Hi
As we all should know the good old AST is being replaced. I have several student HMO’s and I rent out individual rooms on individual tenancies for 12 month periods and I never want these to go into periodic as typically there’s a new student coming in behind. I used to issue Section 21 notices etc and everything was easy. I want to understand the impact of these Statement of Occupation contracts better, can they be for only 12 months, if so what notices do I have to give so they do not roll over. I will be signed new AST’s shortly for the period 01/07/22 to 30/06/23 with students who which to stay on for an additional year. What do I need to do if anything?
Also for my other properties and AST agreements do I have to replace these or can they just run on?
Thanks for your help
Ian
3 Comments
Firstly, it’s impossible to prevent an occupation contract from going periodic if the term ends and they remain in occupation unless a new fixed term is agreed. This is the same as currently under an AST.
It’s a work in progress as to the best solution because converted tenancies are highly complex.
Ideally, the longer you can hold off signing for this year, the better.
We plan to have available new occupation contracts suitable for any start date of June 2022 onwards (anything starting before June will likely need to continue to be AST).
However, it’s impossible to produce at this moment because further prescribed information is being legislated and scheduled for publishing in early March. We can’t finish the contracts until then because we don’t know exactly everything that needs to be in them.
If you can wait until March/April for our new contract, that would be ideal for your situation as nothing much extra would be needed from 15 July as you’d already comply with the new arrangements. Please note that we can’t guarantee the contracts will be available by April, but we intend to.
Otherwise, if you can’t wait until then, a new agreement will need to be issued at some point because the terms of the AST will be wrong.
Thanks for this, I will explain to the renewing students that their actual paperwork will take a bit longer than expected. Hopefully the legal mud will become clearer
Adrian, I am glad to see from your info dated 18th Feb, that it is not possible for you to complete any guidance due to, effectively the lack of information associated with the legislation that is still being awaited. Possibly I am not alone in the fact that, I like to have some form of understanding prior to the introduction of measures and legislation, however, as is so often the case, those putting in place this new legislation are failing us all by not having all the necessary legislation and guidelines in place well before the date of introduction. However, I note that the information relating to penalties that will be applied should we fail to comply with certain timeframes etc have been clearly stated.