Student tenancy agreement - rolling contract?

Claremac

My son is coming to the end of a a year's tenancy on a furnished student house and wants to stay another year. He is on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy and all the students in the house have separate contracts. The Estate Agents have sent him a new contract to sign and mentioned a payment of £120. From my renting days, I seem to remember that he can refuse to sign a new agreement and go on a rolling contract? Apart from the very unlikely possibility that he would be served notice (he is very quiet and the rent is paid by direct debit) is there any disadvantage to this?

Also, how does the end of year cleaning work when there are 4 of them all living in the house and they will no doubt all leave on different days? I'm not keen on being the last one left and having to clean all the communal areas as well as his room (I've seen it!).

Mind you, I'm pretty sure they forgot to ask us to pay the deposit last year so they wouldn't be able to withhold money from it. On that note, if we did sign a new AST for any reason would we need to pay a deposit this year?

Thanks for any help.

Pixie5740

Does your son have a tenancy agreement solely in his own name or jointly with the others who live in on the property? If jointly will all the joint tenants be coming back to the property after the summer?

Will the tenant(s) be paying rent for the property over the summer even though he (they) won't be living there?

silvercar

If it is a typical student let, I can't see any landlord or agent agreeing to a rolling contract. If your son left mid year the landlord could find it very difficult to re-let mid year. For this reason the student market is generally restricted to fixed term 1 year contracts.

theartfullodger

Of course he can decline to pay & sign.

Of course he will automatically will go onto a rolling contract: Landlord cannot (legally impossible to..) prevent that. Landlord may be happy with that... but...

- if landlord is unhappy about matters he can evict him for no reason at all..

Lokolo

silvercar wrote: »

If it is a typical student let, I can't see any landlord or agent agreeing to a rolling contract. If your son left mid year the landlord could find it very difficult to re-let mid year. For this reason the student market is generally restricted to fixed term 1 year contracts.

I agree with this, but at the same time the £120 is a joke.

I wouldn't sign it, but go back to the landlord and say that they will happily sign another 12 month tenancy but will not be paying the fee.

If they are charging that per student, which is usually 4-5 in a house then that's £500!!

saajan_12

I would contact the LL directly and say you are happy to commit to another 12 months but don't want to pay a renewal fee so will go onto periodic if needed.

With student tenancies, the LL may prefer annual fixed terms renewing during the summer as it is likely much harder to find a tenant part way through the rest of the year. Legally son can go onto periodic but the LL may choose to evict and get a new tenant who will sign a fixed 12 month tenancy if they have time before the new academic year starts. They may serve Section 21 notice now to expire with or after the end of the fixed term, and have ~2 months to apply to court and bailiffs before 1 Oct.

G_M

For the legal position, see

* 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?

As others have said, whilst a periodic tenancy after the fixed term is automatic, the LL can serve 2 months notice at any time, for no reason. With non-student properties, this is unlikely, as the LL then has the cost/hassle of eviction and re-letting. With student properties it is more likely as LLs prefer to tie their tenants to the university year.

Negotiating over the fee is always possible, but it's up to the LL to agree. I'd advise against taking an antagonistic approach.

Note that if the leting agent is chagig both the tenant and the landlord anenewal fee, this contravenes the The Property Ombudsman Code of Practice. Is the agent a member?

Re cleaning, each tenant will be responsible for their own area/room as described in their individual contracts. If the communal area is damaged, the LL might well try to deduct costs from all tenants, but if challanged would have to show which tenant was responsible for the loss/damage. No tenant on an individual contract can be liable for damage caused by another tenant.

Claremac

Thanks all. Yes, it is a sole tenancy agreement. What you have said clarified what I thought. I will be ringing the agent this afternoon and querying the payment of any new fee. I'll be nice as pie of course!! If I can get him on to a 12 month contract without any extra payment I would be very happy and I on't see why the landlord wouldn't. It'll be the agent that loses out.

Guest101

Claremac wrote: »

Thanks all. Yes, it is a sole tenancy agreement. What you have said clarified what I thought. I will be ringing the agent this afternoon and querying the payment of any new fee. I'll be nice as pie of course!! If I can get him on to a 12 month contract without any extra payment I would be very happy and I on't see why the landlord wouldn't. It'll be the agent that loses out.

Frankly in the politest way, I hope the agent totally ignores you.

This isn't your tenancy. It may be in breach of the DPA for them to discuss it with you, even if not, your son should be dealing with this.




** = So why would the agent agree?

silvercar

Claremac wrote: »

Thanks all. Yes, it is a sole tenancy agreement. What you have said clarified what I thought. I will be ringing the agent this afternoon and querying the payment of any new fee. I'll be nice as pie of course!! If I can get him on to a 12 month contract without any extra payment I would be very happy and I on't see why the landlord wouldn't. It'll be the agent that loses out.

Good luck!

Problem for the landlord is that he will want the letting agent to push his student properties and may not want to upset them by agreeing to cancel the letting fee. I suspect that the letting fees are a large part of the agent's fees.

Claremac

It may not be my tenancy but guess who's paying for it?! My son has asked me to sort it out so I'm happy to help. I spoke to the agent today who said that, as one of the 4 tenants has left they have to issue a new yearly contract to all of the rest which I assume is nonsense as they are all on individual contracts. However, to my surprise he said that there would be no charge for the new contract which is not what they said when they first spoke to my son. If that's the case, I don't see any reason not to go with the new contract.