Question

Tenant Moves Out (England)

Tenants notice to vacate

27 Jun 2017 | 1 comment

I was always of the understanding that a tenant could just hand the keys back on the last day of the fixed term stated in the tenancy without notice. However the Guild’s AST’S state at least a months notice is required to end the tenancy on the last day of the fixed term. Is this enforceable or just a deterrent to the tenant to not giving any notice at all?

Answer

1 Comment

  1. guildy

    There is no statutory obligation on a tenant to give notice before leaving on the very last day.

    In our view there is not a problem with making it a contractual obligation to give notice.

    However, the Office of Fair Trading (as they were at the time) say that such a term is unfair and therefore unenforceable. We disagreed and refused to change the term and said to them we would challenge their view in court. They never took it further!

    Therefore, we don’t know if it’s enforceable or not until there is some decision. If nothing else, it’s a good deterrent!

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