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[jpkeates]

The How to Rent booklet has to be a hard copy except "where the tenant has notified the landlord, or a person acting on behalf of the landlord, of an e-mail address at which the tenant is content to accept service of notices and other documents given under or in connection with the tenancy, by...

[jpkeates]

The clause implies that there is a term defined somewhere, but if there isn't, that's a good point.

[jpkeates]

It's a penalty clause "disguised" as a compensation clause....

[jpkeates]

You can't serve some documents by email unless the tenant has agreed to that in writing in the tenancy agreement.

I send the right to rent and EPC with a covering letter with the Prescribed Information and get a proof of posting for the letter.
The Gas Safety Certificate is left in...

[jpkeates]

Who is charging you for the work?

If it's the letting agent charging you having paid the plumber already, dispute the invoice from the letting agent.
I appreciate that they've probably deducted the cost from the rent that they pass on, but that's not the end of the issue.
The...

[jpkeates]

There is a (probably) theoretical risk to a landlord taking any more than two month's rent as a deposit.
It probably allows the tenant to assign the tenancy without the landlord being able to prevent them.
This hasn't been tested in court (as far as I know), and the number of tenants who...

[jpkeates]

What rights the company has to terminate the contract would be contained in the contract itself.

[jpkeates]

Two points.

1 - the agent works for you and should be instructed to act. They can decline on the basis your instruction is illegal, but see 2.


2 - If the tenant served notice to leave on (say) 10th of December and you agreed to that date, the tenancy ends at midnight...

[jpkeates]

I think your comment that "The current approach does not seem to be for the benefit of the residents or the property" is debateable.
I'd have thought that the residents of the property would be inconvenienced by a series of short stays with occupants who are not committed to any long...

[jpkeates]

If the tenant serves notice at the start of month 14, month 16 won't happen, so the landlord is receiving a deposit not rent, because it's only a potential liability....

[jpkeates]

I suspect you're right about the planning permission issue.
If the council are unhappy, you're going to have to move.

Time scales are a bit subject to guesswork.
The landlord may serve notice now in order to try and deflect the council, or may try and fight....

[jpkeates]

Yes. The existing tenant would have vacated, which allows you to serve notice.

If their service is crappy, complain about it.

It's worrying that you think they're so crappy you'd be prepared to evict someone from their home and go without rent for a time to rid yourself of...

[jpkeates]

Point 18 says that you cannot enter an agreement with the tenant within six months of the end of the term of this agreement with the agent. It doesn't say anything about the relationship with the agent itself.

Point 19 says that if you break the agreement in point 18, you have to pay compensation...

[jpkeates]

There are a number of issues.

You have agreed to this contract, and, as far as I can see it says what the agent says it does.
Which makes things a bit tricky.

The "compensation" has to be in line with the loss that the agent is making, otherwise it's a penalty,...

[jpkeates]

It's another of those London and home counties only problems that become national issues because that's where the press and parliament is based.

81% of s.21 possessions were in London and the South East in the last decade.
62% in London.
A third of those in 5 London boroughs....

[jpkeates]

The facts are different.
In that case the months for which the payment was made in advance were known.
it was the first six months of the tenancy.

"The point can be tested by asking, rhetorically, how the tenant would have responded to a demand, on 1 September 2010, for...

[jpkeates]

Because no one knows which two months will be rent free until notice is served.

The landlord is holding money that will discharge a liability of the tenant at some indeterminate point in the future.
Which is a deposit.

Until the rent that will be paid is due, the money...

[jpkeates]

I'd talk to a mortgage broker as this is a commercial lease and normal BTL lending won't cover it, so you need someone who can access that kind of funding.
I'm amazed your current BTL lender allows the tenancy at all.

[jpkeates]

It isn't a "known" future liability because it isn't certain which months' rent has been taken in advance.
It's the same problem that stops landlords being able to take "the last month's rent" in advance and pretend it's not a deposit....

[jpkeates]

The two months residual advance rent will probably become a deposit and will need protecting.

I'd suggest a 6 month agreement with (say) six month's rent in advance.
Then repeat or let it go periodic.

They'll know by the end of six months if they can afford the rent...