Problems with Keylet

gavin257

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the forum and this is my first post.

I'm seeking some advice with regards to leaving a property. Up until the end of september i was living in a 2 bed flat with a mate. Mid september an option arose to move into a bigger place at the beginning of october. I rang keylet to check if we would be allowed to leave the property as we had signed a contract up until July 09. The person i spoke with said that it would be fine but we would need to give a months notice, also if they didnt find a replacement for the following month we would also have to pay another months rent, however as the flat is in a popular location and has a very nice interior they never have it free for more than a week at time.

As there was never an inventory list drawn up for the flat i did not want to risk keylet or our landlord not giving us our bond back, our neighbours moved out of the same block and it took 4 months just to get their bond back!

So considering the above we packed our stuff at the end of september dropped the keys into keylet with a covering letter explaing that we had moved out, here was our months notice and for them to keep the bond as our last months rent, (the bond actually being £100 more than the rent).

Keylet seemed fine with it and explained to us they would inform the landlord.

We thought this was all sorted until yesterday, we received a call from our old landlord, keylet have only just informed him that we have moved out, he is holding us responsible for octobers and novembers rent. keylet, suprisingly, have no copy of the letter we left them, they even told the landlord that someone posted the keys through their letter box last week!!!! I have had to go to keylet today to sign something to enable to the landlord to rent it out to other people, i have also confirmed to the DPS (Depost Protection Agency) to release the full bond to the landlord. The landlord is still not happy, he wants the rent for, october, this month and the rent for every month after that they cannot find a tennent!!! can they do this?! something does not seem right, the landlord was always on the ball with the rent, he collected it from the flat the first week of every month yet he has only just realise we no longer live there now?!

Sorry about the extremely long post but this has been causing me alot of stress, lack of sleep etc since yesterday. Do I have a leg to stand on with this at all? the landlord is threatening to take me to court with it. This is entirely keylets fault. never EVER rent with keylet!!!

Many thanks

Mickyfinn

Hi Gavin,

Sorry to hear about your experience. To identify whether you can move out or not depends on your tenancy agreement. Usually this will be for a minimum of six months - so if you move out prior to this you will be liable for the whole six months rent unless the contract states otherwise.

Keylet are acting as agent and I'm sure will probably dispute your conversation with them which is why you should always get the name of who you are dealing with and ideally follow up with a letter confirming what was said - that way should a dispute arise you'll have an audit trail.

Without seeing your tenancy agreement I cannot say what the Landlord can or cannot do. However take a look at it and it will clarify things.

As for getting deposits back quickly I know the government deposit scheme now makes the whole process take even longer!

Best of luck

Phil

gavin257

thanks for the reply Phil,

I shall take a look at the contract, I have a feeling we are going to be liable for the money. Guess I am going to have to dispute it all the way as there is no way i can afford nearly an entire years rent! I have a copy of the letter that we gave to keylet on the day we moved out so hopefully that will help in my favour.

thanks again