What is the ‘remaining term’ of a periodic tenancy?

Reply to the comment left by Andre Gysler at 28/02/2018 - 11:47
Hi Andre

You can email them to me at:
info@selborneproperty.co.uk

Sounds good about meeting up as it maybe an opportunity to work together at some point.

My properties are all in Farnborough and let to businesses through a Company Let Agreement.

We manage our own properties, we’ve tried letting via Agents and but have had such bad experiences in the past including a local Agent that illegally sublet our property.

Once you have things setup and have a good backup team of tradesman it’s easy to keep tenants happy.

My approach would be different, and you will only need one months notice, it should work if your tenants are willing to cooperate with you, and it would also be in their interest. They will get a new AST reassuring them of at least 6 months guarantee that they won't be asked to move out. Or you may offer them a carrot by explaining to them that you may be able to reduce his rent slightly by a little where by getting rid of your agent you would be making a saving and so you would not need to increase his rent up. Or alternatively you may offer to reduce his rent slightly.

1.Get talking to your tenant, and ask him to serve a 1 months Notice to the agents, (based on the fact it is now a rolling periodic tenancy) be specific of the date the tenant will be leaving, it should really be the last date of the rental period, such that agent cannot ask for another new months rent due from the tenant.

2. Contact your agent, and tell them that you have also received a copy of your tenant's Notice of his intention to leave, and explicitly state to your agent that after the current tenant leaves, you will no longer be requiring their services, or do not wish to continue to rent your house through them, and that you will from then on deal with it yourself.

3. Draw up a new AST with your tenant starting the day after the Notice of intention to leave expires, making sure that it starts immediately after the old tenancy is legally surrendered, so for example Notice stated that the tenant would be leaving on Saturday 21st August at Midnight (00.00hrs) make sure your new AST starts from 00.01hrs on Sunday 22nd August.

By doing this your agent does not have any right to enter the premises after the notice expires and you have taken over the matter into your own hands from then on, therefore your tenant does not physically have to leave or move out. There is absolutely noting the agents can do. they cannot enter the premises to conduct any checks after the Notice has expired to see whether the tenant has left. They may do so before that, but since you have instructed them you are not longer letting your property through them, therefore there is no excuse for them to bring any new tenants to show them around, but they may make one trip to check the condition of the premises for thew purpose of deposit release. Your current tenant can also refuse them entry and apart from just one visit to check the condition, agents should have no right to enter.
( the agents may wait outside ready to check the premises the minute the Notice expires, but then a new AST has begun, therefore the tenant can refuse them any access. Regardless of the situation, as long as you are happy with the condition of the premises, your agents cannot deduct any monies from his deposit unless it was money owed to them by the tenant.

So you now have full control of your property and drawn up a new AST, saving yourself paying unnecessary commission that was not giving you good value for money.

I have done this and got rid of my agents (I won't name them publicly) when they became a pain in my backside in Harlow. My tenant remained in and I took over directly . they did not physically had to move out.

On the other hand I have also had a situation where another agent terminated their contract with me simply by a written letter, giving me absolutely no notice "as from immediate effect" they will no longer be acting for me.. All because the warm air heating unit had melted and became dangerous to use, I therefore turned off gas at the meter, and chained it with a padlock, so that itr cannot be turned back on and gave tenant electric fan heaters, luckily the cooker was electric and an electric immersion heater, this happened when my landlord's gas safety record was due, and I had gone there to meet the gas safe engineer, but i reached the premises before and found the heating had melted due to tenant tampering with it, she had stuffed padded jackets in ducts to save on heating upstairs rooms, this caused the system to overheat as the hot air kept circulating within the cupboard and overheated it like an oven!

I phoned the gas safe engineer to cancel his visit because I knew there would be nothing he could do to issue a safety certificate and I would only waste my money to pay him for turning up, as I had plans to replace that WAU with wet Central Heating using a combi boiler and radiators . So my agents were horrified because I acted in the best interest of the safety of my tenant, and turned gas off, so when I updated them about the heating, they didn't like the fact that I had no gas safety record in place. they terminated my contract, really it was their loss, I took over directly, got rid of the tenant for tampering with my heating, had a new tenant since who pays me directly on time.

Further to my above suggestion, of course every agent has different set of clauses in their agreement, so in your case you may have to give two months Notice to your agent, and your tenant must also give his give his notice to both your agent and you, making sure that both notices expire two months on the same date and time i.e. midnight. Then you have already drawn up a new AST with your existing tenant, make sure you give your new tenant all the necessary paperwork from the beginning of the new AST, EPC, gas safety record, right rent booklet, new Tenancy agreement with your terms and conditions, make sure he signs or counter signs every page of your terms, re-protect his deposit, and issue prescribed instructions, electrical safety certificate all in a pack, ensuring the tenant signs a seperate declaration that he has received all these relevant papers, so that should you ever need to serve him a Section 21, then your paperwork should be up to date then only the courts cannot dismiss your application.

All of above should be given to the tenant before the start of his tenancy or at the same time as the new AST comes into force. make sure the new AST starts from 00.01hrs after the end of your and his notice to the agent.

I'd be surprised if the contract didn't have something to the effect that if the tenant remained, then the final payment was still due.

This clause is very common in agency Ts&Cs, as I discovered a few years ago. When I contacted the Property Ombudsman they said that the clause, which in effect means the agency receives fees in perpetuity without offering a service, could be deemed to be an 'unfair term and condition'. I used this approach with the useless agent I was trying to get rid of. I offered them a one off fee and told them I would not pay anymore. They initially refused to return the tenants' deposit to them, until I pointed out it was the tenants' money and they were required to return it. They then sent me a number of debt collection letters. I contacted the debt collection agency and reminded them that, as the matter was still in dispute with the lettings agency, they were not allowed to threaten me. The letters stopped, I paid the lettings agent a small sum and moved on. Yes, of course we should honour legal and reasonable contracts, but this sort of clause is ridiculous and needs to be challenged.