This week’s question comes from Kowie S:  

We had a fixed-term tenancy from the end 2019- end 2020. Our landlords reached out close to the expiry date and offered us a 1-year extension via email. We responded by stating we would be happy to extend and asked that they would let us know when we can discuss and sign the contract. They replied by saying no need to sign, they will just change the dates on our existing contract. We never responded to this email and continued living in the house and paying our rent as usual.
 
We recently came across a home that is a better fit for us and more affordable for us, and I went to go read up on how and if we could end our agreement.

I then came across the law on renewals on the tribunal website that states the new agreement must be in writing and signed. With this in mind, we never signed anything, we merely expressed our interest in renewing the lease via email. In my mind and also advice from others are, we never signed a renewal, so our tenancy continued as periodic and that we can just give at least 28 days notice if we so wish, BUT in order to make sure, I phoned the tribunal and the advisor said, well the email can be seen as a signed document, as we expressed our interest to renew, this is not making sense to me at all, cause why would the law say ‘in writing and signed’ if we can just agree on an email?

 
We would really like to move to the new place, but don’t want to open a can of worms by starting this process. ...