Hi! I’m renting a house with two other people, one of them moved out urgently without giving a months notice to the landlord, he just texted him that he moved out because of a family emergency, the landlord found a replacement and we signed a new contract with the same terms that I signed in September 2018, I’ve decided to move out and I’ve send a formal notice a month before the date I wanted to move out, the landlord replied that my notice isn’t valid as I signed a new contract that says minimum six months stay (like the first contract), also we signed before a deed of assignment tenancy when we had a tenant moving out before. My question is, is it legal that the landlord wants me to stay minimum six months again? I live in this property from September 2018 so I don’t think it’s legal that he wants to do like that.
It’s not clear to me:
- when you signed your most recent tenancy agreement
- how long its fixed term is
Could you clarify?
Last tenancy agreement was signed in October 2019 without A fixed term
Hi Bartek,
Usually if there is no fixed term, then the tenancy can terminate the tenancy by serving a minimum of one month’s notice, vacating the property and stopping rent payments.
In a joint and severally liable tenancy, any one of the tenants can serve notice to end the tenancy, and it will end the tenancy for all parties.
If I’ll send you a copy of the tenancy will it help as well?
I can’t read through tenancy agreements on behalf of Community users (although some other users on the Community may read it and share their thoughts). In general, checking a contract is something you’d pay a solicitor an hourly rate to do!
But if the agreement contains no terms to the contrary, then the normal state of things is that a tenant can end a periodic tenancy by serving a minimum of one month’s notice to the landlord.
I understand, but the main question is, can the landlord give me a new tenancy agreement with a minimum six months stay?
The point here Barket is that if the tenancy agreement does not describe a fixed term (i.e. if it is a periodic tenancy), then you can serve a minimum of one month’s notice at any point. Therefore even if the landlord would like you to stay for six months, you could leave at the end of the second month.