Given notice - advice needed

talulahbeige_2

To cut a long story short my soon to be ex LA doesnt like that we look after the house to a better standard than they expect (workmen doing a job right first time not the third time) and has convinced the LL we are a hinderance and forced their hand to give us notice This works for us as we were already looking for a new house anyway as relations had broken down weeks ago when they havent fixed a health and safety issue for nearly a year.

We have a short term assured agreement ( i think) it started as a 6mth fixed and now just rolls on.

I know they have to give us 2 mths notice but as we have to give them a mimimum of 1 mth notice to end at the end of a calendar month (eg, if we gave them notice now we would still be contracted until the 30th Jan).
Does it work the same for the LL, ie if they gave us notice now would that take us up to the 9th Feb or the 28th Feb.?

Also, we have paid our rent on time and in full every month and gone out of our way to take care of the house can they give a negative reference to the new LL? I'm not sure what a LA reference entails so any advice is appreciated.


Thanks for a stressed renter
x

moromir

talulahbeige wrote: »

We have a short term assured agreement ( i think) it started as a 6mth fixed and now just rolls on.

I know they have to give us 2 mths notice but as we have to give them a nimimum of 1 mth notice to end at the end of a calendar month (eg, if we gave them notice now we would still be contracted until the 30th Jan).
Does it work the same for the LL, ie if they gave us notice now would that take us up to the 9th Feb or the 28th Feb.?

I imagine the correct term is a Fixed Term Assured Shorthold Tenancy (it is highly unlikely you just a Fixed Term Shorthold Tenancy), and now you have progressed into a Statutory Periodic Tenancy (month the month).

Your post is a bit vague to answer properly, you don't give notice to end at the end of a calender month (unless this is when your contract rolls). What you need to do is give one calendar month's notice that will end at the end of a rent due period (ie the day before your rent is due).

As for the Landlord, I believe they can give two months notice at any point but someone with more info will come along pretty soon.

talulahbeige wrote: »

To cut a long story short my soon to be ex LA doesnt like that we look after the house to a better standard than they expect (workmen doing a job right first time not the third time) and has convinced the LL to give us notice.

Note to all renters - don't look after a property properly as some LA's / LL's dont appreciate it

I hope that you informed the LA in writing of anything you wished to repair, or any alterations you wished to make and awaited their response in writing prior to organising to have the work carried out yourself... if this is the case then you have correspondance to show any new Landlord to settle the matter if you recieve a bad reference. If you just went ahead and had works carried out without permission then you might well expect a cautious reference from your LA. The LA is not obligated to give a reference or provide a positive one.

A Landlord reference will usually ask what date you rented the property from until when, confirm that you have been served notice/tenancy is ending (ie you're free from other rental commitments by the time you want to rent the next property), will ask whether the rent is up to date and whether there have been any arrears, whether the property has been kept in good condition (most LAs will answer this that they cannot comment until final checkout has been completed), sometimes theres a question like would you rent to this tenant again? and any other comments section.

I hope this helps.

talulahbeige_2

moromir wrote: »

Your post is a bit vague to answer properly, you don't give notice to end at the end of a calender month (unless this is when your contract rolls). What you need to do is give one calendar month's notice that will end at the end of a rent due period (ie the day before your rent is due).

Apologises for being vague.
Our rent is paid on the 1st of a month

so from what your saying they only have to give 2mths notice from a date now whereas I would have to in theory give 6 weeks notice?

N79

moromir wrote: »

Your post is a bit vague to answer properly, you don't give notice to end at the end of a calender month (unless this is when your contract rolls). What you need to do is give one calendar month's notice that will end at the end of a rent due period (ie the day before your rent is due).

I know that I am beginning to sound like a broken record with this but the rent due date is irrelevent to the issue of serving notices. Assuming a monthly rental then the LL has to give at least 2 months notice which must end on the last day of a rental period. The T must give at least 1 months notice which should end on the last day of a rental period.

Rental periods can be determined from the start date for the tenancy. So for a montly periodic tenancy the first period started on the day the periodic tenancy started (which will be the day after the last day of the AST fixed period) and runs for a month - and so on.

eg Periodic (now outside fixed period) Tenancy started on 1 Jan.

First period 1 Jan - 31 Jan.
Second Period 1 Feb to 28 (29) of Feb

and so on. In this theoretical tenancy notice given by LL on 2 Jan could expire no earlier than the 31 Mar (at least 2 months = 2 Mar but pushed to the end of the rental period. Notice given by T on 2 Jan could expire no earlier than 28 Feb (or 29 Feb in a leap year).

moromir

Hi Talullah,

You don't need to give six weeks notice, on 31st December 2009/1st January 2010 you can serve notice to vacate the property on 31st January 2010, so one calendar month ending on a rent due date, if you wish to serve notice earlier than this then that is your prerogative.

N97 explains what I was trying to get across more clearly

@N97 what I was trying to get across was that the OP didn't serve notice "at the end of the month" but notice that expired on a rent due date which may not be anywhere near the end of the month.

N79

moromir wrote: »

Hi Talullah,

You don't need to give six weeks notice, on 31st December 2009/1st January 2010 you can serve notice to vacate the property on 31st January 2010, so one calendar month ending on a rent due date, if you wish to serve notice earlier than this then that is your prerogative.

N97 explains what I was trying to get across more clearly

@N97 what I was trying to get across was that the OP didn't serve notice "at the end of the month" but notice that expired on a rent due date which may not be anywhere near the end of the month.

My main point - which I think you have missed - is that the rent due date is irrelevent as it is the rental period which is key. Often the end of a rental period and the rent due date will be the same but they do not have to be same and often are not.

The most common cause that I am aware of for making a mess of the dates on a S21 notice amongst inexperienced LLs is when the rent due date and rental period do not agree and the LLs make the mistake of using the rent due date for serving notice.

Edit: Just to make clear that a rental period has noting to do with a calendar month either and could as easily run from the 15th of one month to the 14th of the following month as opposed to the start and end of the calendar month in the example given above.

moromir

Hey N97,

I didn't miss that, but as the OP was talking about 1 month notice and her previous AST, I was trying to keep it simple since she seemed to be aware she paid her rent monthly but I take your point that others reading this thread in reference to their own cases may misunderstand.

Re my example, this was explicitly in reference to the OP's specific rental period and as N97 says, is not generic.

Regards

DVardysShadow

moromir wrote: »

Hey N97,

I didn't miss that, but as the OP was talking about 1 month notice and her previous AST, I was trying to keep it simple since she seemed to be aware she paid her rent monthly but I take your point that others reading this thread in reference to their own cases may misunderstand. ...

Keeping it simple is probably the cause of the novice error N79 points out.