What would appropriate wording be for a tenancy agreement and/or pre tenancy letters that allowed for a tenancy not to start (even when the tenancy agreement has been signed) if changes in Government legislation meant that house moving was forbidden for a period of time, also if the tenant/s needed to delay the start date if they had Covid.
Question
England | Moving in a Tenant (England) | Start of a Tenancy (England)
Covid -19 clause
Answer
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1 Comment
We don’t think you need to worry too much about if legislation prohibits moving because legislation always overrules contract.
The problem with trying to alter the start date to an unknown date (on something occurring) is does the end date also change? Ideally you want a minimum six months from whatever start date for council tax purposes. (If you’re doing a 12 month fixed term there’s less of a worry).
We think one way might be to simply adjust the rent rather than the term.
The other piece of advice we would give is you should say it as you see it in simple terms. You can mutually agree any additional clause freely and a negotiated special clause like this won’t generally be governed by the Consumer Rights Act (in any event it sounds to be beneficial to the tenant and not you).
Here’s a similar clause we created for a commercial lease granted in April last year just when we were in the thick of the first wave. It was for a hairdressers so there were clear and real possibilities of prohibitions for its use. Perhaps you can modify that for your needs. Any clause you create can either be put in the additional terms in the Builder or simply by way of separate agreement (e.g. by email):