TDS Avoidance - implications of wrong date on contract

[Steve__M]

If a contract with the wrong date is signed, is a new AST created?

Last October, my neighbour's landlord increased her rent, but my neighbour insisted on a new contract. On a pretence, landlord got my neighbour to sign without giving her time to read the contract.

Only now (as the landlord wants to raise rent yet again) has my neighbour spotted that the contract was dated 1st April 2007, and was for 6 months. Needless to say, the landlord has not protected the deposit. And I am assuming the wrong date is quite deliberate.

The dates mean that the 6 months were up when the contract was signed.

For the purposes of requiring the deposit to be protected, I am confident that the date of signing is relevant as opposed to the date on the contract.

But if the contract was wrongly dated, did signing it create a new AST?

[MrShed]

Difficult one! IMO the RENEWAL of the AST is created by the act of agreeance, not the act of signature. Fairly easy to disprove the contract date, as I assume(hope?) you neighbour will have prove of the rent paid, and therefore proof of when the rent went up...