Rolling contract for tenants

[nellyelloe]

Hi there,
We have a life changing relocation planned next year (so excited), so we recently sold our house and have moved into a rental property. It's a gorgeous little newbuild house but the lettings agency like to make sure that you don't feel too comfortable - literally not allowed to hardly breathe in the house, but whatever, it's for a year 🙄

We have signed a 12 month contract. When I went to pick up the keys, he said that after a year, they'll want us to sign another fixed term. I said that we will want to go for a rolling contract after the year is up, and he said 'we don't do rolling contracts if we can help it'. He was really shitty to me.

When our year is up, we'll need something between 3 and 6 months depending on a few factors for our relocation, but now I'm really worried that they won't agree to a rolling contract, and if we put our foot down, we'll be evicted and then be screwed for a few months, right when my daughter is doing her GCSEs😳

Please advise! Thank you

If you put your foot down and refuse the fixed term contract it's very unlikely indeed that they'll evict you. What would they gain by doing that? Plus if it's through an agency they would need the landlord's agreement and the landlord has absolutely no incentive to want to loose a good tenant earlier than they need to. (The agency probably charge the landlord a fee for setting up every new fixed term tenancy, which is why they like doing them) So I'd call their bluff.