Your legal questions answered
Summary of agreement
Q. Can I remove ‘thereafter from month-to-month’ from the expiry date?
No, this is because ‘thereafter from month-to-month’ creates a contractual periodic tenancy rather than a statutory periodic tenancy in the event the tenancy isn’t renewed at the end of the fixed term.
This is beneficial because of the Leeds City Council vs Broadley 2016 case where there was a question over statutory periodic tenancies and who was liable for the Council Tax. The Judge held that because a month-to-month statutory periodic tenancy is effectively a new tenancy every month, the landlord becomes liable for Council Tax under that tenancy.
This is because Council Tax is the landlord’s responsibility when the tenancy is for less than six months. To avoid the same problem we have made it clear that the tenancy drops onto a contractual periodic tenancy where the Council Tax rules don’t apply because it is a continuation of an existing tenancy and therefore longer than six months.
Q. Why is there no option for a break clause in the agreement?
Whilst you are perfectly entitled to have a break clause, if you have one allowing a tenant to give two months’ notice at any point (e.g. after the first six months) you can’t charge either a Change of Sharer Fee or Surrender of Tenancy Fee.
This is because the tenant would be lawfully activating a break clause and therefore fees are not chargeable (i.e. they have not broken the tenancy agreement). That is why we don’t include one in the Propertymark tenancy agreement.
Assured shorthold tenancy agreements (ASTs)
Our ASTs are compliant with the Tenant Fees Act and we offer alternative versions depending on the deposit scheme you are registered with alongside a no deposit option and Deed of Guarantee.
