Hi
Just wanted to take five minutes of your time to talk to you about tenancy agreements. As you know there are many different variations of tenancy agreements in the property rental sector, some are just one page others are like a bible! Now as long as its got all the information in that is required then there is no right or wrong size of the document.
Since starting in the rental sector in 2003, I have seen many additions to the tenancy agreements that I have used, these have mainly been for two reasons:
The inception of the legislation to protect your tenants deposit in April 2007. As you will be well aware this legislation means that no landlord or agent can hold a deposit without either a) registering it with one of the two insurance based schemes b) registering it and sending the monies to the one holding scheme. The tenancy agreements had to be re-worded to include the “prescribed information” which are the details of the scheme used/amount of deposit etc etc etc. It was deemed at a legal conference that I attended in 2006, that anything that you wish for the tenants to sign to agree to, should go in the tenancy agreement as tenants always read what they sign (cough cough)
The other changes have been through experiences with tenants ie issues that have occurred at the end of tenancy that may be deemed as a bit grey but again they have signed to agree to this. provided it doesn’t not contravene statute law, so decorating/oil tank top ups etc etc
Now, the agreement must also have the required notice period in it: during a fixed term then one calender months notice that must expire after the end of the fixed period and during a periodic tenancy, one months notice to expire at the end of the rent payment period. Interestingly a tenant does NOT have to give notice if they are in a fixed term as there is no statutory law requiring them to do so, by giving them a fixed term the agent/landlord is telling the tenant that they have a secured short hold over that property for the fixed term.
12 months or 6 months?
At Ezytrac we recommend a 6 month fixed tenancy, however, some landlords/tenants would like more security of tenure, therefore they might request a 12 month tenancy. In this instance Ezytrac would have a break clause within the 12 month tenancy agreement meaning that if the landlord requires possession or the tenant wishes to leave then they can exercise that break clause. In the 12 month instance Ezytrac will issue a *Section 21 which will expire at the 6 month breakclause, so you might ask why both with a 12 month tenancy – simple its what ever the customer wants – be it landlord or tenant!
*Section 21’s to be covered under “To Serve or not to Serve”
At Ezytrac we send out our own tenancy agreement to our local agents, this means that over a period of time ALL our tenants will be on the same tenancy agreement. Making our life a little easier at this end!
Please do not hesitate to contact any member of the Ezytrac team should you have any questions about Tenancy Agreements or any other matter on (0044) 01522 503 717
April 4