Lodger - Leaving with 1 month notice instead of the 2 in the agreement

zet_2

silentalibi wrote: »

One thing that I had totally missed (mainly because in the agreement it states the landlord may give one month's notice to evict), was that in fact I am required to give two months notice, and had in my head that I had read as only one month.

Two months notice for a lodger is really overkill, especially for a student. I think she is being unreasonable holding you to it when you have to leave, but you were crazy to sign such an unreasonable agreement in the first place, and crazy to pay such a large deposit.

But then living in the provinces, I see the whole of the London property market as crazy, 625 for a room?

In the words of Ripley from Aliens, "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure".

Gorgeous_George

You signed the contract. Learn to read things properly.

It is not an Assured Shorthold Tenancy so those rules have no relevance - besides you would still need to give two months if that was your agreement.

A reasonable landlady would let you go early especially if she can find a replacement tenant. All you can do is ask or stay there until the last day (17 February). Then contact HMRC to make sure she pays tax on the income.

GG

martindow

I think I would be bloody minded if you leave before the date you are being forced to pay up to. I would leave a few things in the room and not return the keys until the last minute. Otherwise she is likely to re-rent the room while you are still paying.

Cerisa

Gorgeous George - students are usually new renters / buyers and frankly don't expect to be bilked.

Rob_Marx

just walk, the weirdo won't do anything. make sure you have a big smelly dump which you don't flush when you go, and smear some of it on the seat. that will learn her some respect

silentalibi

Thanks again everyone, and Cerisa, that's exactly right. I just remember in my head reading it was only one month notice, but that's because thats the notice she's allowed to give, we have to give 2.

And funny you should mention leaving a big dump. haha. here goes a kind of gross story. Please don't eat as you read the following:

The bathroom doesn't have a toilet brush. Seemed like a rather odd thing, right? We were so busy with university that a toilet brush was the last thing on our minds, so as a typical student, i went around the problem by placing toilet paper in the bowl first. worked fine, until one day we get an email asking to clean up the toilet. turns out there was the TINYEST spec of brown (absolutely gross to read, but in real life no normal person would think anything of it) left to clean. it must have happened again, because a few days after, we got an email saying it was the last time she'd warn us about this, and that as per the contract, if we don't clean after ourselves, it would come out of the deposit.

I'd just like to see her writing the reason our deposit was gone was because we there was a skid down the toilet :rotfl:

But in all seriousness, it was all double standards. We'd get notes to clean after ourselves (once there was a post-it note pointing to a drop of food on the stove top), yet she went through a phase of leaving a proper mess, and even once leaving half her afro down the toilet (which i very promptly photographed for future reference, had the toilet incident risen to a more vicious confrontation)

It just feels like we're constantly inconveniencing (spelling?) her. Every night when we cook our tea, we'll have to do all the washing up and cleaning of the whole kitchen before we eat, the food is usually cold by the time we eat it. otherwise (as she usually comes home during our tea-time), we'll just spend the whole dinner worried about getting a note. it's stupid really.

Can she even legally rent the room to someone whilst we are still paying for the rent, even after moving out? That's the thing, if she's not humane enough to money-grab £625 based on technicalities, we're not handing the keys back in until the very last day of the notice.

It's so damn annoying... She's so friendly in person, but then once it gets to written communication, she's a complete psycho.

PS not to mention the worst thing of all!

Well, in our case it is. We both have courses that seriously require the internet heavily for research, and even submitting work. We basically CANNOT, not have the internet.

We'd been told before we moved in that we'd have wireless internet included with the other bills, also rent-inclusive. The service was crap, she sent it back and signed up to a new one. fair enough, about two weeks without it, but that was no one's fault. Then the new one was also terrible, it worked maybe 1 in 4 days on average, which for what we need is really unacceptable. it would sometimes work if you turned the modem off and on, but that was in her room and we'd have to ask for it. once i knocked, and she just plain ignored me a few times. so we wrote a note saying that we REALLY need the internet for our work, if she could ask the company why the service was so bad. she replied saying it's not her fault, sorry. Though conveniently enough, sometimes it would start working shortly after she got home.

And then a few weeks later she sent it back, but we very very seriously believe she had another modem put in, but wasn't sharing with us. Reason being, it happened a couple of days after she said she sent the old one back, we had received emails from her (checked on my phone) from when she was in the room next door, and our computers never picked up any other networks, but picked up this one with the same signal strength as the old one, undoubtedly coming from the same house. she just never bothered to share the password.

rant over. haha. sorry.

omen666

I would class that as continual harrasent personally and she did not keep to her part of the contract

Wine_of_the_World

If she agreed to supply you with the internet, and failed to do so, she is braking the contract with you. Perhaps write to her stating your reason for leaving early is because of the issue with the internet.
Is your deposit protected? If so it will make it much harder for her to not return it.

breadlinebetty

Wine_of_the_World wrote: »

If she agreed to supply you with the internet, and failed to do so, she is braking the contract with you. Perhaps write to her stating your reason for leaving early is because of the issue with the internet.
Is your deposit protected? If so it will make it much harder for her to not return it.

A live-in landlady does not have to protect the deposit.

By the way, 'braking' the contract is spelt with an E - breaking.

breadlinebetty

silentalibi wrote: »

Thanks again everyone, and Cerisa, that's exactly right. I just remember in my head reading it was only one month notice, but that's because thats the notice she's allowed to give, we have to give 2.

And funny you should mention leaving a big dump. haha. here goes a kind of gross story. Please don't eat as you read the following:

The bathroom doesn't have a toilet brush. Seemed like a rather odd thing, right? We were so busy with university that a toilet brush was the last thing on our minds, so as a typical student, i went around the problem by placing toilet paper in the bowl first. worked fine, until one day we get an email asking to clean up the toilet. turns out there was the TINYEST spec of brown (absolutely gross to read, but in real life no normal person would think anything of it) left to clean. it must have happened again, because a few days after, we got an email saying it was the last time she'd warn us about this, and that as per the contract, if we don't clean after ourselves, it would come out of the deposit.

I'd just like to see her writing the reason our deposit was gone was because we there was a skid down the toilet :rotfl:

But in all seriousness, it was all double standards. We'd get notes to clean after ourselves (once there was a post-it note pointing to a drop of food on the stove top), yet she went through a phase of leaving a proper mess, and even once leaving half her afro down the toilet (which i very promptly photographed for future reference, had the toilet incident risen to a more vicious confrontation)

It just feels like we're constantly inconveniencing (spelling?) her. Every night when we cook our tea, we'll have to do all the washing up and cleaning of the whole kitchen before we eat, the food is usually cold by the time we eat it. otherwise (as she usually comes home during our tea-time), we'll just spend the whole dinner worried about getting a note. it's stupid really.

Can she even legally rent the room to someone whilst we are still paying for the rent, even after moving out? That's the thing, if she's not humane enough to money-grab £625 based on technicalities, we're not handing the keys back in until the very last day of the notice.

It's so damn annoying... She's so friendly in person, but then once it gets to written communication, she's a complete psycho.

PS not to mention the worst thing of all!

Well, in our case it is. We both have courses that seriously require the internet heavily for research, and even submitting work. We basically CANNOT, not have the internet.

We'd been told before we moved in that we'd have wireless internet included with the other bills, also rent-inclusive. The service was crap, she sent it back and signed up to a new one. fair enough, about two weeks without it, but that was no one's fault. Then the new one was also terrible, it worked maybe 1 in 4 days on average, which for what we need is really unacceptable. it would sometimes work if you turned the modem off and on, but that was in her room and we'd have to ask for it. once i knocked, and she just plain ignored me a few times. so we wrote a note saying that we REALLY need the internet for our work, if she could ask the company why the service was so bad. she replied saying it's not her fault, sorry. Though conveniently enough, sometimes it would start working shortly after she got home.

And then a few weeks later she sent it back, but we very very seriously believe she had another modem put in, but wasn't sharing with us. Reason being, it happened a couple of days after she said she sent the old one back, we had received emails from her (checked on my phone) from when she was in the room next door, and our computers never picked up any other networks, but picked up this one with the same signal strength as the old one, undoubtedly coming from the same house. she just never bothered to share the password.

rant over. haha. sorry.

Unless she has 2 separate service providers (which would be pointless and weird) she would not have 2 different modems. Totally pointless.

The other network you picked up could have come from a neighbour's - you can pick up several nearby networks. It's wrong of you to make assumptions that she has a separate ISP and is not giving you the password: you're coming across as slightly paranoid - and that wouldn't go in your favour were you to end up in court over this.



Whatever, a faulty internet connection is not grounds for reneging on your contract. She did what she could to rectify the situation, and the fault clearly lies with the ISP.

You have decided to move early despite knowing you were honoured to give 2 months notice. Your whimsical decision is not her concern! However, if you pay your rent up to the date when your contract legally ends, then, NO, she cannot rent out your room in your absence. But for you to suggest she may do that, again shows how YOUR mind works.

I'm sure if we had your landlady's side of the story it would shed a whole new light on it. Maybe you're a 'difficult' lodger - there's lots of them about! I think it's rather odd that you photographed her afro floating in the toilet - what a weird thing to do!!!! And SO WHAT if there was some hair floating down the pan - it's hardly a HEALTH hazard. Just flush the %^*&^&** loo and do your business!! Why run off to go and get your camera and take pictures of the afro hairs???? You couldn't have been THAT desperate to have a 'dump' (as the eloquent previous poster puts it!) Your actions and behaviour smacks of menace and troublemaking. You're LOOKING for problems to wriggle out of paying your rent!