So, we signed a 12 month AST agreement on the 10th of October 2009, At the point in which it states the term of the contract the words "with a break clause at 6 months" are included. We received a phone call and subsequent email from our estate agent's to say that our landlord is giving us 2 month's notice - requesting that we vacate the premises by the 18th May. Is this legal? Can they serve notice with just a phone call and an email (with no section 21 notice)? Also, how do you perceive the break clause itself; does it mean that at 6 months either tenant or landlord can give notice, or that they can request vacation by the 6 month point. The words "with a break clause at 6 months" don't really tell me much at all!

Thanks tonnes for your replies, I have now had a letter from La Redoute saying that they still insist that I agreed to this but as a gesture of goodwill they are prepared to cancel the "debt" and clean any negative credit scoring that may have been incurred. I did think about arguing my case as a matter of principal but really don't have the time or energy.

I got a call from a debt collection company yesterday saying that La Redoute had passed the account to them as I owed them £35ish. First I'd heard of it! So i checked my emails and the last order I placed with them was for some ballet shoes back in april '08 which I paid for up front. So I gave them a call and they told me that they had added some sort of service called something like 0800 HELP ME which is an assistance service for if I have my bag nicked or lock myself out. They said that I would have had a phone call from them at which time I would have verbally authorised them to add it to my account, I have no recollection of ever having this conversation. They also said that they would have sent me out the paperwork to my address which they would have confirmed with me at the time, clearly they couldn't have as they have the wrong address for me! I challenged them as to why they hadn't emailed me regarding the matter and they said they had done - the last email I have from them is a marketing one from xmas last year. As it stands they say they will investigate and get back to me. What is the law regarding these cold calls? I don't think I ever received this call but if indeed I did and just can't remember can they charge me for something that I never signed for? Is a verbal agreement binding? And the fact that I never received any paperwork for the service smacks of either underhandedness or sheer stupidity. Any advice gratefully appreciated.

Hi - had almost exactly the same thing happen to us in our last place. And the court hearing date was about 1 week after I was due to give birth! I informed the landlord who basically stumped up the cash to avoid reposession as they'd never even got a notice that any action was taken, so I'd firstly get in touch with your landlord to make sure they're aware of the situation. I took some legal advice from a friend of mine who is a property lawyer at the time and she said that they could give us notice upon granting posession to the morgage company - so not sure that they would be obliged to honour the AST to be honest. But saying this she also told me that judges/magistrares do not take the resposession decision lightly so the likelyhood of the order being granted is not by any means 100%.

Thanks Planner - that is what I suspected, I am going to take advice re. whether breaching that clause in the contract invalidates the contract as a whole - it is a very long story but basically our landlady is trying to retract a written agreement which superceded the original tenancy agreement and reinstate the said original tenancy agreement and as a result claim that we owe here a LOT of money.

Hi - I have a question about the 25k limit - if we signed an assured shorthold tenancy agreement (but our rent is over the 25k mark) which in itself states that the landlady is to pay the deposit in to a scheme within the 14 day period, surely this is legally binding irrespective of the fact that technically we shouldn't have signed that contract and not be eligable for the protection - as it is still an agreement between us and the landlady. What are your thoughts?

Thanks for the info - does this mean that the landlord also is not protected as well as the tenants?

Hi - wondering if anyone can clarify how we stand with regards to our rights. I have just found out that because our rent is more than £25,000 per year, an Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement is not valid. As this is the type of agreement that we signed does this mean that there is no valid agreement in place?