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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Posts
    1

    Post If Nobody Signs a Fixed Term Lease, Do You Create a Periodic Tenancy

    My question involves landlord-tenant law in the United Kingdom.

    I had a previous fixed term tenancy of 1 year at the house I am living in which ran from July 2014 to end of June 2015. After which two of my flatmates moved out (out of four of us), so the remaining two of us had to talk to the agency and come up with a new agreement that would have a reduced rent.

    We verbally agreed that the two of us would pay £500 each totalling £1000 a month for rent. The agency then wrote up a fixed term agreement for 12 months stating the terms. The deposit was paid (using our deposit from the previous agreement) and a 'renewal fee' was also paid.

    The landlord came to the address and handed me two copies of the agreement; one of which I was to sign and keep, the other of which I was to sign and get the signature from a flatmate and return back to them (he was out of town at the time) - this had the landlord's signature, and was not a photocopy.

    However this signed copy of the contract was never returned to the agency, meaning that there is no contract held by the agency with my flatemate's, my own, or the landlord's signature. This was because we wanted to change the agreement so that it was 6 months, not 12 months - but they never got back to me on changing the terms. The agreement copies have since been misplaced during a house clean-out.

    Time passed and the agency never got back to me asking for the signed agreement - they only asked for the £1000 to be paid at the start of each month.


    My question is: As they hold no copy of a signed agreement does this mean that, as we had 'moved in' and started paying rent, a contractual periodic tenancy agreement was formed and not a fixed term agreement? And if it is a fixed term agreement, surely it is extremely difficult to confirm the terms of the agreement as the contract was never signed and finalised?

    I ask this as my flatmate and I wish to hand in a notice and leave the property.

    Any help is greatly appreciated, I apologise for the length of this.

    Many Thanks

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Posts
    18,340

    Default Re: Fixed Term Tenancy Agreement Not Signed by Any Party - So is It Now a Periodic

    Sorry, had to stop at United Kingdom as this is a US site.

    There are UK forums in the following search:

    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=England+landlord+tenant+forum

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: If Nobody Signs a Fixed Term Lease, Do You Create a Periodic Tenancy

    This is a U.S. site. You should post your question on a U.K. legal forum.

    If you care, under typical U.S. state law an oral lease for one year or less is enforceable. But that won't count for anything in a U.K. court.

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