My tenant’s AST expired in August. We agreed to renew for another year on the same terms from the day after the last AST expired (so no gap) however the new AST won’t be signed until this week. In theory at the moment the tenants have a periodic tenancy.
The tenants have asked whether the AST start date can be backdated to August (obviously the date the AST is signed will still be X September). Is this legal?
Question
England | Start of a Tenancy (England) | Tenancy Agreements (England)
Dating AST
Answer
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1 Comment
We’re never fans of backdating agreements and there is no need in this case because as you say term has ended so goes periodic and then another term granted (effectively 3 tenancies in a way). The tenant remains protected throughout without any need for backdating.
However, that being said, in this case because the backdating would be reflecting the true position (i.e. they were tenants) then guess it should be okay. It’s a major problem if the backdating isn’t a true reflection for example if someone was never living there and it was backdated for a period when the property was empty for example.
If this were us doing it, we would simply start the new term from the next rent day (e.g. October).