peterpiper Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 Hello, i'm new to the site and would be grateful for some advice. The agent i used to find my tenant over 3 years ago e-mailed me before xmas asking if i wanted to renew the ast when it ran out in march. I said yes but wanted to up rent by p/m £50. They said they would contact tenant etc. I signed & sent back new tenancy agreement stating new rent. My tenant now tells me they never recieved a new agreement despite phoning the agent about it several times. Agent says they e-mailed new agreement on 3 seperate occasions but have not come up with proof of e-mails when asked. Tenant has still been paying old rent into my wifes account, big cock up on my part as i didn't check and forgot to tell my wife about the increase. My question is, if i find its the agents fault do i have any comback against them? (Sorry for the long story). Thanks Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatseChi Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 no - and since you have been accepting the payments in the old amount you would have a hard time providing evidence to pursue collecting anything higher. be sure to tell the agent you will no longer be using their services in advance of the new tenant agreement Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grampa Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 I would have a number of concerns here. 1 The agent could have just served a section 13 notice to increase the rent and not worry about the tenant sending anything back. 2 For a agent to send a signed copy of a contract to a tenant and expect them to send it back countersigned is irresponsible at least. What happens if you now have to evict the tenant? Has the tenant got a signed contract or not. If you serve a s21(1)( on the basis that they signed the AST they could just say the AST wasn't signed and it could be struck out because the wrong s21 used. (you also don't have a signed ast on file) The same goes if you serve a s21(4)(a). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melboy Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Agree with comments so far but I would also add that upping your rent by £50 a month is not advisable and by that I mean being £600 per year is probably far too much for any tenant to absorb in one hit which brings us back to the debate about slow-drip annual rent rises of 2-5% to soften the blow on any tenant's finances. Agent says they e-mailed new agreement on 3 separate occasions but have not come up with proof of e-mails when asked. Emailed contract??? Post only in my view to avoid situations such as this.....and to keep a record. As for not being able to provide a copy of the email sent suggests to me that this agent is verging on the useless but do you have any comeback on the LA? No 'fraid not. As you have stated your 'cock-up' in not checking payments etc. Mel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snorkerz Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Also worth bearing in mind that even if the agent had sent the contract, the tenant was under no obligation whatsoever to sign it - it's a tenancy 'agreement', both sides have to agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterpiper Posted October 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Thank you all for your replies, very helpful indeed. Ian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grampa Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Also worth bearing in mind that even if the agent had sent the contract, the tenant was under no obligation whatsoever to sign it - it's a tenancy 'agreement', both sides have to agree. Yes and that was my point. How do you evict if you dont know if the contract was signed or not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snorkerz Posted October 25, 2012 Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 Yes and that was my point. How do you evict if you dont know if the contract was signed or not? Section 21 notice using the 'Lower St Properties' wording, followed by a non-accelerated s21? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grampa Posted October 26, 2012 Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 Section 21 notice using the 'Lower St Properties' wording, followed by a non-accelerated s21? I'm not saying its impossible evict and the s21 I use doesnt have a date entered on them because of the above case law. But say you have given a signed AST to the tenant which hasn't been returned and then you need to get them out. You serve a valid s21 , the big question is then when to you sumit the court paperwork and apply for a hearing? If you do it 2 months later assuming the contract wasn't signed, all the tenant needs to do is counter sign it, produce it in court and bingo the S21 was invalid because the 2 months notice ended before the end of the fixed term. Or you start the paperwork after the fixed term. My point is there is so much room for error and to be safe you have to assume the contract was signed which could give the tenant more time then necessary and you have lost an element of control. You also havent got a signed copy of the AST which means you are likely to have a hearing which you will need to go to where normally you dont unless defended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.