UK Landlord Forum / Life

A tenant of mine has fallen behind with his rent.

He says he's not going to pay, and is about to move out saying that the Tenancy Agreement expired last December (which it did).
He claims that there is now no contract between us and so is not liable for any rent since December. There has been no additional agreement signed other that the original 12 month Shorthold Tenancy Agreement which ran it's course Dec 07-Dec 08.

Is he correct to say that legally he's not bound to pay any rent because the dates on the STA have now passed?

He's completely wrong.

When a shorthold tenancy agreement expires, you're into what is called a "periodic tenancy"
All the terms and conditions that are in the expired contract still apply, but on a month by month basis.

I forgot to mention...

Ending a tenancy officially requires the serving of a notice to quit by either landlord or tenant. Your tenant can't just say, "the date in the contract has expired, i'm not paying"

Your tenant is still entirely liable.

Ok thanks!

So even if that's not stated in the actual agreement in writing, the agreement is still legally binding as part of what constitutes a STA?

No problem.

Yup, that's right!!

Ok that's a relief!

Would this be true even if the agreement has printed on the front:

Commencing
20/12/07
to
19/12/08

?

Yup! A tenancy agreement goes into a periodic tenancy when the "fixed terms" expire (the dates writen in the contract) if there is no official notice to quit the tenancy.

OK Thanks