Tenancy agreement only signed by tenant

Tenancy agreement only signed by tenant

13:12 PM, 18th June 2015, About 9 years ago 4

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I am a non-resident landlord. The agent currently acting on my behalf is not the agent I originally signed up with (company was taken over last year). Recently they found me new tenants, but they never provided me with a copy of the tenancy agreement. After chasing it I discovered it only had the signature of the tenants – the agent had not signed it on my behalf. Tenancy agreement only signed by tenant

When questioned, the agent said it is not their policy to sign tenancy agreements – however they did not tell me this until now and I am worried that without my signature the document is not legally binding. My agent says it only needs the tenants signature, however I thought both parties had to sign it? Wouldn’t the tenant need a signed copy?

Also – on a separate issue, the new agent is arguing that the conditions agreed with my previous agent is not covered under the service they provided – i.e. I had agreed property inspections twice a year but the new agent is saying inspections with them are additional extras not covered under their standard management service. I have already argued the point that I have not agreed/signed to any new terms so as far as I am concerned my current terms still stands and they have reluctantly agreed, however I have yet to see if they carry out the inspections.

Am I in the right?

Any advice much appreciated.

Regards

Tania


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Comments

9:51 AM, 19th June 2015, About 9 years ago

Hi - it does need your signature but I have been involved in cases where only the tenant has signed and been okay. I would be inclined to get the AST from the agent and sort it out yourself of peace of mind. If you need any help only pleased to see what I can do for you.

Michael Barnes

10:03 AM, 19th June 2015, About 9 years ago

If it is a contract not signed as a Deed, then I believe that your copy only needs to be signed by the tenants.

Alan Loughlin

10:25 AM, 19th June 2015, About 9 years ago

another reason to dump the agent, do it yourself, the only effective way sadly.

Romain Garcin

11:12 AM, 19th June 2015, About 9 years ago

There is no legal requirement for the agreement to be in writing. It is about having good evidence of what the actual agreement is.

When the tenant does not sign there is always a problem in asserting whether the document contains the terms as agreed, and deposit schemes are over-fussy in such cases.
However, since the document is provided by the landlord I think that his signature is not that important unless it is clear that it was "subject to contract" and tenant hasn't been granted possession yet, etc. Of course, the best practice is to sign it, though.
I think that it happens often to have tenancy agreements not signed by the landlord/agent, especially for renewals when managed by an agent.

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