Expired tenancy…if it rolls over what happens to guarantor?

Landlord Discussion Legal
1

Hi all, I wonder if you are able to help.

The initial assured term tenancy has expired and the tenants are keen to remain. When the initial 6 month contract was written, it included a guarantor. I wonder if anyone could kindly help with the following questions …

  1. as I understand the AST turns into a ‘periodic tenancy’, if I don’t do anything with refard to renewing the contract, do I still have the benefit of the guarantor that was in place for the initial 6 month contract, or do I need to create a new tenancy agreement to ensure that the guarantor remains in place

2)if I do not issue a new contract, do I need to write to the tenants advising that the contract is now a periodic tenancy

  1. if I want to increase the rent in say a further 6 or 12 months time then does anyone know the process for a periodic tenancy.

Thanks for reading this and any help is greatly appreciated

Steve

2

Hi Steve

  1. I would have thought the guarantor is bound for the life of the tenancy, not just the fixed term. If you issued a new tenancy you would then need the guarantor to re-commit. I am not exactly sure. I am a relatively new LL so seek advice on this point from others on here.

  2. No need to write if this is clearly stated in the tenancy. Although you could remind them if you wanted to feel them out about signing a new fixed term which they might consider for their own security.

  3. The official way to raise the rent is to either issue a new tenancy agreement with the new rent amount or maintain the existing tenancy and issue a section 13 notice for the rent increase. If you have a good tenant you may want to discuss it with them first.

3

The answer depends on the wording of the agreement, how it was processed and whether this is a fixed term tenancy followed by SPT, or a contractual periodic tenancy.

4

Hi thanks so much….the contract is the standard AST that Open rent issue and was for a 6 month period

5

Thanks so much …really appreciated

6

Just thinking about it logically, if there’s a need for the LL to request the security of a guarantor from day one, surely the LL would still require the security of the guarantor after the 6 month fixed term unless the tenants circumstances changed significantly for the better.

7

I believe that Openrent now use a CPT agreement. You can check by looking at the clauses concerning what happens at the end of the initial term. It should say that the tenancy continues on a month to month basis or specifically mention a contractual periodic tenancy. If this is the case then its likely all just one tenancy with a longer initial term, in which case the rent guarantee would continue provided you didnt issue a new agreement.

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