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Tenants legal help – do you get a cooling off period?

This post is more than 14 years old

January 24, 2011 by Tessa Shepperson

Sign in haste, repent at leisureSign in haste repent at leisure, is something that prospective tenants ought to bear in mind when signing tenancy agreements. You need to be really sure you want that property.

For some type of contract, there is a ‘cooling off’ period of seven days, and many tenants think that this also applies to rented property. Unfortunately not.

At ‘common law‘, there is no right to a cooling off period for anything. Where people have this right it has been given specifically by an act of Parliament.

There are two main areas of law where there is a cooling off period. The first is consumer credit contracts, where you are borrowing a lot of money, or are paying for something on credit. This does not apply to rented property.

The second is the distance selling regulations. However these have now changed and no longer apply to tenancies as they are now specifically excluded.

This means that as soon as you sign that tenancy agreement you are bound by it. You are under a legal obligation to pay rent, on a monthly (or weekly) basis, for the term of the tenancy agreement. Whether you are living in the property or not.

So be careful.

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Filed Under: Tenants Tagged With: tenancy agreements

Notes:

Please check the date of the post - remember, if it is an old post, the law may have changed since it was written.

You should always get independent legal advice before taking any action.
Please read our terms of use and comments policy. Comments close after three months

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The purpose of this blog is to provide information, comment and discussion.

Please, when reading, always check the date of the post. Be careful about reading older posts as the law may have changed since they were written.

Note that although we may, from time to time, give helpful comments to readers’ questions, these can only be based on the information given by the reader in his or her comment, which may not contain all material facts.

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