One month notice period?

buel10

Hi all,
I'd like some advice on this: We are currently living in a rental property in Wales, we are going to be moving to a different rental property in England, and so need to hand our notice in to our current letting agent.
Having reviewed our contract, it says the following:

• 'If the tenant intends to vacate at the end of the fixed term, or at any later date, he agreed to give the landlord at least one months' prior notice in writing'

• 'While the tenancy is periodic, the one months' written notice must expire the day before a rent due date'

Our rent is due on the 2nd of the month so having spoken to our letting agency, they have told us that the earliest date that we would stop paying for the house would be 1st September. We contacted the new agency to inform them of this and they believed that the law had recently changed on this and that you can hand your notice in on whichever date you choose.

Is this true, and if so, is this an England - Wales issue?

Thank you all.

G_M

they believed that the law had recently changed on this and that you can hand your notice in on whichever date you choose.

Not true.

rent is due on the 2nd of the month

Probobly irrelevant.


If you are in a fixed term, what (exact) date does it end? Is there a 'Break Clause'?
If periodic tenancy, is it a contractual or statutory periodic tenancy?
What dates does each tenancy period start?


See also
* 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

buel10 wrote: »

Hi all,
I'd like some advice on this: We are currently living in a rental property in Wales, we are going to be moving to a different rental property in England, and so need to hand our notice in to our current letting agent.
Having reviewed our contract, it says the following:

• 'If the tenant intends to vacate at the end of the fixed term, or at any later date, he agreed to give the landlord at least one months' prior notice in writing'- okay, if you leave by the end of the fixed term, the tenancy ends automatically. However if you haven't served notice, the LL may have a monetary claim for their actual losses e.g. if it took them an extra 2 weeks to find a new tenant, because of your lack of notice.

• 'While the tenancy is periodic, the one months' written notice must expire the day before a rent due date' - okay, when is your rent due date in relation to your tenancy period start / end dates?
  What else is stated about what happens after the fixed term - this line alone may/may not be enough to create a CPT.

Our rent is due on the 2nd of the month so having spoken to our letting agency, they have told us that the earliest date that we would stop paying for the house would be 1st September. -
maybe. Please answer the questions below to be sure.
We contacted the new agency to inform them of this and they believed that the law had recently changed on this and that you can hand your notice in on whichever date you choose. - Nonsense.
The Landlord's notice during an SPT can be at any time, but it's longer (2 months). IF you're on a CPT, and IF the contract states notice at any time.. but no general 'law change'.

Is this true, and if so, is this an England - Wales issue?

Thank you all.

Please answer the following:
1) When does your fixed term end?
2) When do your tenancy periods start / end? (may be different to rent due dates)
3) What else is mentioned in the agreement about what happens after the fixed term / when the tenancy is periodic?

If (3) is nothing else mentioned, then you're on a Statutory Periodic Tenancy after the fixed term - and must give atleast one period's notice expiring at the end of a tenancy period. If something is mentioned, you go by that.

buel10

Apologies, the question should have been:
Please can I ask, can we give one month's notice at ANY time of the month, or do we have to abide with the second clause that says the notice period must expire on the day before our rent is due (which in our case would be the 1st of the month)?

saajan_12

buel10 wrote: »

Apologies, the question should have been:
Please can I ask, can we give one month's notice at ANY time of the month, or do we have to abide with the second clause that says the notice period must expire on the day before our rent is due (which in our case would be the 1st of the month)?

That depends on the answers to my earlier questions:

saajan_12 wrote: »

Please answer the following:
1) When does your fixed term end?
2) When do your tenancy periods start / end? (may be different to rent due dates)
3) What else is mentioned in the agreement about what happens after the fixed term / when the tenancy is periodic?

buel10

Thank you for the help. I hope these answers are what you needed:

1) When does your fixed term end?
It is an assured shorthold tenancy agreement which was for a minimum of 6 months, we moved in in February 2009.

2) When do your tenancy periods start / end? (may be different to rent due dates)
"The term shall be from and including 02.02.2009 to and including 01.08.2009"

3) What else is mentioned in the agreement about what happens after the fixed term / when the tenancy is periodic?
The agreement states "If on the coming to the end of the fixed term agreed above, the Landlord does not seek possession and the Tenant remains in the Property, they will be considered, by virtue of section 5 of the Housing Act 1988, to have a statutory periodic tenancy. This will continue till ended by either party."

If (3) is nothing else mentioned, then you're on a Statutory Periodic Tenancy after the fixed term - and must give at least one period's notice expiring at the end of a tenancy period. If something is mentioned, you go by that.

It is the expiring part of the notice that is causing me confusion. I thought that if you had to give one month's notice on a property, that you could give this one month's notice at any given time. However, the letting agent has stipulated this one month's notice must expire the day before our rent is due, which will be the 1st of the month. So effectively we need to give over 7 weeks' notice. It is this point I wanted to check, is it compulsory to have to give the notice to expire the day before the rent is due? Can we not legally give our one month's notice at any point in the calendar month?

saajan_12

buel10 wrote: »

Thank you for the help. I hope these answers are what you needed:

1) When does your fixed term end?
It is an assured shorthold tenancy agreement which was for a minimum of 6 months, we moved in in February 2009.
- so if nothing was signed subsequently, you're on a SPT or CPT
2) When do your tenancy periods start / end? (may be different to rent due dates)
"The term shall be from and including 02.02.2009 to and including 01.08.2009"
- I mean the subsequent periods. If your original fixed term was stated as a monthly tenancy with £x per month, then the subsequent periodic is PROBABLY monthly with periods 2nd -> 1st of following month.
3) What else is mentioned in the agreement about what happens after the fixed term / when the tenancy is periodic?
The agreement states "If on the coming to the end of the fixed term agreed above, the Landlord does not seek possession and the Tenant remains in the Property, they will be considered, by virtue of section 5 of the Housing Act 1988, to have a statutory periodic tenancy. This will continue till ended by either party."
- so you're on a SPT, there's no intention to vary the terms.
If (3) is nothing else mentioned, then you're on a Statutory Periodic Tenancy after the fixed term - and must give at least one period's notice expiring at the end of a tenancy period. If something is mentioned, you go by that.

It is the expiring part of the notice that is causing me confusion. I thought that if you had to give one month's notice on a property, that you could give this one month's notice at any given time. However, the letting agent has stipulated this one month's notice must expire the day before our rent is due, which will be the 1st of the month. - expire on the 1st is correct, technically the reason is 1st is the end of a tenancy period (rent payment dates are irrelevant). So effectively we need to give over 7 weeks' notice. - yes, it can vary between 1 month and 2months-1day. Ideally you'd have read the agreement and planned ahead if possible. It is this point I wanted to check, is it compulsory to have to give the notice to expire the day before the rent is due? - yes. Can we not legally give our one month's notice at any point in the calendar month?- no

On a SPT, the tenant can give 1 full tenancy period notice to terminate the tenancy. A tenancy period is a block of time from 2nd -> 1st of next month. Nothing to do with a calendar month / 4 weeks / 30 days. So notice served BY the 2nd would terminate the tenancy on 1st of the next month. Dependingon when you decide you want to serve notice, this could mean in reality, anywhere between 1 month and 2months-1day.

If it helps, the LL would have to give 2 full calendar months notice to even begin eviction proceedings through a court which takes yet more time.

G_M

As saajan_12 says:


* you have a Statutory Periodic Tenancy
* each monthly tenancy period starts on 2nd of the month and ends on the 1st of the following month
* your notice must include a complete period
* so if you serve notice on or before 2nd of any month, your notice will expire on 1st of the following month


eg serve notice tomorrow (14th July) and notice will expire on 1st of September (encompassing the complete period from 2nd August to 1st September).