I’m about to use Openrent to list a property, similar to others I have listed in the past (back to back in Leeds).
I will be using Openrent’s standard contract but I want to add an exclusion. The let will not include the cellar and I want to make that clear in the contract and they will not be given keys. I just would like to know if anyone has any thoughts where I should put this clause in the Openrent standard one? Miscellaneous section seems most obvious section to me around point 14.1.
Hi James, Legally I don’t think the position within the written agreement matters too much as long as the clause is clearly worded. Practically speaking, any custom clauses you add will be added to the end of the contract.
Cheers Sam, so it’s just a case of putting it somewhere? I just need to keep the cellar out of bounds as the previous owner developed it as a separate unit for a lodger. He lived above, they lived in the cellar. All the services are separate but I don’t think strictly speaking it has ever been signed off as habitable. So I don’t want people down there. Will also avoid any problems with getting potentially two lots of bills for electric and gas. It’s for the tenants good as well as mine until I decide what to do with the space.
I’ve had a response from one of your colleagues saying to put the exemption in I need to use “Advanced Contract Settings”, which is fine. Can I add this exemption to the “miscellaneous” section?
Hi James, Advanced contract settings is simply the name of the screen on which you can add the custom clauses. I and the person you spoke to will have been saying the same thing, I think. The custom clauses are added to the end of the AST. The final section is Section 14 which as you say is the ‘Miscellaneous’ section.
But yeah I wouldn’t worry too much about where the terms are inserted in the document. As long as they are clear, then they will apply, regardless of order.