Lettings agent not allowing periodic tenancy

Guest101

queline wrote: »

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?

There's no standard.


It's a law unto itself in this regard

G_M

queline wrote: »

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?

The landlord can offer a renewal on whatever terms they want at whatever time they like.

The tenant can agree at once, say they will think about it and reply later, or refuse.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

You are now on a periodic tenancy meaning the terms of your original contract still stand; you are required to give one month's notice and your LL to give you two months. Your deposit should remain protected.

I would send a letter to your LL outlining this and pointing out that both of you have saved by not being charged renewal fees. Ignore any bleating from the agent.

G_M

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

You are now on a periodic tenancy meaning the terms of your original contract still stand; you are probably required to give about one month's notice and your LL to give you two months. Your deposit should remain protected.

That assumes it's a Statutory Periodic. And that notice is served on exactly the right date. It's actually a full tenancy period's notice, not a month.

I agree it is unlikely this is a Contractual Periodic, given that a new fixed term was offered, but there's only one way to be sure.......


* 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?

saajan_12

emoaty wrote: »

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.

Correct- legally you are already on a periodic tenancy and can just ignore the agent (or reply saying 'No thank you'). The LL can evict via a Section 21 notice followed by a court possession order and bailiffs (total 3-6 months), but the question is will they?

- the point of a fixed term for a LL is generally security of having a long term tenant.. so illogical to evict a paying tenant and guarantee themself a void due to the unpredictable timing of when the property will be empty.

- In some areas timing of changeovres is crucial e.g. in university towns where much of the market prefers tenancies in line with academic years

- The agent has an incentive to renew frequently as they receive fees and are relatively less affected by voids or eviction costs. They may 'encourage' a hands off or inexperienced LL to insist on a renewal.

queline wrote: »

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?

There's no rule about this, a 'renewal' is a new agreement between LL and tenant, which can be negotiated any time during the initial fixed term or even once the periodic tenancy has started. There's no particular requirement on how this has to be done as the tenant can always refuse to sign. Therefore, tenants can refuse to sign unless they get extra reading time / lower fees / anything

emoaty

Wow, thanks for all the quick replies, I really do appreciate it.


I think I will get in touch with the LL and see what he thinks. We have always paid our rent on time and I think we have been good tenants so hopefully he would rather keep us there than make us leave.


As we are legally already on a periodic tenancy, that is what I would like to stay on, plus I am rather loathed to give the LA more money for changing a date on a bit of paper! What annoys me as well is I did ask them before the contract finished what was going to be done about renewal and they ignored my email so I think they missed their chance to get more money off me!


Thanks

bris

This renewal fee scam should be stopping soon in England.
In Scotland it is illegal for agencies to charge these fees and I believe England are looking to also bring this in.


Scotland is also bringing in a new tenancy agreement where you can no longer evict at the end of a fixed period and the revenge eviction is illegal. So when a fixed period ends there is no more "no fault" evictions and you simply cant end a tenancy unless you are selling the house. Not sure when England will follow this but it will be coming.


Although the estate agent can't demand a new fee they can at this point evict, with Scotlands new rules this would be impossible. it's good news for tenants, not so good for Landlords.

Guest101

bris wrote: »

This renewal fee scam should be stopping soon in England.
In Scotland it is illegal for agencies to charge these fees and I believe England are looking to also bring this in.


Scotland is also bringing in a new tenancy agreement where you can no longer evict at the end of a fixed period and the revenge eviction is illegal. So when a fixed period ends there is no more "no fault" evictions and you simply cant end a tenancy unless you are selling the house. Not sure when England will follow this but it will be coming.


Although the estate agent can't demand a new fee they can at this point evict, with Scotlands new rules this would be impossible. it's good news for tenants, not so good for Landlords.

No they cant. a LL can, an agent cannot

G_M

emoaty wrote: »

I think I will get in touch with the LL and see what he thinks. We have always paid our rent on time and I think we have been good tenants so hopefully he would rather keep us there than make us leave.

That's certainly one option.

Another is to do absolutley nothing. Stop responding to the agent, do and say nothing.

You've already moved to a (contractual or statutory) periodic tenancy so you do not need to do anything more.

emoaty

Just a little update...

Last night I emailed my LA explaining to them that I had tried to get in touch with them before the fixed term contract ended as I wanted to discuss the possibility of a periodic tenancy and my email was ignored. I said that as we are now legally on a period tenancy we wanted to stay on one and I was more than willing to get in touch with the landlord and discuss it with him.


Got a reply at 9.06am to say they had spoken to the landlord who was happy with a periodic tenancy...!


Think this is going to keep me amused for the rest of the day!