pay and automatically switch to a periodic tenancy. The letting agent will incur costs when advertising and finding new tenants, they may well be relying on your lack of knowledge of the process and hoping that you just pay up. If you call their bluff they may well realise there's no value for them in fighting you (by evicting (and they'd need the landlords permission for this)) and let you stay.

If you do refuse to pay they will still have to give you proper notice for you to leave and they will have to go through the courts to get an eviction which will take more than a month, if you have a fall back plan (eg: find a new place to stay) this might not hit you as hard, although moving does cost money.

G_M

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

....- the landlord doesn't actually want possession of the property but

From this I assume you are in communication with the landlord? Talk to him! He is the boss; the agents work for him!

All he needs do is write a letter to his agents, instructing them to take no action on the expiry of the S21, and to allow you to stay on a Statutory Periodic Tenancy.

Your tenancy agreement is not with the agents, it is with the landlord, so HE should be deciding whether to evict you or not.

browneyedbazzi

The landlord lives abroad so isn't easy to get in touch with - we have a postal address but no phone/email details and have never had any direct communication with him. I think I'll put a letter in the post and see what he says - I expect he'll be happy for us to stay as long as the rent is paid and he won't want the expense of the court process etc

If the letting agent does go ahead with going to court for a possession order, is that at their/the landlord's expense or would we end up having to pay their costs??

Voyager2002

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

The landlord lives abroad so isn't easy to get in touch with - we have a postal address but no phone/email details and have never had any direct communication with him. I think I'll put a letter in the post and see what he says - I expect he'll be happy for us to stay as long as the rent is paid and he won't want the expense of the court process etc

If the letting agent does go ahead with going to court for a possession order, is that at their/the landlord's expense or would we end up having to pay their costs??

See if you can find other contact details for your landlord -- Google is your friend. Or you could be sneaky; think of a complicated question, tell the agent that you need to discuss it with him directly and see if they give the number.

As for costs: the agent (ultimately the landlord) would need to pay them up-front. At the end of the case the judge has discretion as to whether to order you to pay part or all of the costs.

Guest101

The agent cannot unilaterally go to court for possession of the property, the LL must be on board with such action. Just depends what the LA are telling him.

But absolutely not, do not leave at the end of s.21

G_M

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

The landlord lives abroad so isn't easy to get in touch with - we have a postal address but no phone/email details and have never had any direct communication with him. I think I'll put a letter in the post and see what he says - I expect he'll be happy for us to stay as long as the rent is paid and he won't want the expense of the court process etc

If the letting agent does go ahead with going to court for a possession order, is that at their/the landlord's expense or would we end up having to pay their costs??

This may present a problem then. Manyoverseas landlords(especially if not British nationals) simply delegate the entire tenancy management to their agent.

They may not wish to be involved at all. They may not understand the tenancy process. They may not wish to interfere with the agent's decisions.

Whilst I think this is often foolhardy, given may agents' attitude to profit opportunities, it is understandable.

If the LL has delegated total control to the agent via their contract, the agent can issue a S21 (on the LL's behalf), and may even have the authority to instruct a solicitor, at the LL's expense of course, to take the necessary court action.

However, hopefully your LL will be amenable to granting you more flexibility, and will instruct his agent accordingly if you write to him.

Where court action is concerned, the court may or may not well award costs to the LL, which you would then have to pay.

G_M

stilbonjyoti wrote: »

Further and very important, within 14 days the landlord must serve a notice on the ... that at least three months should be allowed before new legislation comes into force. ... to evict the tenant using the Section 21 procedure i.e

Hi stilbonjyoti. Welcome.

Could you explain your post....?

Yorkie1

Spammer ... getting post count up ... see some of the other threads ...

DragonQ

browneyedbazzi, I am in the same situation as you and my landlord also seemingly wants nothing to do with me or their property. The advice I received on this forum, after telling the agent I had no intention of renewing the agreement or moving out, was basically just ignore the agent and continue paying rent as normal, which I have done since. They've tried to call me a couple of times and left messages - at first they said they needed to know what I wanted to do before their deadline, despite the fact I'd already told them, but the most recent one sounded pretty desperate, asking for "a chat". Hopefully they'll leave me alone from here on in.