Are the Open Rent contracts setup so the tenant is liable for council tax if they move out early before the initial 6 month AST or no?
Hi Daniel,
You can see a sample of our tenancy agreement (AST) here:
https://www.openrent.co.uk/tenancy-agreement
More information about our tenancy creation service, Rent Now, can be found here:
https://www.openrent.co.uk/rent-now
George
Thanks George, I already have an actual genuine tenancy with Open Rent so no need for the sample.
The question was regarding something else.
Hi Dan, I’ve had a little look into this! If an AST ends before six months then that can only be because:
- you agreed it with the tenant (mutual surrender)
- the tenant has abandoned the property
If you are surrendering the tenancy by mutual consent (1) then you can write the responsibility for paying the council tax into your written surrender agreement.
If the tenant has abandoned the property (2), then it’s more complex theoretically. I.e. if you don’t re-let the property for the six months, and then you chase them via the courts for the rent, can you chase them for the council tax, too? Or will the council do that?
In theory, though, if they abandon the property, you will most likely try and let it ASAP to avoid a long void period (i.e. you will have an ‘implied surrender’ situation). This would be quite a complex situation, but it’s most likely that finding out who is responsible for the month or two of council tax not paid (between the abandonment and the new tenancy) would not be top of your to do list.
If you’d like to speak to someone about this in detail, I’d recommend Landlord Advice.
They are happy to help and provide initial advice over the phone for free to OpenRent landlords. They do offer paid services as well, of course.
If you want to give them a call, you can reach them on 020 3903 2000.
Thanks Sam!! Appreciated
Dan