assured shorthold tenancy issue

[stowaway]

My daughter signed an assured shorthold tenancy agreement and paid a deposit on a property that she would not be moving into untill the end of august 2007. She only signed the tenancy a few days ago and at the time of signing the sgreement she was not given adequate time by the letting agent to read through it properly and was hurried to sign it and pay the deposit, the property is a student let.
After going home with the agreement and reading through it properly we have seen that there is no clause in it to allow you to leave if she needed to before the end of a fixed term of 12 months.
This was not explained to her and as she may well need to leave before then we have tried to cancel the agreement and get the deposit back but the letting agent states that you can't do that and she has signed the tenancy so she is liable for the rent for the full 12 months.
She feels she was pressured into signing without being able to read the agreement properly in their office.

Is there not a cooling of period for this kind of thing and are they able to make her take on this tenancy even though she no longer wants too?
(she only signed the agreement a few days ago and told them the next working day that she no longer wanted it, so they could easily relet it)
I would really appreciate any advice, thank you.

[Stu Dent]

Where is the property, and what age is your daughter? I need to find the appropriate legislation, and your daughter may not be of full legal capacity. If she is aged 18 or less, the contract may be voidable.

Even if it is though, what alternatives does your daughter have? If she likes all other aspects of the property she may find that the terms of the agreement are common (even if they may not be legally enforceable). So what alternatives does she have?

If she genuinely does not want to rent this property, then my advice ,(and ONLY if it's true that the letting agents could easily let it to someone else), would be to breach the contract by not moving in and not paying any rent.

The letting agents could sue your daughter and;
1. Force her to meet her contractual obligations.
2. Rescind the contract.
3. Look for damages.

But, oprtions 1&2 don't look so appealing (if I was the letting agent). Why go to the bother of fighting your daughter through the courts when I can easily let it to someone else? And why rescind (terminate) a contract when it's clearly not what I want to do and is not in my interests?

Option 3 looks good to the letting agent! But to get damages the letting agent would have to show loss. If they re-let the property easily within a short space of time, what have they lost? Very little - so your daughter would be liable to pay very little. If they re-let it for less than your daughter agreed to rent it for though, your daughter would also be liable for the difference.

So, depending on some questions you need to answer for me, the contract may not be enforceable at all. But if it is, it would seem that non-performance is your daughter's best strategy. I don't see any value in the letting agents taking the matter further if they have little to lose. It will be less hassle to accept the breach rather than pursue the matter through

[Stu Dent]

So basically you seem to have a choice of breaching the contract and take the risk of being sued - perhaps for very little or, if the agents let it for less or can't re-let it, for a large sum. Or, weigh that option against paying three months rent on a flat that your daughter doesn't really need, because she'll be living with you - a fairly common situation for many students, I would expect.

So, if it's a really good flat, then I'd pay the three months extra. If it's not so good, but is still easily re-lettable for the same amount of rent, walk away and say 'sue me'.

[stowaway]

Thank you for your answer,
my daughter is 22 and the property is in Teeside, the main problem with this tenancy agreement is that it has no break clause which means that you have to stay in the property for the full fixed term of 12months, which is really not going to be suitable as there is a good chance she may have to leave after 6 months, i know that with assured shorthold tenancys some will have a break clause in that allows you to give notice after the initial first six months, unfortunately she didnt check this with the letting agent before signing but the letting agent on the other hand didnt make this known .
She really does'nt want to take this tenancy on and knows she has been very foolish in bowing to pressure and signing the agreement but she did tell them the following day that she no longer wished to rent the property. It is in a very popular student area and should re-let with no problem so I do feel that the letting agent is being unreasonable in holding her to this contract, thats why i wanted to know if there was some kind of cooling off period after signing as there is with certain other agreements (i:e credit cards etc).
Thanks again for your answer.