Tenancy Agreement and Renewal

HappyMJ

amyloofoo wrote: »

Ugh, it's ongoing.

Starting to feel really anxious about it now, it's just making me think buying is definitely the way forward.

This is what I sent yesterday:

We intend to continue our tenancy at **address** for which the Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement is due to end on 16th April 2016 and therefore do not intend to give the 1 month’s notice required by the contract. We are considering buying a property in the next few months, but this will obviously be dependent on finding a suitable property and any offer being accepted and if we don’t find one in the next few months it is likely that we will continue to live at **address** for a number of years. As we are unsure of our plans, we do not wish to sign another fixed term tenancy agreement and would like to continue on to a monthly statutory periodic tenancy as per the tenancy agreement. We will of course give the required notice before making any plans to leave.

She immediately replied with:


Thank you for your email, unfortunately we no longer offer periodic tenancies, tenancies can only be renewed for a minimum of seven months or a maximum of 12 months.

There are several factors for this,
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]There have been recently legal developments following a court case known as “Superstrike v Rodrigues” the implications of this court ruling have left uncertainty with regards statutory periodic leases and in order to protect our clients we no longer agree to periodic leases. We have taken advise from both **local law firms** and until further cases are seen in court they advise we must stick by fixed terms leases.
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]**Local council** have changed their policy on tenant liability for council tax on periodic leases.
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]There are also factors such as security and forward planning for our landlords and tenants.

Please can you have a chat and if you wish to renew please let me know the term you would ideally like and then I can approach your landlord and make arrangements for the new lease to be drawn up and signed by all parties.

Then this morning I received:

I hope this finds you well,

I really need to know what you wish to do regarding renewing the lease now that you are aware we do not do periodic tenancies.

Please feel free to call me to discuss this further on **letting agent number**


Should I propose a new AST with a break clause? Where do I go from here?



I'm not sure I understand, what grounds do they have to take an unpleasant tone with us? We've been good tenants.

What a load of tosh.

Just ignore them...they cannot evict you or make you leave at the end of the fixed term and you aren't going to show anyone around if you're not leaving so just ignore them. Let them issue a Section 21 notice if they wish that'll give you a minimum of 2 more months occupation and then they'll have to go to court to regain possession. That'll give you a few more months. At any time you can just leave and return possession without having to give notice...they've already given you notice.

Pixie5740

If you have a good relationship with your landlord then just talk to her and explain your situation. If she is fine with a periodic tenancy then there's SFA the letting agent can do.

G_M

Do NOT respond, at all, to the agent.

You have stated your position.

They have replied with nonsense.

There is no point in continuing a debate which will go nowhere.

There are 2 options now (you can do either or both):

1) speak to the LL, reach an agreement, and ask the LL to instruct 'his' agent what to do.

2) simply wait till the fixed term expires. ignore completely the (increasingly frantic!) phone messages, emails, letters, whatever from the agent. If they catc you by phone, say either:
"sorry I'm really busy right now and can't talk" & hang up, or "I've written to you and given my reply." Leave it vague as to whether you mean your reply above, or another recent one!

Once the date of expire of the current contract passes, you will be on a periodic tenancy automatically, so whether the agent "offers" periodic tenancies or not becomes irrelevant.

ps - 'Superstike' is now irrelevant as it has been superceeded by the Deregulation Act 2015.

Mrs_pbradley936

Please do not be bullied by this agent. They cannot make up laws to suit themselves. They are simply doing this to get you to pay more fees.

They do not offer periodic tenancies indeed!!!

Marvel1

All I read was from the letting agent was sign onto to the fixed term so we can have our fee.

Do nothing and ignore them, the worse they can do is issue a Section 21 a 2 month notice and even then it's nothing as only a court can evict.

On day of the moving out, make sure you clean the place top to bottom and video it with timestamps with newspaper front page, as they will attempt to keep the deposit.

scousejen1983

hi Ive just gone through the exact same situation. I had my LL details so emailed him direct and he agreed to a period tenancy. I then emailed the letting agent and said that we had come to an agreement- they are to call the LL and do the relevant paperwork. Our letting agent was the same -only offered us 6 or 12 months, so I cut out the middle man. Its worked and they've emailed me to say the period contract is in the post. Don't forget the letting agents make money from the rental periods so will want to work in their own best interests.

Definitely email the Land lord/lady direct!

Pixie5740

:huh: There isn't any more paperwork required for a periodic tenancy. It just happens when the fixed term ends using the same terms as the preceding fixed term tenancy.

Reue

amyloofoo wrote: »

unfortunately we no longer offer periodic tenancies

This bit made me chuckle. Who cares whether they offer periodic tenancies or not.. it's nothing to do with them and they can't stop them from happening anyway

amyloofoo

Thanks all. Have sent a message to the landlord to inform her of the situation and let her know how we would like to proceed (all very friendly and emphasising that of course we will give proper notice regardless). Nothing back as yet, but another 2 calls from the letting agent They know I have anxiety and sometimes struggle with the phone so prefer things in writing, so I think it may be a deliberate attempt to bully me into just agreeing.

Gigervamp

Block the letting agents number.