Lettings agent not allowing periodic tenancy

emoaty

Hi everyone


I am currently letting a flat and my fixed term contract ended on the 11 September. My LA got in touch with me on the 14 September asking me to call into the office to renew and pay the fees (no mention of how much it would all be). I have been living in the flat for two years, had regular inspections and never had any problems.


I emailed them yesterday and asked if a periodic tenancy was an option and had a rather rude email back from them today. They said that as the tenancy agreement had already been drawn up it was not an option and there wasn't time to contact the landlord to ask his opinion. They also said that as I have never mentioned a period tenancy to them before then it will not be considered anyway.


Having done a bit of research on the web, and hopefully having understood correctly, I can see that as we are now past the date of renewal we have automatically gone onto a periodic tenancy so can I just ignore the estate agents asking for a fixed term renewal? But, this could possibly lead to being asked to leave because there will be no fixed term contract in place and the landlord may prefer that. I have the landlords contact details so is it the done thing for me to contact him and ask? Have a feeling that if I ask the LA to ask the LL about it they will just try and fob me off and pretend they have asked him.


Any thoughts would be very welcome please

Cardinal-Red

I do believe you have read it right and you're now in a periodic tenancy.

Where we lived before, the agents tried this on. First trying to force us onto a fixed term (but with an added one month's notice period for us, i.e. a periodic tenancy) and then attempting to charge us a fee for the switch to periodic.

I ended up contacting the landlord to explain the situation. The agent soon stopped asking for money.

Your LL could of course be the one pulling the strings and insisting on a fixed term but you'll find out soon enough.

Red-Squirrel_2

From what I understand, you are correct. You can ignore the agent if you wish, or you can contact them and say 'As I'm sure you're aware the tenancy automatically became periodic on the 12th September. We are happy for it to remain that way and will not be paying to sign an unnecessary renewal. Thank you anyway." If you have the LL's email address you could CC him in if you wanted.

Someone will be in trouble for forgetting to manipulate you into signing in time for them to get their fees! If your landlord wants to evict you for daring to go periodic (and why would they? You may well have saved them some money too!) they will have to go down the section 21 route.

SuboJvR

Our agent tried the same, and they even put pressure on the landlord spouting nonsense about him not having "security" if we weren't in a fixed term. He wanted "security" of not having to re-let during the winter months, stuff like that. They then offered a 2 month fixed extension, which was complete nonsense as by that point the earliest a section 21 could have asked for us to vacate was that same 2 months: they were simply chasing the renewal fee. As Red-Squirrel says, in our case as well, this is a fee paid by both the landlord and tenant with our agency.

Eventually our landlord relented. He's quite inexperienced, mostly letting the agency do things for him, but I think on some level he eventually realised that he couldn't really try to dictate to his tenants when they can and can't move out. Either that or he dug a little deeper and discovered that if he really wanted to try and evict us during the summer months, it simply wouldn't have happened in that timescale.

We wanted periodic as we were in the beginning stages of buying a house, not knowing exactly when it would complete. Even now we don't know for sure but it's looking like mid-November, so we'll be giving notice till early December. So yeah, winter months, oops. But having a roof over our heads is our problem; the (very nice otherwise) landlord's income isn't, and I genuinely believe he won't have a problem getting new tenants in this place as it has a number of selling points that comparable properties don't.

Guest101

SuboJvR wrote: »

Our agent tried the same, and they even put pressure on the landlord spouting nonsense about him not having "security" if we weren't in a fixed term. He wanted "security" of not having to re-let during the winter months, stuff like that. They then offered a 2 month fixed extension, which was complete nonsense as by that point the earliest a section 21 could have asked for us to vacate was that same 2 months: they were simply chasing the renewal fee. As Red-Squirrel says, in our case as well, this is a fee paid by both the landlord and tenant with our agency.

Eventually our landlord relented. He's quite inexperienced, mostly letting the agency do things for him, but I think on some level he eventually realised that he couldn't really try to dictate to his tenants when they can and can't move out. Either that or he dug a little deeper and discovered that if he really wanted to try and evict us during the summer months, it simply wouldn't have happened in that timescale.

We wanted periodic as we were in the beginning stages of buying a house, not knowing exactly when it would complete. Even now we don't know for sure but it's looking like mid-November, so we'll be giving notice till early December. So yeah, winter months, oops. But having a roof over our heads is our problem; the (very nice otherwise) landlord's income isn't, and I genuinely believe he won't have a problem getting new tenants in this place as it has a number of selling points that comparable properties don't.

I'm not 100% sure of that, I think you are right.


However, if your initial fixed term is two month, the LL can still not use a s.21 for the first 6 months.


I don't believe this applies on renewal, but it's worth mentioning - G_M?

G_M

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?

SuboJvR

Guest101 wrote: »

I'm not 100% sure of that, I think you are right.


However, if your initial fixed term is two month, the LL can still not use a s.21 for the first 6 months.


I don't believe this applies on renewal, but it's worth mentioning - G_M?

It was to do with the timings for us - the offer of the two month extension was basically a few days before our fixed term was ending. So if they served a s21 then, two months' notice on us was effectively the same (give or take a couple of days) and either way taking the potential end date well into Autumn It helped the landlord to see they were only chasing the renewal fee, though :P

dgtazzman

The LA is trying to feed you the stuff that comes out of the back of a bull. For starters, you are correct, they are too late, by law you are now already on a periodic tenancy with a 2-month notice period for the LL/LA (assuming you pay rent monthly).

The LA is probably also trying to do the same to the LL to get fees from him/her too.

Nice story about them already having made up the contract (2 minutes work maybe, standard doc, change 2 names and some dates), just them trying to make up excuses it's not like you asked them for it and it's their job to check with you before the end of the initial tenancy what your intentions are.

Bypass the LA, contact the LL and explain you would like a periodic tenancy moving forward to avoid unnecessary LA fees for yourself and for the LL and hope he is happy with this. If he is, ask him to contact the LA and instruct them accordingly. As you have been in place 2 years, assuming you have paid your rent in full and on time, it's unlikely he'll want to get rid of you over some dodgy LA fees and might actually be grateful you have saved him some money.

G_M

Guest101 wrote: »

However, if your initial fixed term is two month, the LL can still not use a s.21 for the first 6 months.


I don't believe this applies on renewal, but it's worth mentioning - G_M?

No. It applies to the original contract. If a 2 month fixed term is agreed follwing an initial 6 month fixed term, a S21 can be served as 6 month's tenancy has already passed.

queline

Could someone clarify - when should the letting agent have contacted the tenant about renewing - is there a certain length of time this should be before the current contract ends? And should they also notify the tenant in advance of how much the fees are? Should they also send the paperwork to the tenant for them to read rather than just asking them to go to their office and sign it without giving them time to read it all?

Guest101

G_M wrote: »

No. It applies to the original contract. If a 2 month fixed term is agreed follwing an initial 6 month fixed term, a S21 can be served as 6 month's tenancy has already passed.

I thought so, but wanted to double check, cheers