Shortest fixed-term tenancy

cinereus

I signed a 2.5 month contract with a letting agents and now they want me out of the flat. I negotiated an extra month with them but have since learned that section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 specifies that a minimum tenancy is 6 months. What rights do I have?

Can I enforce a stay of 6 months?
What about 5 months?
Do they have the right to change any terms?
Can they harrass me or be unfair with my deposit?

Thanks!

G_M

They can only evict you via a court possession order.

They cannot serve a S21 Notice until 4 months into the tenancy, and the S21 must give 2 months notice before they can go to court.

That's 6 months.

However your question was:

Shortest fixed-term tenancy

answer is 1 day.

No they cannot harass you. See
Protection from Eviction Act 1977

Deposit is an interesting one: if you stay beyond the end of the tenancy, even though the LL cannot get court possession, he may be able to claim compensation, including via the deposit depending on what the tenancy agreement says the deposit is for. However I'm very uncertain about this point.

[Deleted User]

https://www.gov.uk/private-renting-tenancy-agreements/your-landlord-wants-to-end-your-tenancy

thesaint

What date did your tenancy start?
Why are you going back on the deal you agreed to?
Do you have an AST?

theartfullodger

Why can an AST not be for less than a day?

G_M

theartfullodger wrote: »

Why can an AST not be for less than a day?

I guess it can.

But if I answered "1 hour" to the question

Shortest fixed-term tenancy

you could ask: "Why can an AST not be for less than an hour?"

So the answer must be "1 second". But then you'd ask: "Why can an AST not be for less than a second?"

So the shortest fixed term tenancy must be 1/10th of a second. Or should that be 1/100th? 1/1000th?

Off to open another bottle of vino now as my head hurts!

:beer:

cinereus

Thanks all for your responses.

G_M wrote: »

They can only evict you via a court possession order.

They cannot serve a S21 Notice until 4 months into the tenancy, and the S21 must give 2 months notice before they can go to court.

That's 6 months.

However your question was:
answer is 1 day.

But given you can stay for six months, is there anything meaningful about a 1 day (or 1 hour) AST?

thesaint wrote: »

Why are you going back on the deal you agreed to?
Do you have an AST?

1. When I signed they said it reverted to a rolling 1 month contract after the initial 2.5 months. After considerable effort, they allowed me to stay for a few weeks longer but still maintained that I'd only signed for 2.5 months. If it turned out that the minimum term is actually 6 months and I have been lied to, I'd prefer to stay.
2. Yes.

theartfullodger wrote: »

Why can an AST not be for less than a day?

Because of section 21 of the Housing Act 1988? Or am I reading it wrongly?

G_M

cinereus wrote: »

But given you can stay for six months, is there anything meaningful about a 1 day (or 1 hour) AST?
Yes. At the end of the 1 day fixed term, the tenant can leave and the tenancy will be ended.

However it is a problem for the landlord since, if the tennt does NOT leave, he (the LL) is stuck with the tenant till 6 months has passed.

Hence in practice it is very rare fr a LL to agree to a tenancy of less than 6 months.

1. When I signed they said it reverted to a rolling 1 month contract after the initial 2.5 months. After considerable effort, they allowed me to stay for a few weeks longer but still maintained that I'd only signed for 2.5 months. If it turned out that the minimum term is actually 6 months and I have been lied to, I'd prefer to stay.
2. Yes.
1. Presumably the original agreement was for 2.5 months, since this was what you both wanted. The LL trusted you to leav at the end of that time, but, as explained above, was actually unable to evict you if you went back on your contract and failed to leave when agreed.


Because of section 21 of the Housing Act 1988? Or am I reading it wrongly?

Yes, you are reading it wrong. S21 describes how a LL can obtain a court possession order.
That is not the same as how an AST contract is set up or, specifically, for what period.

The clue is in the section title:

21 Recovery of possession on expiry or termination of assured shorthold tenancy.

Note: "Recovery"

Miss_Samantha

It should be noted that an assured tenancy requires the dwelling to be the only or principal residence of the tenant. The shorter the term the more this requirement should be taken into account.

This is all rather academic, though.

G_M

Good point re principal residence, as clearly a 1 second tenancy would not comply. But the residency test does not actually limit an AST to a length greater than X (days/weeks etc).

Not "rather academic". Totally academic! But the OP did ask........

cinereus

G_M wrote: »

Presumably the original agreement was for 2.5 months, since this was what you both wanted. The LL trusted you to leav at the end of that time, but, as explained above, was actually unable to evict you if you went back on your contract and failed to leave when agreed."

No - what I agreed to was a 2.5 month obligatory term followed by a rolling 1-month contract. They are reneging on this agreement.