Tenancy Renewal Charges

dani1989

Hi


Our 6 month tenancy has just come to an end on the flat we have been renting for nearly 5 years now. We rent through a letting agent and a new landlord bought the flat 6 months ago which is why we were put on a 6 month tenancy as before it was just a month to month rolling tenancy.


I have emailed the letting agent and asked if we can renew it for another 6 months, they responded saying if I wish to do this I would have to pay £60 for the renewal fee as it states in my tenancy agreement. I agreed to this, they said they would pass this onto the landlord.


I then receive an email back from the letting agent stating the landlord does not wish to renew our tenancy as he does not want to pay £60 himself and if we wish to renew he will agree as long as we pay his cost, so we would have to pay £120 in total.


This sounds absolutely ridiculous to me, are they even allowed to do this? There is no way I'd cheekily ask the landlord to pay my cost so cannot understand why they would ask me. I cannot afford to pay that much and £60 was a push as it is. So now I'm stuck and not sure what to reply to them, I definitely won't be paying the landlords fee, but I do not want to stay on a month to month rolling tenancy as there is less security in this.


We cannot move out as there is no where else within our price range or that will accept a pet, not to mention we cannot afford the extortionate fees to move into places. So that is not an option. The letting agents have been a pain ever since we moved into here, they've taken weeks to reply to emails, been incredibly slow with repairs and never been very understanding about anything. So we'd love to move but just not an option at the moment.


Any sensible advice is greatly appreciated.


Many thanks.

Pixie5740

dani1989 wrote: »

Hi


Our 6 month tenancy has just come to an end on the flat we have been renting for nearly 5 years now. We rent through a letting agent and a new landlord bought the flat 6 months ago which is why we were put on a 6 month tenancy as before it was just a month to month rolling tenancy.


I have emailed the letting agent and asked if we can renew it for another 6 months, they responded saying if I wish to do this I would have to pay £60 for the renewal fee as it states in my tenancy agreement. I agreed to this, they said they would pass this onto the landlord.


I then receive an email back from the letting agent stating the landlord does not wish to renew our tenancy as he does not want to pay £60 himself and if we wish to renew he will agree as long as we pay his cost, so we would have to pay £120 in total.


This sounds absolutely ridiculous to me, are they even allowed to do this? There is no way I'd cheekily ask the landlord to pay my cost so cannot understand why they would ask me. I cannot afford to pay that much and £60 was a push as it is. So now I'm stuck and not sure what to reply to them, I definitely won't be paying the landlords fee, but I do not want to stay on a month to month rolling tenancy as there is less security in this.


We cannot move out as there is no where else within our price range or that will accept a pet, not to mention we cannot afford the extortionate fees to move into places. So that is not an option. The letting agents have been a pain ever since we moved into here, they've taken weeks to reply to emails, been incredibly slow with repairs and never been very understanding about anything. So we'd love to move but just not an option at the moment.


Any sensible advice is greatly appreciated.


Many thanks.

There was no need to sign a new tenancy agreement just because there was a change of landlord. Your periodic tenancy would just have continued.

Is there a particular reason you want to sign another 6 month fixed term contract? Why not just let your tenancy become periodic at the end of the current 6 month fixed term?

elverson

They just want their fee. Ignore them and keep paying the rent each month.

Guest101

dani1989 wrote: »

Hi


Our 6 month tenancy has just come to an end on the flat we have been renting for nearly 5 years now. We rent through a letting agent and a new landlord bought the flat 6 months ago which is why we were put on a 6 month tenancy as before it was just a month to month rolling tenancy.


I have emailed the letting agent and asked if we can renew it for another 6 months, they responded saying if I wish to do this I would have to pay £60 for the renewal fee as it states in my tenancy agreement. I agreed to this, they said they would pass this onto the landlord.


I then receive an email back from the letting agent stating the landlord does not wish to renew our tenancy as he does not want to pay £60 himself and if we wish to renew he will agree as long as we pay his cost, so we would have to pay £120 in total.


This sounds absolutely ridiculous to me, are they even allowed to do this? There is no way I'd cheekily ask the landlord to pay my cost so cannot understand why they would ask me. I cannot afford to pay that much and £60 was a push as it is. So now I'm stuck and not sure what to reply to them, I definitely won't be paying the landlords fee, but I do not want to stay on a month to month rolling tenancy as there is less security in this.


We cannot move out as there is no where else within our price range or that will accept a pet, not to mention we cannot afford the extortionate fees to move into places. So that is not an option. The letting agents have been a pain ever since we moved into here, they've taken weeks to reply to emails, been incredibly slow with repairs and never been very understanding about anything. So we'd love to move but just not an option at the moment.


Any sensible advice is greatly appreciated.


Many thanks.

But no-one is asking you to move out??

ashe

This is one of those things that its good to learn how these agreements work. You can just continue as is. They should be advising you of that really, but are clouded by the chance of a fee.

dani1989

Yes Pixie we had to sign a new tenancy as the new landlord cleverly gave us 2 months notice to leave then got us to sign a new tenancy with the rent increased by £75 a month, thats how he managed to up it so high by giving us a section 21 first then saying if we wish to stay we would have to sign a new tenancy. We wanted to sign another 6 months as there is more security in this than a month to month tenancy, e.g. if they wanted to evict us lets say next month we would have 5 months left on the tenancy still instead of them only giving us 2 months.


Guest101 I know no one is asking us to move out, I was saying it before anyone on here suggested it.

saajan_12

What exactly is the £60 apiece fee for? The agent can't charge both the LL and tenant for the same service i.e for a new contract, however they may try to get around this by labelling the fee for slightly different things.

Your options are
1. pay £120 for the renewal and get a new 6 month tenancy (though remember this will come up every 6 months
2. pay £60 for the renewal and explain to the agent they can't charge twice (though they may refuse to give you a new agreement)
2. ignore and go rolling (the LL likely doesn't want voids, why would they evict a good tenant? this also gives you flexibility to move if needed)
3. negotiate something else e.g. longer new contract / lower fee.. the agent may take whatever they can get if you don't let on you really don't want to go periodic.

G_M

Go periodic (month to month).

Maybe talk to the landlord direct, but you don't have to.

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?

Pixie5740

If you want the security of another fixed term then you'll need to pay. If you do decide to go down that route then try and get a 12 month contract (watch out for break clauses) alternatively pay nothing and let the tenancy become periodic.

dani1989

Pixie5740 wrote: »

If you want the security of another fixed term then you'll need to pay. If you do decide to go down that route then try and get a 12 month contract (watch out for break clauses) alternatively pay nothing and let the tenancy become periodic.

What is a break clause? I'm afraid if I try and get a 12 month contract they will turn around and say I have to pay £240.

dani1989

G_M wrote: »

Go periodic (month to month).

Maybe talk to the landlord direct, but you don't have to.

I'd love to talk to the landlord direct as I'm sure I could sort something out then, but only issue is I don't have the landlords details, the letting agent has never passed them onto me and won't as everything is done through them.