Hi, my tenant is on a monthly periodic tenancy years after the original 6 month fixed term expired. The tenancy period runs from the 1st of every month until the end of each month, with rent payments paid on the 1st.
The tenant has recently given the minimum 1 months notice on the 10th July to leave on the 10th of August. When logging in to the OpenRent portal to confirm her notice period was received the portal only gave me options to Confirm End Of Tenancy (which aligned with the tenants notice period of the 10th August) or Adjust End Date.
My understanding and as per clause 12.2 of OpenRents tenancy agreement would imply the tenant is responsible for the full tenancy period that being the full August rent payment despite wishing to leave on the 10th.
Openrent gave both myself and the tenant some generic replies to our queries which frankly confused us both further but ultimately and from reading many similar issues here and other sources I am certain the tenant is liable for the full August payment and have as such edited the Adjust End Of Tenancy date to the end of August.
As you can imagine this didn’t please the tenant but what is the point of having a contract to protect either party except when it doesn’t suit?
To be fair I have had a good working relationship with this tenant and did ask them to keep me fully informed of their progress with looking elsewhere for a bigger house and the progress/dates that they may be moving to better allow myself (a working landlord) to plan things but frankly they dropped the absolute minimum notice period on me and now expect me to just forgo the contractual agreement it feels.
I think I’m more venting more than asking but clarification from experienced Landlords using OpenRent would be greatly received.
We’d always recommend seeking independent legal advice for your particular circumstances.
The standard OpenRent contract does state:
The Tenant must give notice of no less than one month, such notice to expire the day before a Rent Payment Day or on the final day of the Initial Term.
However the tenancy can be ended at any point via mutual agreement. If you would like to accept a notice that expires on a date which does not align with the rent payment date, you are welcome to do so.
I can see you’re using our Rent Collection service, in which case once you have confirmed the end date of the tenancy we will calculate the pro-rated rent amount due for the tenants to cover the last period of the tenancy.
Their notice to quit expiring on 10 August is invalid. Did you indicate you accepted it? If not then ask them to serve a valid notice as per the contract, (in this case expiring 31 August).
Hi David, at first I did not accept the 10th August as the end of the tenancy period despite her notice for the 10th August. To be honest the information we both received from openrent was very conflicting and causing us both confusion. I’m glad to say we have settled on a compromised date now that we’re both happy with.
Regards D
Provided you have confdence that she will honour the new arrangement then fine, but to be safe I’d ask her to setve a new notice to quit with this date and thenformally accept it in writing.