Council says there is a periodic tenancy and he can demand to re-enter.

Hello,

Any advice is appreciated and I'll try to be concise.

Took tenant through local Council, father and son (16) from broken home.
Gave them set of keys each.
Only received four months rent from him in total even with plan to catch up from his homeless prevention officer which failed.
When AST ended property was entered, they had trashed it, left a set of keys and took their possessions, yet I've still got this problem since last December whereby he won't relinquish. His son is now 18.

This bit just explains what is now in hindsight my stupidity.  Property belonged to our late beloved Parents'. Neither my Brother nor I have ever gained a foothold on the property ladder or been in social housing. It's a nice bungalow in quite a sought after road and was estimated at £1150 per month, offered it to the council for £850, they had to do it didn't they? £825. Should have known it would all go to rat shit. Maybe capitalism is better.

Thanks.

Melanie.

This one you can fight, get in touch with a lawyer to communicate with the council.

When the fixed term ends, if the property was occupied by the tenant (I assume just the dad count since son was underage at start of tenancy?) as his only or principal home, then a statutory periodic tenancy would start. By the fact presented, the tenant was not in occupation when the fixed term ended, no statutory periodic tenancy could then have arose.

Please double check your tenancy agreement though. Was it just a fixed term, or was it a contractual periodic tenancy with an initial longer element? If the later, your argument is different. Namely, the taking of all their possession and leaving of the keys are clear evidence of an offer of surrender which you accepted by taking possession. Ergo, the tenancy ended through surrender by operation of law (i.e. an implied surrender).

Thank you KTC. Tenancy was just in father's name. Council supplied the AST agreement which was for 12 months but included a paragraph under a heading called "Periodic Notice".