Have had difficulty giving landlord notice - am I liable?

crispsandwich

Hello,

I've recently moved out of a house I shared with my g/f. We have broke up and I moved out with almost two months of the tenancy remaining. The rent was fully paid up until the end of the tenancy.

However, I've had trouble giving notice to the landlord. He never answers his phone, and in the past I've had to solve most problems by text message. He does usually reply by text the next day. I sent him a text from the O2 website so that it would keep a record. It said I was moving out at the end of the tenancy agreement and I supplied my email address. I did not have his home address as it was on the tenancy agreement and my ex g/f was still living in the house and she was being very difficult. So I sent the keys via recorded delivery to the house with my letter, addressed to the landlord. Royal Mail could not deliver it so I have yet to retrieve it.

What am I liable for here? I did not give a month's notice to quit at the end of the agreement. I sent the text with 26 days of the tenancy remaining, and the letter and keys with 14 days remaning.

Am I liable for another month's rent? This is my own stupid fault for being naive enough to think that notice did not need to be given at the end of an agreement.

speedtwin

Normally notice legally does not have to be given at the end of a ast tenancy. You can just hand your keys back on the last day and that would be it. But as you are a joint tenant (are you?) and the other half are staying on i am not sure where you stand legally.

crispsandwich

Yes we are joint tenants. I will not be staying on so if my ex does, she will have to take up a new tenancy in her own name as surely I cannot be held to anything as I don't wish to live there?

Thanks for the reply

Premier_2

If you have a joint tenancy agreement, you should really give a joint notice of your intention to leave. I'm not sure you can legally do that by text - how can you prove he's received it?
Only if you both vacate the property and hand it back to the LL on or before the last day of your fixed term have you any chance of enforcing that as the last day of the tenancy - you can't do that if your g/f does not leave. As you have already found, even returning the keys is a problem.

Without having the address for the LL, you may be really stuck. If you really can;t get it off your g/f, is there any one else that might have it? e.g. did you have to provide references to the LL before you started the TA? Perhaps your referees may still have his address?

Otherwise all you can do is try and speak with him on the mobile contact number you have or request by text his address in the hope he'll get, and answer, your text. You'll probably have most joy if you can actually speak with him, then you can also explain the situation.

boggie40

you've done what you could, make sure you cancel the direct debit/standing order.....