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Although the minimum requirement for a tenancy agreement is information regarding the duration of the term, the amount and frequency of rent payments, most agreements will contain significantly more information that this. Although not all agreements do not cover exactly the same areas in the same format, many of them share the following areas of detail:
There is usually a statement that the agreement is an assured
shorthold tenancy for residential dwelling.
This gives some details about the intended usage of the agreement
- the type of property, the parliamentary act that covers the
tenancy agreement and the maximum duration of the tenancy that
the property can be used for.
Setting out the basics of the agreement, this section identifies
the major parts and parties of the agreement: Landlord, Tenant,
Property, Contents, Term (start date and end date), Rent, Due
date, and Deposit.
Most tenancy agreements tend to be for one year, though many of
them have a six monthly review period that gives you a window
of a month to give your notice and move out. Click here if you
want to find out what happens if you want to leave early. During
the period of agreement, your landlord cannot increase the rent.
The conditions of use set out some basic rules about how the tenants
are to treat the property, such as:
Some agreements will specify who is responsible for insuring the
building (usually the landlord) and the contents (usually the
tenants or both the landlord and the tenants) of the property.
Not all agreements will have this section.
This section forms the bulk of the agreement:
It will normally be the landlord's responsibility to ensure that they have settled any outstanding bills that are attached to the property in advance of you moving in. You should discuss this with them to avoid any confusion.
The agreement will also normally describe:
As you might expect, this defines things the 'The Property', 'The
Landlord', 'The Tenant' and so on.
This is where a legally binding statement reflects the fact that
everyone who signs the agreement has read it, understands it and
agrees to abide by it.
If you are concerned about any of the clauses in your tenancy agreement, question your landlord. If that fails to illuminate you, contact your local citizens advice bureau. Failing that, let us know and we'll see if we can tell you what it means.
Don't feel that the content of the agreement is set in stone. Many things in life are negotiable and a fair proportion of landlords will be willing to work with you to make sure that the agreement suits both parties.
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