UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi Everyone,
I recently signed a tenancy agreement on a property that is not yet fully built.

I was wondering if there are any specific laws on this, I did try research it but didn't really find anything.
Im most interested in what happens if its not as described, if its not finished in time?
Also can I break the contract as I haven't payed a deposit or seen the property, for all I know they could just be trying to scam me and I feel uneasy about paying a deposit before I see the property.

Any Advice is greatly appreciated.

Jesus, this is a new one to me.

Agreeing to a tenancy without seeing the property is pretty risky.

To answer your question, I think it depends on what is written in the tenancy agreement or any other contracts you may have signed. If a boilerplate tenancy agreement was used, I can't imagine it will mention anything about the property aligning with your expectations e.g. what you were sold.

Did you sign anything that mentions/guarantees what you'll be getting as the final product?

Thanks for the reply,

Contract was just a boilerplate they assured me verbally that it will be built in time.
I was stupid to sign the contract but to be honest I didn't even know I was signing the contract as I thought a deposit needed to be payed to make it official, I was very naive but at the time seemed like an easy solution.

They are student flats not in affiliation with my university but a private agency. If the company goes bust or theres building problems I'm left un-protected and homeless. Is there any laws that protect tenants in my situation?

Im pretty sure theres not much I can do and to be honest it was my mistake so I'm ok with that, but I did find it interesting that I couldn't find any information on this. Seems that this could easily be a scam and maybe there should be something in place to stop agencies getting contracts signed before the property is built. that way if the property is not going to be built in time at least the tenant would have an opportunity to look for an alternative property... But then again this would leave the landlord vulnerable I guess. 

Is the only contract you signed a tenancy agreement? If so, I can't I can't imagine you'd be obligated to pay any rent if the company goes bust and the tenancy doesn't even begin.

But it's hard to believe that there was no other contract under this circumstance. Have you paid any money yet? I'm assuming you've paid a deposit...

Get Dom on it..................................

I signed and assured let agreement and have not yet payed a deposit, I did get a contract for a guarantor that was also signed. This must be a real grey area as I asked my family about t and they also said that its a weird one and nobody is sure, apart from the letting agency they are sure they want the money

Just wanted to get some more advice, I went to get a copy of my contract today.

Only the last page is signed by me, not the landlord also there is no date and non of the pages are initialed or dated... they didn't even give me a copy of the original contract just the last page photocopied and a new contract but I can tell the original one would have been different as the last page was different.

To me this makes the contract arguably void, am I correct? 

Yes.

At the present time, you have proof that the Landlord has not accepted your offer, and you have not paid anything so no consideration.

Write a letter withdrawing from the contract, you won't pay as you do not wish to complete. Leave it at that, and move on.