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QUESTION
Posted by trump_ate_my_baby 17 hours ago
[Cardiff] Dealing with end of tenancy

Hi,

I have a flat in Cardiff that I rent out to the Mears Group. They house government employees on short term contracts. The tenancy agreement is expiring in 4 days and I'm not sure what to do.

The tenancy agreement specifies start and end date. It doesn't have anything on what happens when the term ends. All this happened through an agent (which is also specified in the contract). There is a clause that says the landlord is allowed a rent review on the annual anniversary of the commencement date, but it is capped to the Index of Private Housing Rental Prices.

So my questions are:

What happens to a tenancy when it expires but nothing is specified in the contract. I have googled but everything talks about ending the tenancy and just says it should be specified in the contract. Does it become a rolling tenancy?

There is this clause but I'm not sure I understand it

>Either party may terminate this Agreement, by giving written notice to the other party and on the

>expiry of such notice the Tenancy will come to an end, without prejudice to any right of action

>which either or both Parties may have against the other for any breach of this Agreement provided

>that the Landlord shall give at least 60 days’ notice to take effect after the first 120 days of the

>Tenancy, whereas the Tenant shall give at least 30 days’ notice to take effect after the first 150

>days of the Tenancy. If the notice period does not coincide with the monthly payment date the final

>rental payment will be apportioned to the final day of the notice period. For the avoidance of doubt

>no extension or renewal of the Tenancy shall entitle either Party to a further ‘fixed’ term and the

>Landlord’s ability to serve 60 days’ notice as well as the Tenant’s ability to serve 30 days’ notice

>shall remain immediately effective.

Does this mean that it automatically becomes another fixed term tenancy? Or that it is prevented from becoming another fixed term tenancy automatically. I'm so confused!

If anyone can interpret, that would be amazing and I would be extremely grateful!

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Posted by Jakes_Snake_ 16 hours ago

You’re a landlord and don’t understand what you have signed up for?

If it’s an AST would be more clear. If it’s not then it’s all in your agreement.

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Posted by trump_ate_my_baby 15 hours ago

It was a pretty stressful time both with the property and with my personal life. But you're absolutely right, I should have looked into every specific thing before signing.

So this is the only thing that's in my agreement and it's confusing me because the language doesn't make sense to me. Does it make sense to you?

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Posted by Jakes_Snake_ 12 hours ago

So you have an agreement regarding how to operate the tenancy. The Agreement and Tenancy are different. Its subtle. I suggest writing the wording down into chucks and reading it a few times.

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Posted by trump_ate_my_baby 10 hours ago

Hey, so initially, I was like ... why is this dude just telling me to re-read my agreement. My whole point is that I'm reading the relevant clause and I don't understand the language, specifically the last part.

But then I read my response and it comes across passive aggressive and for that, I'm sorry. Ironically, I thought your comment was a bit passive aggressive "you don't know what you signed up for", but then I came across the same way, proving how easy it is to mis-read people's tone!

But anyway, my bad for not being clear. Let me try to clarify and please know that I'm not trying to be a dick or anything.

  1. There is a tenancy agreement, it's just not the usual AST format that I'm used. It's their document template

  2. I didn't realise when I signed it that there was no section on what happens when the tenancy ends. I went through my usual agent, have done for the last few years, so it didn't even occur to me to look for that clause. I normally would ask my agent, but they have become very flaky recently.

  3. The only thing mentioned in the tenancy agreement is that clause I posted above. From what I understand, it talks about how each party can terminate the agreement with notice periods.

  4. What I don't understand and am confused about is what the last phrase says despite reading it multiple times. I think it's saying - no extension or renewal means a new fixed term, which doesn't make sense to me because if we agree to extend or renew, that is a new contract since the current contract expires on a specific date. How can it influence future contracts?

  5. Beyond this confusing clause, what happens if a tenancy agreement specifies an end date but has nothing about what happens when it expires. Does the tenancy just end, or does it go into rolling periodic by default by law? I've googled but I can't find any info

Hopefully that clears up everything. Thanks for any help you can provide on the matter, but completely understand if you can't.

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Posted by phpadam 10 hours ago

I'd say hes being helpfuly passive aggressive.

There is no tenancy agreement, you have a B2B lease agreement. Mears group will have tenancy agreements with the tenants, not you.

If you want to look up rules and regulations its commercial leases that you want to focus on. Typing "tenancy" will throw you down the wrong route.

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Posted by Jakes_Snake_ 7 hours ago

You’re renting to a company and they are renting out the property to others. Your tenancy agreement won’t be a AST as you’re renting to a company.

Your notice etc will be (probably) related to your agreement with the company, rather than the tenancies.

So once you give notice to terminate the Agreement they will have to organise themselves to end their tenancy agreements with the actual tenants. That will take some time depending upon the terms of the tenancy agreements.

So by you giving notice it’s only starts a long end to getting your property back.

I assume as I don’t know full details.

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Posted by phpadam 10 hours ago

You have a 'lease' to Mears Group, not a 'tenancy'. The terms on termination will be in that lease.

If that is the only term. As I read it, if you nor Mears have given notice it will continue on as it is. Until one of you give the required notice.

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