Tenancy Agreement

Sammy85_2

Hi.

For those of you who read my previous post (and thanks again to those who offered advice) i have had numerous problems with our LA and one particular property of ours.

Since that last post we have dispensed with the LA for that house (although cant get rid of them for our other houses due to the cost of release/finders fees!). We have written a very strongly worded letter to the LA a copy of which we sent to her companies CEO and are awaiting a reponse.



Anyway, to the point of this thread! We have since had the house professionally cleaned and have arranged a tenant on our own. We've had to take a £75pcm drop in rent from that previously achieved on the property, but in exchange the new tenant is going to redecorate in cream thoughout and we will pay for the paint required to do this. I say we have taken a drop in rent, but we aren't really losing out on the rent as it's still equal to the amount we received after the LA took their cut. So win-win all around really.

So, ive got hold of the tenancy agreement we used with the last tenants at the property but its out of date (pre-TDS). I know the ins and outs of the TDS and we're registered and just waiting for the deposit to pay in to it, but i need to know what exactly i should write in the tenancy agreement with regards to it. (any legal points i should be noting etc.) or do i just write something along the lines of:

" Deposit equal to ..... to be paid in advance and will be deposited with .... TDS within 14 days of receipt. The details of the TDS your deposit is lodged with will be advised to you in writing"

Is that sufficient?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks again,
Sammy

clutton_2

where did you get the last agreement from and how old is it ?

tbs624

Sammy - always make sure you have an up to date form of Tenancy Agreement, because it can save so many problems in the long run. IMO it's worth paying for one: see here http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/index.ihtml ( no, I'm not on commission) So many of the ASTs that you can get online have terms in them that can be deemed unfair, but the ones from Tessa's site are "plain English approved" and she's a solicitor who specialises in L & T law. It's a allowable admin expense:-)

You may also be interested in this post on Landlord Zone from Jeffrey Shaw, another solicitor: http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=7680

Sammy85_2

The AST is from this property and was drawn up by the letting agents for our last tenants. It is from January 2007.

Ive had a good read through it and there doesnt seem to be anything unfair in it or anything strange written in it, just no reference to a TDS.

clutton_2

i added my own clauses re Deposit protection when it came in last year, and include the DPS terms and conditions as part of the AST so the tenant could not claim they did have the "prescribed information"