Hi,

A few years ago I lived in England and rented out my unfurnished house by using a contract from ‘WHSmiths’ which ran for 6 months, and then just letting it run on, having a verbal agreement with the tenant that we would each give one month notice – all good.

Now I’m in Scotland and looking to do the same. I used an estate agent to find a tenant and paid a chunk of money for advertising and to draw up the initial contract. The tenant moves in today. However the agent insists that if the tenant stays more than 6 months he will have to draw up another contract for another £100. I said that I would just let it roll over, or buy a ‘WHSmiths’ type ready made one, but he tells me this isn’t legal!? Is this correct? Do I need to stump up £100 every 6 months? I kinda assume that if the tenant looks after the house for 6 months, then it will be good going forward?

Any advice / thoughts?

i rent in scotland and i have an assured short term tennancy of 6 months that rolls over onto a monthly contract afterwards.

and its always been that way when ive rented (4 propertys now)

i avoid agents for exactly these kind of reasons ….

Speak to a lawyer, he will tell you that your contract is not worth the paper it is written on anyway.

Unsurprisingly it depends on what’s in (or isn’t in) your tenancy agreement.

If your tenancy agreement is silent on what happens at the end of the contact term then yes, the tenancy will renew for the same initial period (i.e. 6 months).

However, you can specify in the agreement that after the intital term of 6 months, the tenancy will renew, for example, monthly, thereby putting you on a “rolling” tenancy agreement until one of you serves notice.

email me a copy of your tenancy agreement

Cheers trail rat – that’s how i thought it should work.

Hopefully I can persuade the tenant to go with that. Should have avoided the estate agent too, guess I was being lazy…

by rent i mean im on the other side im the tennent !

Peterfile – Thanks, will take you up on that, but as the agent has found the tenant – I haven’t even seen the agreement. The tenant is due to sign at 3.30pm, I’ll call the agent and request that the tenancy be on a monthly renewal after the initial 6 months… See if they will go with that.

tr – yes I got that from your post… as a landlord I had assumed that the tenant would be happy with a monthly ‘get out’ rather than re signing for consecutive 6 month terms as my agent is implying. Monthly roll over sounds better for both of us.

Ask them to insert wording along the lines of:

“If this agreement is not brought to an end by either party on the [Date of Expiry], it will continue thereafter on a monthly basis until terminated by either party giving the other party no less than [x] months notice”

It’s pretty standard wording, they’ll know what you mean.

We rent out flat in Edinburgh and everything is done through a letting agent there is a charge of £125 (i think) for the initial contract 6-12months subject to negotiation, and it then reverts to a 2 month rolling.

We only get charged again when there is a change of tenant.

Peterfile, ijs – Thank you

Falkirk Mark – Yes I understand if things go wrong there’s not much protection in a contract, but would still like to know its there.

I’ll call the agent and request that the tenancy be on a monthly renewal after the initial 6 months… See if they will go with that.

But regardless, it’s a tenancy agreement between you and your tenant, YOU tell the estate agent what YOU want. If they won’t give you exactly what you want, tell them to **** off and go somewhere else.

If you end up signing the agreement and there is no provision for monthly renewal after the initial 6 months, don’t worry to much, you and the tenant can vary it by agreement. Ideally though, it’s best to get it in there before you sign the document.

My sis leases her flat on this basis and has done for the past 5 years. Afraid teh company are extracting the urine.

You can buy off the peg agreements ( or even get free ones) that are fine and its normal to have it rolling over at the end of six months.
ditch the agent now. Obviously a plonker

Take a look at the Edinburgh city council web site they have rental contracts, short assured tenancy forms, example inventory lists, key / access declaration forms. Pretty much everything you will need. I’d send a link but it is a bit fiddly from my phone.

Oh and TJ +1

its normal to have it rolling over at the end of six months.

That doesn’t make any sense.

The only way a 6 month short assured tenancy will turn into a rolling contract at the end of the initial term is if it’s expressly agreed between the parties.

Silence in respect of this part will result in a renewal of tenancy for the initial term (i.e another 6 months).

Therefore there is no “normal”, it’s whatever the landlord has agreed with the tenant in that particular tenancy agreement.

We have not seen flowerpower’s tenancy agreement, therefore it’s impossible to say at this point what the position is on termination, however the agents comments suggest that the tenancy WILL NOT turn into a monthly rolling tenancy.