Landlord lied and is taking rents from 2 tenants at once for same property

FTB123_2

I posted a while ago when my landlord asked me and my fiance to urgently return the keys to our property 2 weeks before the contract ended. We have paid rent for the whole month of Feb, but had already moved in to a new property. The landlord said we could not get out of our contract early but he would let us stop paying rent if we found a new tenant. The property is small and expensive for what it is and we couldn't find anyone to take it over. We went back to do some final meter readings a week and a half ago and found it was full of someone elses's stuff (it was unfurnished). We phoned the LL and said it looked like someone was now living there and asked what was going on, he replied that it was a relationship breakup situation and they just wanted to store their stuff, and that we couldn't get any rent back because they weren't paying rent until March. However we have since met the new tenant who says they moved in on the 8th of Feb and have been paying rent since this date, there was no breakup they have just relocated. They are very concerned that the LL let them move in when there were 2 people with sets of keys to the property and they don't trust them since finding out about this whole thing and them lying. We are waiting for our deposit cheque to be returned and are going to ask for 20 days rent back, but I was wondering what the legal situation is here. Is the LL allowed to take rent from 2 tenants on the same property for the same period? We both have contracts that say we are the current tenants for the rest of the month.

kmmr

Hi,

I read your earlier thread on this, and it's clear that the LL is taking advantage of the situation. I am not really sure of the legality of it all, but certainly sounds like unfair gain by your LL. I think (from distant memory) that the term is undue enrichment.

I'd suggest you speak to CAB and see if they can advise you. Might be something you can pursue through small claims court.

One would hope that the threat of legal action will make him see sense, but you never know. Have you got your deposit back? As I know you were sensibly waiting to get that back before trying to raise the issue of the double tenants.

FTB123_2

Hi, yes I am going to phone citizens advice later today. We got a call yesterday asking who to make out the deposit cheque to, so hopefully it is on its way. If we point out in the letter that we found out he had lied about the new tenant not paying rent until March maybe that will make him a bit worried and cooperate. I expect he thought we would never find out that someone was actually living there and paying rent for the month

princeofpounds

It's very simple - you should take him to the small claims court and have the new tenant as a witness. If he let to a new tenant he is in breach of contract and should refund you your losses, which is the use of the property for the crossover period. Alternatively acceptance of the keys is implicit surrender of the tenancy and so you have overpaid your rent for the crossover period.

It could also be classed as illegal eviction as you were still tenants at the time, although this is much easier to prosecute if you hadn't handed the keys back voluntarily and left the property.

Unfortunately the new tenant might decline to help you if the landlord threatens to throw them out for testifying against him.

BitterAndTwisted

I would advise you not to do any letter-writing until that deposit cheque is in your account as cleared funds.

Would the new tenant be willing for you to photocopy their tenancy agreement showing the overlap of dates?

FTB123_2

Thanks for the advice, the new tenant is only on a 6 month lease and is very unhappy about the landlord who has not been fulfulling his commitements already (reluctant to do an inventory, said the place would be furnished for her and wasn't done by the move in day) and is acting like she is hassling him to do things that should be standard practice. When they moved in the builders had left the place in a mess and also left a present in the toilet(!). The new tenant is very cooperative and is (rightly) outraged about the whole thing, I get the feeling they would like to move out as soon as possible as they don't believe a word the LL says anymore. They're pretending they don't know until we get our deposit cashed and cleared, then they are going to kick up a fuss

Kylie

Same sort of situation with my last place. We found new tenants for the 3 weeks before end of month to try to stop paying rent as we had moved out. LL said we would still have to pay to the end, even though he would get paid by new tenants. We said fine, we would keep the keys until the end. He threatened us with "squatters" in the 3 weeks we woudn't be there. Basically hand in the keys, or "something" would happen...

Dodgy. He was also claiming to be out of the country to avoid paying something to the council, apparently. Didn't declare anything etc etc. Bad man, very bad man (with countless properties)

FTB123_2

Just an update on this, no progress so far. Landlord and his property manager ignore all phone calls, they claim there is disturbance on the line and hang up as soon as they know it is us. Ignore email also. Sent a letter outlining everything asking for the issues to be addressed but that is being ignored as well. I'm guessing only option next is small claims court? One problem is that we dont have a copy of the contract that says we were tenants contracted up until the end date, because the landlord never sent us the new version when we resigned like they said they would. Would this hinder us a lot in court?