What happens if there is no tenancy agreement

There are obligations you and your landlord have which may not be set down in the agreement but which are given by law and are implied into all tenancy agreements.

These terms form part of the contract, even though they haven't been specifically agreed between your landlord and you. For information on the rights and obligations of social housing tenants and landlords, see our advice on renting from a social housing landlord. For information on the rights and obligations of private sector tenants and landlords, see our advice on renting from a private landlord. If the tenancy was created on or after 28 February , your landlord must provide basic written terms of the agreement within 28 days of you requesting this in writing.

Your new landlord must give you their address in writing within 2 months of taking over the property. The rights laid down by law always override those which are stated in a written or oral agreement.

An agreement which suggests that you or your landlord have less rights than those given by common law or statute is a sham tenancy agreement. What an agreement states and what the tenancy actually is may be different. You may also have signed an agreement stating that the property was granted under a licence to occupy.

This is not enough to make the agreement a licence. If your landlord includes any other fees, it might be illegal. Ask your landlord to return the illegal fees. If they don't you can report your landlord to Trading Standards. If your landlord still won't return the illegal fees you can make a small claim in the courts for an order that says the landlord must pay the money back.

There are rules about how much a landlord can charge for a deposit - find out how much it costs to rent. A tenancy agreement can normally only be changed if both you and your landlord agree. If you both agree, the change should be recorded in writing, either by drawing up a new written document setting out the terms of the tenancy or by amending the existing written tenancy agreement.

Your landlord might charge a fee for changing your tenancy agreement. They can only charge you if you asked for the change. A verbal agreement can also be changed. The change will usually be verbal too.

In the case of a dispute, evidence of the change can be provided if:. Find out more about asking your landlord for changes to help with your disability. How much notice does a landlord need to give a tenant to move out? How much notice do I have to give my landlord before I move? Can a landlord evict you for being late on rent? Can a landlord evict you if there is no lease? How long does it take for a landlord to evict a tenant? Can a landlord sue for back rent after an eviction?

Can you sue a landlord for injuries? Is a landlord responsible for damaged property? Is a landlord responsible for mold? What is considered harassment by a landlord? When do I need a lawyer? Who is responsible for maintaining common areas in my apartment building? Can my landlord force an eviction by turning off the utilities in my house?

Can a landlord refuse to rent to me because I have children? Thus, they generally must make major repairs to problems that make the unit unlivable. They must fix environmental hazards or hazards that could cause accidents and injuries.

A landlord also must take security precautions to reduce the risk of foreseeable crimes in or around the premises. They cannot discriminate against tenants based on their membership in a protected group, such as people of a certain race or national origin.

Landlords also cannot retaliate against tenants for exercising a legal right, such as blowing the whistle on a building code violation. If they want to end the tenancy, they need to comply with state rules on notice, and they need to follow specific procedures if they want to evict a tenant.

Often, a tenant can deny entry to a landlord based on their right to privacy , although there are exceptions. A tenant cannot deny entry if there is an emergency that the landlord needs to address, if the tenant has abandoned the property, or, in some cases, if the police are responding to a crime. The landlord needs to provide notice if they need to enter the unit to make repairs or improvements, or if they are showing the apartment to a prospective tenant or purchaser.

This notice needs to be reasonable and generally must be at least 24 to 48 hours in advance. Yes, you still have to pay rent if there is no lease. If there is no written lease, but there is an oral agreement, this is valid if your tenancy is one year or less. If there is no oral agreement or written lease, this means that you have a month-to-month tenancy at will, and you should pay rent on a monthly basis. Ideally, to prevent confusion, you should pay rent on the first day of each month.

There is no grace period for paying rent, and you can be evicted for non-payment, so it is important to keep up with payments if you can. Yes, a tenant can withhold rent if there is a major problem or hazard in the rental unit that makes it unlivable.

You should find out about the specific situations in which your state allows withholding rent, however, since you can be subject to eviction if you wrongfully withhold it. In some states, a tenant still needs to pay rent to a court or place it in an escrow account while the repairs are underway. You should prepare to start paying the full rent as soon as the repairs are completed and the unit is livable again. A landlord has varying periods of time to make a repair, depending on whether it is major or minor.

If the issue is major , such that it is an emergency that makes the apartment unlivable, the landlord should respond immediately. If they do not, you may be able to withhold rent or even break your lease and move out. If the issue is minor , on the other hand, the landlord has more breathing room. You cannot withhold rent or break the lease without repercussions if the landlord fails to fix a minor repair. Some tenants may find it easier to make minor repairs on their own and then recover the cost from the landlord.

Tenants have a wider range of options if the landlord is refusing to make major repairs. Download the boarding house tenancy agreement below. We also have an online tenancy agreement builder that allows landlords to create and customise tenancy agreements.

Residential tenancy agreement builder external link. Landlords can draw up their own tenancy agreement, as long as they include the minimum information required by the Act. Landlords also need to include additional statements in their new tenancy agreements. From 11 February , landlords must keep the following documents during the tenancy and for 12 months after the end of the tenancy:.

Not providing this information or providing false or misleading information is an unlawful act. Boarding house tenancy agreements need additional information. Information about renting a unit or apartment external link — Unit Title Services website.

Write their full legal name on the tenancy agreement. Download our pre-tenancy application form below. Write the legal company name. This might be different to the trading name or franchise holder name. Include the names of the trustees as well as the name of the trust.

If the property is managed by a property manager, write the names of both the owner and the property management company as landlord. They could be held responsible for:. Extra conditions must comply with the law. Adding conditions to the tenancy agreement. Electronic signatures may be used to sign a tenancy agreement if both parties agree.

They are as valid as a traditional written signature if certain requirements are met. Electronic signatures can take many forms, including a scanned or photographed image, or signing on a device using a stylus. There is a risk of them being intercepted and used by someone else, which can make them less secure than a traditional written signature.

A digital signature is a more secure form of electronic signature, which uses encryption to reduce the risk of it being copied or altered. Some computer software offers the use of a digital signature. Landlords should be careful therefore NEVER to allow tenants into a property until they have a tenancy agreement signed by all the tenants. Thats very true — although you can serve a separate s48 notice, it does not have to be in the tenancy agreement.

But a tenancy agreement is the best and usual place for it. It is a very sensitive situation so by the point we are contacted there is usually a significant amount of debt, in one case 12 years of unpaid rent. Often in family situations a court will find that there is no intention to create legal relations so there will not be a tenancy. If you are renting therefore to a family member and WANT it to be a tenancy, it is particularly important that a proper tenancy agreement document is provided.

Although Tessa, or guest bloggers, may from time to time, give helpful comments to readers' questions, these can only be based on the information given by the reader in his or her comment, which may not contain all material facts. Any comments or suggestions provided by Tessa or any guest bloggers should not, therefore be relied upon as a substitute for legal advice from a qualified lawyer regarding any actual legal issue or dispute. Nothing on this website should be construed as legal advice or perceived as creating a lawyer-client relationship apart from the Fast Track block clinic service - so far as the questioners only are concerned.