This is part of a series of guidance about tenancy agreements provided for students.
Verbal Agreements
There’s an old joke that “verbal agreements aren’t worth the paper they’re written on”, but in general they are a legal (and binding) way of making a tenancy agreement. However, we strongly discourage this practice since it will be very difficult to prove later what has been agreed. If your tenancy is for more than three years, it must be made in writing, by a technical process known as a Deed.
If you don’t have a written contract, there will still be rights and obligations for both the landlord and the tenant, particularly those laid out in law. Your tenancy will probably be a periodic Assured Shorthold Tenancy, since fixed-term tenancies have to be specifically created. However, there are plenty of areas where disputes can still arise, and the most common are probably rent and deposits.
Ultimately you are likely to find it difficult to force the landlord to do anything beyond things which are your statutory rights or their statutory obligations – i.e. those things that are laid down in law for all landlords and tenants.
If you do find yourself in a tenancy without a written agreement, there are some steps you can take to minimise the problems:
- Get a rent book, and use it to keep a record of rent payments. Ask the landlord to sign it each time you make a payment.
- Ask the landlord to produce a written statement of terms.
Statement of Terms
If you ask your landlord to produce a Statement of Terms for a verbal tenancy agreement he must do so within 28 days. It should include the following:
- The date the tenancy commenced,
- Rent amount,
- Rent due dates,
- Any provision for a rent review,
- Whether the tenancy is fixed-term and the duration of the fixed term.
Summary
- If at all possible, get a written tenancy agreement.
- With a verbal contract you may find it difficult to get anything other than the legal ‘lowest common denominator’.
- If you find yourself with a verbal contract, get a rent book and ask your landlord for a written statement of terms.
Pages in this Guide
- Types of Tenancy
- Joint vs. Individual Tenancies
- Fixed term vs. Periodic Tenancies
- A Valid Tenancy
- What’s included in a Tenancy Agreement
- Exercising Caution with Tenancy Agreements
- Verbal Agreements
This information is provided for general guidance only, and should not be considered to be definitive or legally binding in respect of any specific situation. If you have a specific query, you should contact your Student Advice Centre, or a Citizens’ Advice Bureau.
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