'have to' renew tenancy

owl_lover

Hi,
Our fixed year AST for our house ends in a couple of weeks and I have received an email from the agent saying we have to renew or give notice to quit. We want to move to a periodic tenancy which I thought happened automatically.
So my questions are;
Am I correct that we can move to a periodic tenancy?
Does the landlord still have to give a s21 with 2 months notice if he wants us to leave? ( giving us until the end of august?)
If I'm right is it better to reply to email or ignore it?

We don't want to renew because there's a pretty high chance we'll be moving abroad in September.

Thank you

mrginge

Ah agents.
An unquantifiable number of which of liars or idiots. Definitely not most though as i have no statistical evidence for that and i wouldn't want to upset certain users such as thesaint who may or may not believe (i have no evidence either way) that a generic opinion is allowed on this board.
I can however categorically state that a percentage of agents could possibly be liars and/or idiots, the actual number being between 0 and 100. Please note that definitions of terms 'liars' and 'idiots' is subjective and should not be ascribed to any individual in any circumstances.
Please consider very carefully whether this particular agent or any other that you come into contact with falls into one of these two categories (under your own such criteria). I offer no opinion of my own and dont seek to influence any other user. Please make your own mind up and don't repeat that opinion on here.


I would be tempted to string them along. Start by asking them to explain why you 'have to'

Edit: make sure you only communicate by post though just to wind them up even more.

G_M

owl_lover wrote: »

Hi,

So my questions are;
Am I correct that we can move to a periodic tenancy?yes
Does the landlord still have to give a s21 with 2 months notice if he wants us to leave? ( giving us until the end of august?)yes
If I'm right is it better to reply to email or ignore it?ignore - at least at first. If you get a 'reminder', you may want to respond

We don't want to renew because there's a pretty high chance we'll be moving abroad in September.

Thank you

Read:

* Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

owl_lover

Thank you both, I'm glad I'm not going mad!
Just one more question- due to being students we had to pay rent quarterly, would this continue or should we start paying monthly.
Also, just realised we no longer have an addres to serve notices on; the LLs address in the contract was the agents office but they have since been taken over and no longer use those premises. Not sure if I should ask for an address or not?

DandelionPatrol

mrginge wrote: »

Ah agents.
Mostly liars or idiots.

I would be tempted to string them along. Start by asking them to explain why you 'have to'

Edit: make sure you only communicate by post though just to wind them up even more.

The analysis of agents is probably right. And stringing them along is good. But if your plan is is to retain an option to leave in September or possibly a bit later, don't engage in confrontation, such as

asking them to explain why you 'have to'

Just string them along.

owl_lover wrote: »

Hi,
Our fixed year AST for our house ends in a couple of weeks and I have received an email from the agent saying we have to renew or give notice to quit.

Ignore this email for the moment. If you are reminded by phone, ask them to resend and ignore. When a reminder comes by email, do not quite answer the question directly. Say 'we would like to stay'.

If the agent presses the point as to choosing between renewing or leaving, ask them to explain the implications of renewing [same question as

asking them to explain why you 'have to'

but it is less confrontational, plus you have gained 2.5 weeks at least].

Just keep batting it back by ignoring the first and being a bit dim but willing when they send the reminder. When they finally get to the point of sending a renewal contract, ignore and when they send the reminder ask them to resend. Again, the pattern of ignore the first and be dim but willing with the reminder.

By that time you will be on a periodic tenancy and you can say 'it looks like we are on a periodic tenancy, is a renewal really necessary?' and on the reminder response to that you can start again by suggesting they send a contract. After a reminder, you can say that the dates are wrong because the start has already passed. If you are slightly inventive you can keep this going to Christmas.

G_M

owl_lover wrote: »

....
Just one more question- due to being students we had to pay rent quarterly, would this continue or should we start paying monthly.
Also, just realised we no longer have an addres to serve notices on; the LLs address in the contract was the agents office but they have since been taken over and no longer use those premises. Not sure if I should ask for an address or not?

When the tenancy goes periodic, the only thing that changes is the process for ending the tenancy (notice etc). The rent, the other clauses etc all remain exactly the same.

But - be warned, this sounds like a quarterly tenancy, not a monthly one. So your tenancy periods will be 3 months.

When you give notice, your notice must expire with a tenancy period (ie 3 months notice).

By law, if you have no address for the serving of notices you do not have to pay rent (Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 ). However, since you were given an address (albeit now out of date), that does not apply.

Similarly, you should serve notice at the address you have been given. If the LL has failed to update that address, that is his problem, not yours.

So send your notice (and any other official letters) to the address you were given.

If you happen to know the LL's actual address, it would be polite and sensible to send a copy there too.

stator

I would ignore them, it worked for me. It wasn't until 6 months later they sent another letter asking me to renew again. I politely pointed out I was now on a SPT and they never asked again.

xHannahx

Our landlord wrote to us suggesting we ignore the letting agent when they send such emails as the letting agent was in his words "trying to fleece us and him out of money". I think the letting agent wanted £130 to renew from us and him.

Ignore them, and you will move onto a SPT, terms and conditions remain the same, just notice period will change not being fixed term.

AndyBSG

This is just the Estate Agent trying to get you to sign a news AST so they can charge you a fee again.

As others have mentioned, string them along as long as possible then when crunch time comes just tell them you don't want to renew your AST and you don't want to serve notice either.

Very few LL's will want to lose paying tenants by issuing an S21 just because the AST has come to an end.

G_M

I repeat - if you pay rent quarterly, in order to end the tenancy in Sept you'll need to serve notice in a periodic tenancy in June.

However, you cannot serve notice to end the periodic tenancy until it begins..... in 2 weeks time.

You may do better to ask for a new tenancy agreement - either a fixed term with appropriate Break Clause, or a Contractual Monthly Periodic Tenancy.

Guest101

Does the tenancy agreement actually say pay quarterly, or do you just pay quarterly because of loan payments?