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How to change the various Terms and conditions in a Tenancy Agreement

It’s a fact the various terms and conditions mentioned in a Tenancy Agreement can be effectively changed; however, it requires that both the tenant and the landlord must agree upon these changes.

All the changes made by mutual agreement are recorded in a written document. This can be achieved by preparing a new tenancy agreement or modifying the existing deal.

There can be several reasons to make amendments to a Tenancy Agreement. Here are a few of the most important ones.

I am changing the rent amount, e.g., rent increases or decreases.
The tenant has bought a pet. There can be new terms that need to be included in the agreement, including the liability for pet damage.
The tenant may want to transfer the tenancy to any other household member living with them for more than one year.
The tenant may decide to modify the tenancy type to a joint tenancy.

Changes can also be made verbally, but it is highly advisable to record everything in writing. The reason is that confusion may crop up later on if there is no written record of the agreement. Therefore, it’s a safer practice to record everything in writing.

Another essential thing to notice is that all the amendments to the Tenancy Agreement should be by the Housing Act. There are statutory rights for tenants and landlords that can’t be overwritten. In conflict, the Housing Act will serve as the ruling law.

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Discrimination in context to Tenancy Agreements

Landlords must not discriminate against tenants because of any of the following reasons:

Sex / Gender-based discrimination
Disability based discrimination
Racial discrimination
Discrimination based on Beliefs or Religion

It is illegitimate for any landlord to discriminate against his tenants due to any of the above reasons. As a result, the following aspects of discrimination are entirely against the law.

If a landlord Rents out a property to specific tenants by providing them worse terms and conditions than the other tenants.
If a landlord treats some of his tenants differently when determining various policies about access to certain facilities like garden access and laundry,
They are harassing or Evicting tenants because of gender, disability, race, sexuality or even religion, among others.
If a landlord refuses to entertain reasonable requests from disabled persons, for instance, if he doesn’t allow a dog to reside with a blind tenant on his property, etc.

If the landlord lives on the same property as the tenant, some of the above rules may not apply; however, the landowners are still prohibited from discriminating against any of their tenants because of their race.

Sex / Gender-based discrimination

The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (SDA) was introduced not only for sex discrimination against women, but this law also applies to various acts of sex discrimination against men. This Act states two types of sex discrimination. The first one is direct, and the second one is indirect.

Direct:

A typical example of this type of sex discrimination is a landowner who treats a female tenant as an inferior tenant as compared to the male tenants due to her sex.

Indirect:

A typical example of this type of sex discrimination is a landowner who applies a specific requirement or condition for a female tenant—a female tenant must comply with this condition or requirement to obtain a tenancy.

Victimisation

If a landowner victimises his tenants due to their sex by treating them differently and less favourably than his other tenants, it would be considered an act of sex discrimination and is entirely against the law.

Disability Discrimination Act

This Act makes it illegitimate for any landlord to discriminate against his tenants due to any disability. A ‘disabled person’ in this Act is defined as follows:

“A person has a disability if he or she has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his/her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.”

According to this Act, a landlord can be discriminating if:

He treats a tenant differently due to some reasons based on his disability.
If the landlord cannot justify the mentioned treatment
The landowners fail to fulfil Part 2, Sec 6, as mentioned in the Disability Discrimination Act. This section describes the various adjustments to such agreements to make them suitable for a disabled tenant.
The landowner cannot justify failing to fulfil the requirement in Sec 6.

Various reasons are acceptable and can be used to treat a disabled tenant differently.

Below are the various circumstances whereby it’s acceptable to treat a disabled tenant with a difference.

Sometimes, disabled persons can be treated differently based on their safety and health.
- It is quite acceptable to refuse access to a facility to a disabled person when it is known that allowing access to a particular facility may pose a danger to others’ safety.
- If a disabled person cannot sign an enforceable agreement legally or has not given any legal consent, it can be acceptable to treat him differently.

Making Adjustments to Properties

Landlords are not required to make any special modifications to their properties to make their property easily accessible to disabled persons.

Racial Discrimination Act

According to the Race Relations Act, it is illegitimate for a landowner to discriminate against his tenant based on racial grounds. This Act describes various racial grounds such as colour, race, ethnic group, nationality, national origins, etc.

Under this Act, there are four main types of discrimination related to various racial backgrounds: direct, indirect, victimisation, and harassment.

Direct

Direct:

A typical example of this type of racial discrimination is a landowner who treats a particular tenant as an inferior tenant as compared to the other tenants due to their racial background.

Indirect:

In this type of racial discrimination, a landowner applies an additional requirement or condition to a tenant because of his racial background. A tenant must comply with this condition and the requirement to obtain tenancy. This is an example of indirect racial discrimination.

Victimisation

If a landowner victimises his tenants due to their race by treating them differently and less favourably than his other tenants, it would be considered an act of racial discrimination and is entirely illegitimate.

Harassment

According to the Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003, any racial harassment on the grounds of ethnic, race or national origins is considered illegal, excluding racism based on nationality or colour. Harassment based on ethnicity or colour may be regarded as unlawful direct discrimination.

A landowner harasses his tenants based on race, national, or ethnic origins, or if the landowner indulges in some form of unwanted conduct that can affect the dignity of tenants or create a degrading, hostile, offensive, humiliating environment for them.

How to Tackle Discrimination

If you feel that your landlord may have discriminated against you, you have all the right to take legal action against them. The first step is to get reliable advice from a qualified and reputable attorney, the Citizens Advice Bureau, or a legal advice centre.

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How to Increase Tenant’s Rent?

There may be many reasons why a property owner can decide to increase rent; the following are two of the most common ones:

To keep up with the rising levels of inflation
To take benefits from the profitable rental market

A legal way to increase rent

The most common way many landlords use to increase rent is to prepare a new tenancy agreement and get it signed by the tenants at the end of the fixed term. This is one of the best ways to increase rent.

It’s worth mentioning that it’s not always necessary to prepare a new tenancy agreement as it’s pretty understood that the existing tenancy can become a periodic tenancy with similar terms and conditions. So, you can quickly get your tenant to agree to the increased rent by just sending him a letter regarding the increase and getting it signed by him. This dated letter will prove the agreement regarding the rent increase.

Rent Review Clauses

A tenancy agreement may sometimes contain rent review clauses. It would help if you ensured that all the clauses are fair and by Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

An effective way to make a fair rent review clause is to specify new figures for the rent after a specified period. For instance, let’s say £700pcm is the rent right at the start of the tenancy period; the clause should specify that after six months, the rent for the property will increase by, say, £50 and become £750. This will be considered fair because the tenant will automatically approve the increased amount when signing the agreement. At the same time, if the clause states that the landowner may increase the rent by whatever amount he likes and feels, this will not be considered fair.

Don’t ever try to increase the rent by too much amount.

What is the extent to which you want to increase rent is of utmost importance. Therefore, the rent increase should be fair and justified. Even if you state the new amount in your Tenancy Agreement, which is a pretty excessive increase, the court can deem your increase rent clause invalid. It doesn’t matter if the tenant has signed it or not.

For example, in the bank way case, the tenancy agreement consists of a rent increase clause that states the rent increase from £4,680 to a whopping 25,000. However, when the rise in rent became effective, the tenant refused to keep up with the increased amount; thereby, the landlord sued him for possession.

The Court of Appeal stated that the rent increase clause was invalid as the increase in rent was quite substantial, and it was solely devised to bring the assured tenancy of the property to an end. The tenant could not pay the new increased amount. So, high rent increases are not at all recommended.

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Is your Tenancy Agreement fair or unfair?

All terms and conditions mentioned in a Tenancy Agreement must not be unfair. If there are unfair Terms in the agreement, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 has been established to provide protection and safety to Tenants. This Regulation states that if any term or condition in the deal is considered unfair, it will be entirely unenforceable for the Tenant.

When are the terms considered Unfair in a Tenancy Agreement?

To consider a tenancy agreement entirely fair, it must meet the following needs and requirements:

All the terms mentioned in the contract should be in a language that is easy to understand.
All the terms of the agreement must pass the fairness test
The contract’s parties must conclude that the deal is entirely fair.

Examples of some unfair terms

Following are some examples of unfair terms which you should never use in a tenancy agreement, and you cannot enforce these terms on your tenants:

Terms and conditions that direct the Tenant to pay for maintenance and repairs, which the Landlord legally requires, allow the Landlord to order the home during the tenancy period without any permission or prior notice.

How do we act on unfair terms?

If you think your tenancy agreement consists of unfair terms, you should contact an experienced legal adviser.

To avail of any free legal advice on these matters, you can also consult your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

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Joint Tenancy Agreements

What exactly is a Joint Tenancy?

A joint tenancy is an agreement whereby you can have two or more than two individuals for the same tenancy. In this agreement, all involved individuals have exclusive possession of the complete property and equal rights to the rented property.

A Joint Tenancy agreement is a legal agreement between the landlord and all his tenants. According to this agreement, all the tenants are equally responsible for adhering to all the terms and conditions mentioned in the Tenancy Agreement.

An important point to note here is that a joint tenancy is not similar to a ‘tenants in common’ agreement, although they appear quite similar and often cause a lot of confusion.

What is ‘Tenants in common’?

This is similar to a joint tenancy in the context of two or more tenants living under the same tenancy. However, each tenant has exclusive ownership of their specific bedroom within the property. He can also make use of their communal areas.

Essential Requirements for Obtaining Joint Tenancy

Each tenant must be 16 16yrs of age or older
A single legal document is used to hold the tenancy of all the tenants.
The starting and ending dates for all the tenants must be the same
All the tenants must exercise equal rights to the whole property
All Tenants must be entitled to possess the entire property with equal rights

Liability for Joint Tenants

All the tenants involved in a Joint Tenancy are usually liable in a joint manner for any damages to the property or rent arrears. This means that if any joint tenants violate any of the terms and conditions of the cooperative tenancy agreement, the landowner has all the rights to claim all of them or even against the individual tenant. This is considered a great advantage for the landowner in this regard.

Joint Tenancy Guarantor

Each tenant will have a different Guarantor that will provide additional security to the landowner.

How to Change the Joint Tenants

If you want any of the joint tenants to leave your property and rent out your property to new tenants in place of any of the older joint tenants, you need to include a new tenancy agreement. This can be quickly done by Deed of Variation, which can be attached to your Tenancy Agreement, or you can prepare an entirely new one for this purpose.

How to end a Joint Tenancy

To end a joint tenancy, you must give written notice to every individual joint tenant, assuming that this notice complies with the tenancy agreement about the termination date of the tenancy period.

What to do in case of arrears at the time of ending the joint tenancy

As mentioned, tenancy liability will be shared evenly between all tenants in joint tenancy. If there are any types of arrears, each one of the tenants in joint tenancy will be considered responsible for the amount overdue. This is precisely why it is often recommended that you be extra careful when you opt for joint tenancy.

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Oral Tenancy Agreement

Any verbal or oral agreement made between a Tenant and a landlord, by all the terms mentioned in the Tenancy Agreement, is referred to as an oral tenancy agreement.

The main aspects of this type of agreement are discussed in great detail by all the parties involved, primarily the Tenant and the landlord. It doesn’t matter if the tenancy agreement is discussed orally or if they are mentioned in writing; the following conditions are included in this type of contract.

Property Details: This part contains all the details about the address of the property that is being rented out.
Term: This part is used to specify the starting and ending date of the tenancy period, also known as “fixed term.”
Rent: This is the rent to be paid by the Tenant to the landlord. This may also contain the method and the exact date of payment of rent.
Deposit: This part contains the total amount of the deposit and what things this deposit will cover.
Deposit Scheme: This consists of a Tenancy Deposit Scheme in which the deposit is usually secured.
Landlord’s Obligations: This usually contains the responsibilities and duties of the Landowners.
Tenant’s Obligations: This usually contains the responsibilities and duties of the Tenant towards his landlord and property.
Other Special Provisions: This part usually contains other special provisions agreed upon between the Tenant and landlord, for instance, pets, sub-letting, smoking, etc.

Oral/Verbal Tenancy Agreements are legal. However, they are only sometimes recommended because there is no way of knowing and proving anything during the dispute. For instance, if a dispute arises between the Tenant and the landlord about the amount of money in rent, it can become quite challenging to make a ruling about who is right or wrong with a written document.

There can also be legitimate issues where the landlord or tenants don’t remember the agreed terms and conditions. The problems that usually occur with verbal or oral agreements are not always serious but can still cause significant complications. Therefore, it is always recommended to have a written tenancy agreement to avoid all these problems.

As with assured shorthold tenancy, proper statutory rights are given to tenants and landlords; it doesn’t matter if the agreement is written or oral. All these rights are mentioned in the Housing Act 1988, Housing Act 1996, and Housing Act 2004.

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Tenancy Deposit Scheme

According to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, it’s mandatory for every landlord or even letting agent to protect the tenant’s deposit through this scheme. The Government started this scheme on April 6, 2007. This is a legal requirement for all landlords wanting to rent out their property.

What is the reason behind the introduction of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme?

The Government has introduced this scheme primarily to protect and safeguard the tenancy deposits and offer a fair system to settle all the disputes concerning the return of deposits at the end of the tenancy period. Before introducing this scheme, there used to be many complications about whether the dispute was getting resolved relatively or not. With this scheme, the Government has introduced an independent service that helps resolve these disputes effectively. Any tenant can avail of this service completely free of cost.

What will happen if I pay the deposit before April 6, 2007?

If your tenancy period started before April 6, 2007, the landlord is not required by law to protect your deposit under this scheme. At the same time, if any new tenancy agreement has been signed since the original date, your deposit will automatically come under the tenancy deposit scheme. An important point to note here is that the law does not explicitly state that the landlord has been bound to protect this deposit. Still, the Government suggests watching the deposit under various circumstances.

What do the letting agents or landlord have to do?

After a tenant has paid the required deposit, the landlord or the letting agent is responsible for protecting this deposit by following all the terms mentioned in the tenancy deposit scheme. In this scheme there are two types of schemes available:

In a custodial scheme, the agent or the landlord pays a certain deposit to this scheme, and this independent service will keep it until the end of the tenancy period.
In an insurance scheme, the agent or the landlord can keep all the deposit; however, he pays all the insurance premiums in this scheme. So, it just means that the deposit is completely insured. In case of any dispute, this scheme will repay the amount to the tenant directly. This insurance scheme can also charge a certain fee from landlords for getting a membership. This scheme can also require specific contributions concerning the incurred costs of insurance.

It is entirely up to the agent or landlord to decide what scheme they want to use. All the required information about the scheme must be provided to the tenants within 14 days at the time of deposit payment. This information can include:

Contact details of the agent or the landlord
The type of tenancy deposit scheme which is being used and other contact details regarding the scheme
Any information about the primary purpose or use of a tenancy deposit
The procedure that a tenant can use to apply to get his deposit back after the end of the tenancy period
The process that the tenant should follow in case any dispute arises due to the deposit

What happens if the agent or the landlord doesn’t agree to provide the required information or if they still need to protect and secure the tenant’s deposit?

In these cases, the tenant can easily apply for an order against the agent or the landlord in the county court, stating that the landlord should pay his deposit back or secure it in any of the schemes under the tenancy.

In addition to the deposit, the court can make an agent or the landlord pay the required compensation to the tenant, which is usually equal to 3 times the original value of the deposit paid by the tenant.

What happens at the end of the tenancy?

At the end of the tenancy period, if the letting agent or landlord agrees on the amount of deposit that should be returned to the tenant, then within ten days, the tenant should get their deposit back without any hassle.

The tenants will also receive specific interest if the deposit was secured in any custodial schemes. The tenant can get their deposit from the custodial scheme via electronic transfer or Cheque. If the deposits are held in an insurance-based scheme, then they will be repaid to you by your landlord either by Cheque or in cash. An important point to note here is that interest in the deposits invested in any insurance-based scheme will not be passed to the tenant.

Central Government-approved Deposit Schemes

Tenancy Deposit Solutions Ltd (TDSL) can be found at www.mydeposits.co.uk
The tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) can be found at www.tds.gb.com

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How to End a Tenancy Agreement?

If both tenant and landlord agree upon ending the tenancy agreement

If both parties agree upon ending a tenancy agreement, it is easy to achieve and can be done at any time throughout a tenancy. This ending of a tenancy agreement is usually known as ‘surrender’.

Both tenant and landlord should agree to end the tenancy in writing so that it can clarify all the agreed-upon terms and conditions. In case of a joint tenancy, all the involved tenants of the property must agree to end the tenancy for surrender.

If a tenant legally surrenders a tenancy, the landlord has all the rights to take possession of his property according to Section 5 mentioned in the Housing Act 1988.

The landlord has the responsibility to make sure that the agreement should end adequately. If the landlord claims possession of his property, even if the tenants have not agreed to end the tenancy, the landlord can be easily accused of unlawful eviction.

There are various ways in which a tenant can surrender a tenancy. The first is by following the ‘operation of the law’, and the second is by using a ‘declaration of surrender’.

Surrender by using ‘Operation of the Law’

Operation of the Law is a tenancy surrender, in which a tenant surrenders the process of the rented property to his landlord, and after that, the landlord accepts the process. This act may include the tenant’s return of the property’s keys to the landlord, and the landlord takes that the tenancy agreement is entirely over and that the landlord now has possession.

Surrender by using the Declaration of Surrender

Operation of the Law is to tenancy surrender, in which the tenant gives a written document to his landlord. This written document acts as proof of tenancy surrender by the tenant to the landlord. The document is referred to as the ‘Declaration of Surrender’. In this type of tenancy surrender, the landlord must accept this surrender so that the tenancy can end successfully.

How to end a fixed-term tenancy

A fixed-term tenancy is a tenancy that is applicable for a fixed period; both parties in the tenancy agreement agree upon the period. This type of agreement usually has a starting date and an ending date of tenancy, which are fixed dates.

Several agreements on fixed-term tenancy consist of a ‘break clause’. This break clause permits all the tenants to end their tenancy agreement anytime before the actual ending date of the fixed term. If a break clause exists in the agreement, the tenant can easily give written or verbal notice to end a tenancy. However, they must follow all the procedures mentioned in the tenancy agreements, for instance, the nature of notice they must give to their landlord.

If the agreement has no break clause, the tenant cannot quickly end the tenancy on his side; he has to get an agreement from his landlord. Suppose the tenants make any move to vacate early or before the ending date, and without reaching an agreement from their landlord. In that case, the tenants can be easily liable for continuing to pay rent until the end of the fixed tenancy period.

A tenant has all the rights to give possession of the property on the last date of the fixed period without any notice. On the other hand, if the tenant doesn’t leave the property even after the end date of the fixed term, this tenancy will become a ‘periodic tenancy’ automatically, and tenants will have to give clear and proper notification to avoid this unless the landowner agrees that they can leave.

Suppose the landlord wants to end the agreement, which is usually for six months, one year, or any period of fixed-term tenancy. In that case, the landlord must give his tenants a Section 21 – Notice of Possession, usually at least two months before the ending date of the fixed term.

How to End a Periodic Tenancy Agreement

After the ending date of a fixed-term tenancy agreement, if no new contract has been prepared or signed, the tenancy automatically becomes a periodic one. All terms and conditions mentioned in the earlier tenancy agreements will still apply to the new agreement, but the only exception is that this new contract will be based on a month-to-month approach or even on a week-to-week approach in some cases. It depends on the tenant and how often he plans to pay the rent. If the landlord collects rent every month, the contract will be considered a month-by-month contract.

The landlord has the right to end a tenancy depending on the rental period in a periodic tenancy. As in the above case, if a tenant pays the rent every month, the landlord needs to serve a one-month notice to his tenant. The notice must be given in writing and contain the starting and ending date of the periodic tenancy agreement unless it has been mentioned in the tenancy agreement that the tenancy can be ended on any different date.

On the other hand, a tenant can also decide to end his periodic tenancy agreement. He must issue a valid notice to the landlord to end his periodic tenancy. To complete their agreement, the tenant must provide a rental period to his landlord. Once this notice, given to the landlord, expires, the tenant’s agreement will automatically end.

How to end a tenancy agreement early

If the landlord needs to end his tenancy agreement early before the ending date in the agreement, but if the tenant refuses to do so, the landlord has no right to regain possession legally and earlier. Still, he can give his tenant a Section 21 – Notice of Possession at least two months before the ending date of the fixed term so that the tenants can be notified regarding the exact date to leave.

However, if a tenant breaches any clause in the agreement, the landlord can end the tenancy even before the end date of the fixed period. To achieve this purpose, the landlord must give a section 8 notice to his tenant, which is a notification to quit. This notice informs the tenants that the landlord seeks the possession and also states the grounds for the possession. The landlord can regain possession without a legally valid notice.

In most cases, the tenants automatically leave the property once a Section 8 notice has been served. If this is the case, the landlords don’t have to apply in court to gain possession.

However, if the tenants refuse to leave the property even after the landlord serves them the section 8 notice, and even after it expires, the landlord can apply at a court to seek possession of his property. If the landlord has the right to gain possession, the period for obtaining possession will be decided by the court. This decision is usually dependent on various circumstances.

What’s the procedure if your tenants refuse to leave the property?

Suppose your tenants refuse to leave the property even after a fixed-term tenancy ends. In that case, the landlord must give his tenant a section 21 (Notification of Possession), providing them a minimum two-month notice period. However, if your tenant refuses to leave the property again after this new notice expires, the landlord must apply for possession in court.

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Section 21 – Notice of Possession

How to End an Assured Shorthold Tenancy

For ending an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST), the landlord must serve a “Section 21- Notice of Possession” to his Tenants.

What exactly is a Section 21 Notice of possession

A Section 21 Notice for Possession is a legal document that must be given by a landlord to his tenants if he wants to regain possession of his property. As a landlord, you can easily share a Section 21 Notice of Possession with your tenants without providing a reason. You can serve this Notice of possession on or after an Assured Shorthold Tenancy ends.

What is the best time to issue a Section 21 notice?

According to Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, a Landlord has all the legal rights to obtain possession of his property after an Assured Shorthold Tenancy ends. This is true as long as the tenancy has ended and the landlords have correctly followed all the legal procedures by issuing Section 21 Notices to their tenants. If you want to protect yourself completely, it is often recommended that a notice be given to all the tenants residing on your property; this holds specifically true in ‘shared accommodations’.

If the tenancy has yet to end, but there is a valid reason to evict your tenant, you can efficiently serve a Section 8 Notice to your tenants. However, you should make sure that the ‘Notice to quit ‘you serve to your tenants is entirely valid.

Service of Notice

The landlord can serve the Notice either by post or deliver it to the tenants in person.

If you decide to serve the Notice by using postage services, it is often advisable to do this with the help of a ‘recorded delivery’ service. This record will prove that your tenants received your Notice correctly. You can use this proof in Court if the need arises. The date of post in the recorded delivery service is recognised as legal proof by the Court. However, it considers the date the Notice arrived instead of the day it was sent.

On the other hand, you can also deliver the letter containing the Notice in person. In this case, it is often recommended that you take a witness with you. This witness is required in Court to confirm the statement on your part regarding the delivery of the eviction notice or in case your tenant claims that you have not provided him with the Notice.

How to Serve a Section 21 Notice for the Fixed Term of the Tenancy

Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, amended under the Housing Act 1996, describes “the landlord under a fixed term tenancy to give two months’ notice to recover possession in writing”.

This section means that if a tenant is covered with an Assured Shorthold Tenancy, he must be provided at least two months’ written Notice before the end date. The landlords can accomplish this by serving a Section 21 Notice stating all the intentions to repossess their property and the proper grounds and basis they are using to support the eviction claim. After serving the written Notice, this two-month period starts after the tenant provides a Section 21 receipt confirming that he received the Notice.

According to the Housing Act 1988, the landlord cannot take possession of his property anytime within the tenancy’s fixed term; however, he can serve a Notice as long as the tenant is provided at least two months before the eviction date. After two months of ‘Section’21 Notice’, the tenant must legally leave the landownelandowner’sy. Section 21 Notices can be served up to the last date of the fixed-term tenancy.

Various provisions available in section 21(1) (b) that can be used to apply for a fixed-term tenancy:

“Without” prejudice to any right of the landlord under an assured shorthold tenancy to recover possession of the dwelling-house let on the tenancy by Chapter I above, on or after the coming to an end of a secure shorthold tenancy which was a fixed-term tenancy, a court shall make an order for possession of the dwelling-house if it is satisfied- “

a) “th” assured shorthold tenancy has come to an end, and no further assured tenancy (whether shorthold or not) is for the time being in existence, other than a statutory periodic tenancy:”

b) “The “lord, or in the case of joint landlords, at least one of them has given to the tenant not less than two months stating that he requires possession of the dwelling-house.”

It is “possible to serve this Notice within at least two months before the ending date of the tenancy period; however, it should never be dated for just the purpose of expiring on or even before the last date of the tenancy period. For instance, let’s say that the tenancy period is to end on 31 March, then the eviction notice can be given to tenants even three months before the last date, i.e. on 30 December. However, the date mentioned on the Notice must be provided on or before the last day of the fixed term, on which the tenancy period ends, i.e. 31 March.

If the landlord gives a Section 21 Notice during any time in the fixed term of the tenancy period, the landlord also issues another fixed term tenancy to his tenant. Also, the landlord must serve a New Section 21 Notice to his tenant if the landlord wants to regain possession of his property.

Serving a Section 21 Notice during a periodic Tenancy

When the fixed-term tenancy ends, the tenancy will automatically become a periodic tenancy unless a new fixed term is signed. The new tenancy will be a week-to-week or a month-to-month periodic tenancy. It depends on the way your tenant wants to pay his rent.

According to section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, the landlord has to follow a slightly different procedure than giving an eviction notice to tenants within a periodic tenancy.

All the assured shorthold tenancies, which have become periodic, come under Section 21(4) (a) of the Housing Act 1988.

“Without” prejudice to any such right as is referred to in subsection (1) above, a court shall make an order for possession of a dwelling house let on an assured shorthold tenancy, which is a periodic tenancy if the Court is satisfied”.

(a) “hat th” landlord or, in the case of joint landlords, at least one of them has given to the tenant a notice stating that, after a date specified in the Notice, being the last day of a period of the tenancy and not earlier than two months after the date the Notice was given, this section requires possession of the dwelling-house; and.”

(b) “hat t” date specified in the Notice under paragraph (a) above is not earlier than the earliest day on which, …….., the tenancy could be brought to an end by a notice to quit given by the landlord on the same date as the Notice under paragraph (a) above.”

A mini “um notice period of 2 months is required if a landlord wants to serve section 21 notices to his tenant in the fixed tenancy. The Notice must expire on the last date of the fixed tenancy.

The type of tenancy period depends on your tenant and how frequently he pays the rent. If he plans to pay rent every week, then the tenancy will automatically become a weekly periodic tenancy. On the other hand, if he wants to pay rent every month, it will become a monthly periodic tenancy.

This new periodic tenancy will start automatically right after the end date of the fixed-term tenancy. For instance, if the fixed tenancy ends on the 5th, the periodic tenancy will start from the 6th of that month. The last date for paying rent in this periodic tenancy will be the 10th of every month. As a result, the expiry date of the section 21 notice will be the 10th of the month; however, it should be issued at least two months prior to the 10th of the month.

What can a landlord do when the tenant refuses to leave even after the expiry of the section-21 Notice?

Suppose the tenant refuses to leave your property even after the expiry date and on serving the Notice by the landlord. The landlord can apply to the Court against his tenant for possessing his property. Suppose the landlord follows all the procedures correctly and adequately by issuing a Section 21 eviction notice. In that case, there is no chance that the Court will not grant him the possession of his property.

If the tenant refuses to leave even after getting the eviction notice from the Court, the landlord can approach county court to evict his tenant to regain possession.

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How to use Break Clauses in preparing Tenancy Agreements

What exactly is a break clause?

A break clause in a Tenancy Agreement allows a landlord and tenant to end the tenancy even before the tenancy period without paying any incurred financial penalties.

However, if there is no break clause in the tenancy agreement, the tenant is responsible for paying the rent for the entire period. He has to pay the rent even if he moves out of the property before the last day of the tenancy period.

How can the Landlords use a break clause?

An important point to note here is that even if the break clause is included in the tenancy agreement, under the Housing Act 1988, the landlord is prohibited from getting possession of his property for at least six months after the deal begins.

So, a landlord can only use a break clause to evict his tenant if the tenant has been using his property for six or more months. Also, the landlord must serve at least two months’ eviction notice to his tenants, which can be done by issuing the notice during the fourth month of the tenancy.

The landlord is required to issue a Section 21 Notice of Possession to his tenants to enforce the break clause.

How can a Tenant use a break clause?

If the tenant wants to use the break clause, he must serve a notice in writing (but not a Section 21eveiction notice) after six months in the tenancy agreement. The first step is to prepare an adequately complete written document with his signature and then surrender the tenancy to the landlord. Here, a two-month notice is required on the part of the tenant before terminating the fixed-period tenancy.

What can a landlord do if the tenant refuses to vacate the property?

If the tenant refuses to leave the property even after the landlord enforces the break clause under Section 21, the next step a landlord can take is to issue the Court proceedings. Landlord can also request a Judge to order the possession of his property. The Judge will then analyze the break clause to determine its validity.

What if both landlord and tenant want to terminate the tenancy?

If both landlord and tenant want to terminate the tenancy, then the break clause has no role in the process. If both parties agree to end the tenancy, they can easily do this by surrendering it. This can be easily accomplished by a written document signed by both parties.