Problem With Rental Agency

[Fordy1]

Hi …

I am having a problem with the agency that manages the property I rent.

To give a brief history I signed a tenancy agreement with Jones Lang La Salle in June 2013 for a period dating from 26/06/2013 to 25/06/2014.

The property in question was then sold by the landlord at the beginning of 2014 with the new managing agents being Bridgfords in Leeds. I have had several issues with Bridgfords including repeated requests for rent when the rent has been paid along with a failure to provide me with a certificate to show the deposit has been protected; although they tell me it has been protected.

On the 29th of July I informed Bridgfords of 1 month notice that I intend to quit the property. Since then the problems have escalated with them informing me 1 day prior to checking out (28/08/2014) that I am in a fixed term tenancy until 25th Jan 2015; that being the date they took over managing the property.

They then back-tracked when I received a further email detailing that as I gave notice on the 28th July I am liable to pay rent until the 26th September as they state any notice must be served from the rent due date (26th of the month).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Peter Pedant]

Oh dear
You have obviously read your contract

and obeyed the terms - does your lease say when the notices should be served ?

and are you still there ?

basically they want September's rent - and it all depends on whether you have followed the terms of your lease - not what they think it should say.


I manage my tenancies myself now as your treatment by mgrs echoes mine, as a landlord.

[Fordy1]

Read the tenancy and cant see anything which refers to notice; it was an assured shorthold tenancy for a period of 12 months.

I moved out last week and handed the keys to the agent who basically said they will take the keys but refuse to accept that the tenancy is finished.

[Peter Pedant]

The next thing is to get your deposit back

If they refuse that - then you will have to go down the MCOL route.

[ladybirder]

So you're outside of your fixed term now and therefore on a rolling contract. You need to sort it quickly if they are going to be attempting to get another 6 months rent out of you. I would suggest you speak to Shelter who are experts in this area and are very helpful; I used them when my daughter had a problem.
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/private_renting

Or Citizens Advice, or NAEA National Association of Estate Agents).

[kvalidir]

Okay, as far as I see it, you are on a periodic tenancy now since your initial period expired 25/06/14.
In the absence of any clause in your contract to the contrary you would normally give one month's notice usually before the payment date ( which would have been 25th) so they are probably within their rights to argue for September's rent. In no-one's world will they swing a fixed term tenancy until January.
Now regarding your deposit, they sound savvy so you won't be getting that back in a hurry as nearly all agents try to find a pretext to keep it, however if they have not protected it then they may be liable to pay you up to 3 times the deposit amount so send them a recorded delivery letter formally requesting details of the deposit and under what scheme it is held. If they do not or cannot provide this you hold the advantage.
Keep us up to date with what they say regarding the deposit but you should be able to find out yourself by entering your details in the tenancy deposit protection websites.
You can find those here:-
http://www.depositprotection.com/
http://www.mydeposits.co.uk/
http://www.tds.gb.com/