How much can a landlord charge for set up fees?

jodystanton

I'm currently in a very stressful situation. I'm in the process of buying a house however my mortgage is no longer valid as I have been furloughed and my partner who is self employed, his contract has been terminated, therefore the bank has offered us £51K less on the mortgage than what we need, therefore we cannot buy the house. The rented flat we're currently living in, the landlord is wanting to kick us out or sign another contract for 1 year with no break clause. If we were to sign this contract and leave part way through we would have to pay £800+ in fees. The fees are as followed,
Deed of surrender £120.00, Landlord set up fee £419.00, Inventory make and check in £160.00, Check out fee £80.00. Deposit registration fee £49.00. I have looked into the price of the Landlord set up fee and it states this is usually 10-20% of a months rent, our rent being £710pm, this is extremely high. Is there anything legally binding that states the landlord cannot increase this fee over 20% and are all these fee's legal to charge for leaving a contract early please? 

Thank you 

wjr4

I wouldn’t be paying them any fees! 

Lokolo

Ignore the contract renewal and just go onto rolling. 

jodystanton

@wjr4 There isn't a break clause in the contract and he won't allow us to have one, therefore the only way to get out of the contract early would be to pay those fees? This is the impression we were under as this has come from our estate agent. Are you saying these fee's aren't a legal fee we have got to pay at all?

greatcrested

What's your current contract? Fixed term? Start and end dates please.

Or periodic? What (exact) date did the fixed term end and the periodic begin?

A periodic (rolling) tenancy is always an option. Read

Post 4: 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?

Comms69

Landlord cant (ever) kick you out. So whats the issue?

[Deleted User]

Just keep paying your rent each month in the usual manner.   Your tenancy will automatically become periodic, i.e. a rolling month-by-month agreement.  Tell your landlord it doesn't suit you to sign another fixed-term contract.   He'll huff and puff, but ultimately be grateful that he is still getting the same amount of money coming in each month.  After all, there's !!!!!!-all he can do about it right now if he wanted to evict you or look for a new tenant.

steampowered

You can't normally terminate a tenancy unless you have a break clause. If the landlord doesn't agree to let you leave early you normally have to pay rent for the remainder of the 12 month term.

As others have advised, your tenancy will automatically switch to a rolling monthly contract if no extension is your signed. Simply refuse to sign an extension - just respond politely saying that you are not prepared to sign up for another 12 month term but are happy to let the tenancy continue on a rolling basis on the same terms. If your landlord wants to kick you out he can serve a s21 notice but that process does take several months.

Comms69

steampowered said:

You can't normally terminate a tenancy unless you have a break clause. If the landlord doesn't agree to let you leave early you normally have to pay rent for the remainder of the 12 month term.

As others have advised, your tenancy will automatically switch to a rolling monthly contract if no extension is your signed. Simply refuse to sign an extension - just respond politely saying that you are not prepared to sign up for another 12 month term but are happy to let the tenancy continue on a rolling basis on the same terms. If your landlord wants to kick you out he can serve a s21 notice but that process does take several months.

Atleast 7; and probably closer to 10 with the anticipated backlog.

tatartan

Cards are all in your hands here don’t worry. Continue to pay your rent on time each month. If the landlord is that desperate to get you out (which would be lunacy in the current situation and for the foreseeable future) then let him jump through the hoops he has to. Don’t let him scare you. His options are severely limited right now and when this is over the back log will take months to get through. 

jodystanton

@Comms69 @Lokolo He has said if we go onto a rolling contract he is increasing the rent by £40 a months, when we had already emailed him to say we are having issues paying our rent as it is. If he sends us a section 21 he can very much get us out of the flat, fair enough he has to give us 3 months notice, but he can still evict us, it just may take a little longer.