We have had to give the governments 6 month notice to our tenant which means she can stay on for 1 month beyond the date of her actual tenancy agreement. We have it in writing she will be leaving on the agreed date (now 7/8/21) but the tenancy agreement ends 7/7/21. Technically, she will be in our property with no contract/tenancy agreement in place to protect either of us.
Has the government thought to automatically extend the rights and obligations of the tenancy agreement along with the tenants right to remain 4 months beyond the actual contract date, there by actually supporting the landlord?
If there is a signed AST she will have defaulted to the periodic so there is an automatic contract in place
Does your contract not stipulate that?
As above, a periodic tenancy will arise automatically on the same terms so she will still be under contract.
What do you mean by “We have it in writing she will be leaving on the agreed date”. Is this from her? What exactly does it say? The expiry of the notice doesn’t compel the tenant to leave, it just provides a gateway to legal proceedings, which at the current rate will probably take a further year to gain possession.
We have a pretty standard AST in place stating the Landlord gives 8 weeks notice and the tenant gives 4 weeks. This agreement ends 7/7/21 - under normal circumstances. However, with Covid moving the goal posts it means she can remain until 7/9/21. However, this is not as convenient for her as it encroaches on the new school year (She has an 8 year old daughter.) Our tenant has emailed us stating she wishes to leave on 7/8/21 not 7/9/21 for this reason - we’re happy to accept this. Our concern is our original AST ends on 7/7/21 leaving a 1 month period not covered by any agreement - or so we thought. Do we need to write to her saying the final month of her tenancy will be covered in the absence of an AST by this periodic tenancy?
Many thanks for your help.
No the periodic continues by default
You may want to serve how to rent, gas, electric and EPC again
Statutory periodic is not an extension of the fixed term
Contractual is classed as the fixed term
I don’t know what your contract reads
Hi David 122.
Does my reply to A_A Regular help clarify? Basically once the dust settled from us serving notice, I asked her to email and confirm her intentions to leave on 7/821, which she has done. So technically she can remain for the fully 6 months of the notice period but she wants to leave in the 5th month due to complications of school terms. We are happy to accept this situation. We just seek assurance that there is something binding between us for that one ‘floating’ month. It seems the Gov are happy supporting tenants and equally happy leaving the landlords to take up the slack.
It’s not a floating month. It’s a periodic.
Apologies but I don’t understand what you mean by “serve how to rent, gas, electric and EPC again”
Would it help if I sent you a copy of the contract?
you should have sent those documents in advance of the original contract
documents should be served in advance of statutory periodic
The issue is that the tenant cannot serve a valid notice during the fixed term unless the tenancy agreement allows it, so this notice she has given you is if no legal effect and you cant hold her to it. Hopefully she will do what she has said and there is little point in worrying about it now.