1) A tenancy isn’t legal without a signed Tenancy Agreement
Landlords don’t need a written Tenancy Agreement in order to create a legally binding tenancy, although it is strongly advised. A tenancy Agreement can actually be an oral agreement– an extremely unsafe option.
In most cases, if a tenant pays less than 100k per year in rent, moved into the property on or after 28th February 1997, and has rights to have privacy in the property where the landlord cannot enter the property without mutual agreement, then an Assured Shorthold Tenancy is automatically created, with or without a signed tenancy agreement.
2) You need to renew a Tenancy Agreement after it expires
Apparently this is rumour is strongly endorsed by letting agents so they can charge “tenancy renewal fees“. Fortunately, it’s perfectly legal and valid for a tenancy agreement to continue even after the fixed dates have expired. There’s no legal requirement to renew the contracts.
When a Tenancy Agreement expires and is not renewed with a new contract, the tenancy rolls into a Periodic Tenancy.
Here’s a much more in-depth article on renewing tenancy agreements.
3) A Tenancy Agreement has to have a minimum of 6 months
I hear/read this statement all too often from people, even professionals with in the industry.
Before February 1997, an Assured Shorthold Tenancy actually couldn’t be less than 6 months. But that changed after February 1997; now it can be as short as 1 day. So no, the fixed dates in a Tenancy Agreement do not have to be at least 6 months.
However (here’s the kicker), the law states that possession orders are not enforceable within the first six months of a tenancy unless there are grounds for eviction. So what this means is that a tenant can have a two month agreement (i.e. the tenant can leave if he wishes at the end of the short term), but the landlord won’t be able order for possession (i.e. reposes the property) until after six months if the tenant wishes to stay longer than the agreed 2 months.
4) Only letting agents can legally create Tenancy Agreements
I’ve actually had a letting agent tell me this before! It’s a long and ridiculous story, but essentially, the letting agent wanted me to pay a renewal fee, consequently deemed it appropriate to lie to me in an attempt to jack me for money. It literally was a daylight robbery attempt.
Bottom line, letting agents are NOT the only outlet for legally creating tenancy agreements. You can download/purchase them from many outlets. Hell, you can even create your own.
5) Tenancy Agreements need to be completed by a qualified professional
Again, complete rubbish. You can download a tenancy agreement online, and fill in the missing spaces (tenant name, landlord name, rent etc.) for yourself.
6) You can put any clause in a Tenancy Agreement
Absolutely incorrect. Before you consider adding your own make-shift clauses into a tenancy agreement, you should ensure it’s enforceable by law.
Every clause in a tenancy agreement MUST be “fair” otherwise the landlord could fall foul of the Unfair Contract Terms legislation.
Both landlords and tenants have statutory rights which are stipulated in the The Housing Act 1988. Clauses put into a Tenancy Agreement which conflict with statutory rights are not enforceable, even if the tenant signs the contracts and agree to the terms.
It’s important to be diligent when adding clauses to pre-written/purchased agreements as you may be inadvertently restricting your rights in law. If you wish to add your own clauses into an existing Tenancy Agreement it is recommended to seek advise from a professional before doing so.
Can you think of anymore?
Have you heard of any more myths relating to Tenancy Agreements? Let me know, innit!
Disclaimer: I'm just a simple landlord blogger, I am not qualified to give legal or financial advice. Any advice I give is my opinion based on my experience, and is never legal or professional advice. You should always get professional advice on any legal and financial matters!
in our rental agreement and intenary it says that our rent includes 3 out buildings for which i only have one small one my landlords husband another to which he holds the only key,and a third which belongs to my landlords cousin who lives a few houses along the road from ours,i have been charged rent for all three for five years now can i claim misrepresentation on this and also after we had moved in we were told that next door had access through our garden to put their bins out to which we had no problem but then we found that next doors landlord and his wife,sons,daughter-in -laws were also entitled to walk through our garden to get to their burn area and his outbuilding which i was paying rent for,next doors landlord had taken tiles of the roof of his outbuilding to patch up his cottage and so we could not use the end of our garden due to the unsafe condition it had been left in,as we now had tiles and bricks falling down onto our path.We have now moved home but are finding it hard to get our deposit back although we who are both in our seventies have spent weeks cleaning carpets,having chimneys swept,filling and touching up small pin holes where our lifes pictures hung.When ever we decorated we always asked if it was ok,and the answer was always yes treat it as your own home,we only ever used magnolia except in the main bedroom which we emulsiond in a very light pastal green,now the complaint is that decoraters must be called in in our tenancy agreement it says nothing about what colours we should use only that it shoul be kept clean and in good decorative order.We told our landlord about a problem in the toilet skirting board pointing out woodworm some two years and last year they came and looked at it to which her reply was thats not woodworm thats ants and that her husband would come back an fix it,we moved out last week and up until then nothing had still been done.My concern is now looking on the agents site it seems somebody has applied to rent the cottage,it is still showing the same pictures,and write up as it did five years,along with the marks on the carpets which she claimed to be new and the three out houses which dont exist,along with no mention that the garden according to her cousins husband is a public right of way for anybody he gives permision to to walk through.any suggestions what i should do,can i make a claim on misrepresentation