With Legislate, you can create a tenancy agreement with very little effort. This is a great way to make sure that your tenants are happy and understand their rights and obligations.
An assured shorthold tenancy agreement (also known as an AST) allows a landlord to let a property to a tenant. The term of an assured shorthold tenancy agreement is usually 6 or 12 months and will usually convert to a rolling periodic tenancy at the end of the initial term.
A rolling tenancy is a tenancy which automatically renews periodically on a rolling basis until either the tenant or the landlord serves notice. The renewal period will depend on the payment frequency of the rent. For example, a tenancy where rent is paid monthly will renew on a monthly basis. A tenancy where rent is paid every 6 or 12 months will renew for 6 or 12 months respectively.
Risks such as fire, flood, storm, earthquake and others can be insured against by the Landlord. Whilst a landlord does not need to have insured risks to let their residential property, insurance policies can help protect themselves in the event of damage from one of these risks.
A rolling tenancy is common in teancy agreements as it can give confidence and certainty to both the landlord and tenant after the initial term that the property can be occupied and rent will be paid. However, if the landlrd wants to recuperate the property at the end of the initial term, they should make sure that the tenancy agreement does not automatically convert to a rolling periodic tenancy and serve a notice before the end of the fixed term to recuperate it. This is often the case for private landlords who let out properties to student tenants for 12 month fixed terms at a time.
A landlord can easily specify in the Legislate tenancy agreement if they have insured risks or not. This provides clarity to the tenant as well who will be indirectly affected in the event that the property is damaged by an insured risk.