Tenancy Renewal Fees

Hi Annarita

A new tenancy agreement is in nobody's interest other than your agents for the purpose of charging extra fees.

Do you have direct contact with the landlord?

If so, explain that you would prefer to let the tenancy roll over to become a statutory periodic tenancy. This means that you can end your tenancy with 30 days notice at any time in the future and you landlord can serve you with two months notice to leave at any time.

You landlord will want you to stay if you have been a good tenant.

If you don't have contact with the landlord I suggest you send a letter as follows to your letting agent.....

"Dear .....

Thank you for your letter dated ...............

I prefer to let the tenancy roll over to become a statutory periodic tenancy.

I understand this means that I could end my tenancy with 30 days notice at any time in the future and my landlord could serve me with two months notice to leave at any time.

I see this has benefits to both myself and my landlord in terms of flexibility but I appreciate that you will lose your renewal fee. Nevertheless, I would appreciate you putting this proposal to my landlord and I will be happy to pay a fee of £30 to cover your administration costs and as a gesture of good faith if my landlord agrees to this arrangement.

Yours sincerely

......

This will save you £54 if your landlord agrees and will be a lot less hassle for your letting agent too.

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If Agents refuse to accept your position your lease will automatically go periodic and if Landlord does require renewal, for mortgage conditions etc the Agent will need to explain himself. You are the most important person to the Landlord not the Agent.

What is the current state of play regarding deposit protection when rolling over into a periodic? Northwood (Bridgwater) strongly advised me against allowing this to happen at the last renewal date but made no charge for renewing for 6 months, if I recall correctly. Has the Superstrike v Rodriges appeal been heard yet?

Reply to the comment left by "Jerry Jones" at "27/02/2014 - 09:01":

What did they advise you to do, then?

Especially since Superstrike the creation of a statutory periodic AST should be treated in the same way as a 'renewal' for deposit protection purposes.
Therefore advising against either alternative on this ground is largely baseless.

Just let it roll over to a periodic and say no thanks to your agent, pay them nothing as nothing is due. You are protected.

And if they play up string them along for 30 days after it goes periodic to see if they re-serve deposit protection including all the prescribed information. If they do not say you would like your deposit back and an amount of three times said deposit as LA has failed to comply with legislation. I think they will go away then.

Reply to the comment left by "Romain " at "27/02/2014 - 09:11":

They advised that the tenancy is renewed for 6 months rather than allowed to go periodic. No charge so no monetary incentive for them to so advise.

To bring this thread back on topic...

It's very straightforward and doesn't have anything to do with deposits. If your signed tenancy agreement states the charge to renew the tenancy is £69.60 including VAT, that's all you need to pay. If you extend your tenancy agreement and the new contract has a clause in it stating that the cost to renew is £84.00, that's what you will need to pay in 12 months time - not now. We don't charge any renewal or administration fees for any tenancies.

On a related matter, I have been doing a lot of reading recently about end of tenancy charges in tenancy agreement clauses - eg for an inventory at the end of a tenancy or a check-out fee. If the clause doesn't state an amount but says something like "the reasonable cost will be advised at the time", initial guidance from the Office of Fair Trading suggests that the clause would be considered 'unfair'. Any amount subsequently charged would be open to dispute - even if other quotes showed the amount charged is in line with the market - but this is another topic for another time.

Dear oh Dear

First and foremost to say that a new tenancy for a fixed term is only in agent interest so they can charge fees is very naughty Mark. As a tenant last thing I'd want if I liked where I was living or my kids were doing GCSE's in June would be to be thrown out at a whim of a Landlord at 2 months notice.

The poster above is 100% correct the fee is the original fee it cannot be increased without at least notice to and acceptance by a tenant. OFT are very strict on that.

Second Jerry the position is as Romain says - a renewal or a periodic is a new tenancy and TDP must be dealt with. So whether you had a free renewal or a periodic you still need to re-comply with TDP

What "appeal" why does everyone think there is some appeal slowly moving along somewhere. The Superstrike judgement was coirrect - inconvenient and a surprise to many perhaps - but correct.

Annarita your best bet actually if you don't want a new fixed term arrangement is to let it go periodic, no-one and nothing can prevent that, and then after 30 days if you have not been served with new Prescribed Information by the agent (this comment assumes they served it in the first place) a TDP offence will have been committed.

Then if they try to mess you about later on just say you'll take a section 213 claim 1994 Housing Act against them. They'll know what you mean.

But remember this is the Landlord's property and when it comes to end of fixed term it is his go first, he decides whether he wants to continue letting and on what basis. So if he wants to let it on fixed term tenancies then that is his decision. You can disagree, not sign and go periodic, but equally he can then give you the two month's notice.

I know Landlords who would never agree to a tenancy ending between November and February for example, and so insist on fixed term renewals accordingly.

As per Jamie Moodie's suggestion, you should not pay anything but just let it roll over.

Perhaps send the letter as Mark advises but leave out the money offer.

One of my tenants is coming to the end of his tenancy and is about to renew to a further 6 months but he has not been charged anything for this, not even an admin charge because the arrangement is specifically for my own interest.

In respect of reprotection of your deposit, the jury is still out on this so I personally wouldn't stir up the hornets nest by using this as a veiled threat as the whole scenario is still very unclear (my opinion that I appreciate others do not subscribe to).