Advice please re tenancy

kbr

Hi,
I would like a bit of advice please on the following problem my sister has with her current landlord.

She has been renting a house on a 6mth AST which finishes beginning of Sept. All rent etc has been paid on time and she has had a good relationship/contact with the LL. She decided to move into her boyfriends house (also closer to her work - 10 min journey rather than the 50 min one she currently had!) so moved her clothes etc out in June. She advised the LL what was happening and gave him notice that she would not be renewing contract in september and also that she would obviously continue to pay the rent on the place until september which she has done so far.

The LL asked if he could market property straight away and said that if he found another tennant before the end of her lease then he would end her lease early for her etc.....all seemed to be happy. She advised him she could be out when a tennant was found and started to try and organise some storage for the small amount of furniture she had. He always let her know when there was a viewing so she could be there and on monday a couple went for a second viewing. She was advised that they wanted the house and were starting to do the paperwork. She got in touch with storage people who said a unit would be available for her from this saturday.

Then yesterday afternoon she got a message from the landlord to say his dad wanted to move in and would be doing so today so she needed to move her stuff out last night. He was going to pick keys up from her today. She contacted me in a panic as she had nowhere to store her things so i offered her my garage. She spent last night moving her furniture out and this was after an 11 hour shift - she was knackered bless her.

She has just text me to say the LL's dad is not moving in now so all last night was for nothing. He's taken keys off her and said she won't get any rent back for this month even though she only paid it on 10th. I told her that if that is the case then she should still be entitled to hold keys to house until 10th august. She's now going to have to pay for storage aswell as already paid rent this month.

Sorry its long but wanted you to get the full picture.

tbs624

Firm letter to the LL with a copy to the Private Sector Rentals Team at the local Council (she should actually put cc: PSRT at the bottom of the letter so that the LL knows a copy has gone there)

The LL cannot have his cake and eat it : if she's being held to the full term of her contractual obligations then the same has to apply to him.He *cannot* charge her rent while forbidding access to the property for the remainder of her Fixed Term. He obviously needs help from the PSRT to be able to understand this. Your sister should pursue this one, by also making an appointment to see them, explaiing that the LL has refused her access but is continuing to charge rent.

The lesson to learn from all of this is to always get written confirmation of the situation *before* giving up occupation: however friendly/relaxed the other party may initially appear to be it's all about covering your own backside and having a suitable paper trail for when/if things go belly up.

Is this property in E/Wales and, if yes, has the LL scheme-registered any tenancy deposit given by your sister?

princeofpounds

This all hinges on whether surrender of the tenancy was accepted.

It's a grey area because whilst it's clear that the keys were handed over no-one took occupation. If there is any real evidence that the surrender was accepted then you should be getting the rent back, but it doesn't sound like there is.

The LL cannot have it both ways, either he gives the keys back and the tenancy is still in force, or he does not and the tenancy is over. He cannot deny use of the property and request rent at the same time.

Try to get all communications in writing (email if post too slow) as if you go to court it will all come down to evidence.