On the verge of being made homeless

Silvakrystal

Hello all,

To cut a long story short,... I am due to be moving out and into a new flat at the end of this week and was only told yesterday by the agent that this is no longer possible as the flat has already been occupied by other tenants - 2 days prior to our moving in date, hence the possibility of being left with nowhere to live until we can find elsewhere, just hoping our landlord will be understanding enough to have pity on us.

We have hardly had any sleep due to the worry and are incredibly angry and disappointed. Any advice on this matter would be much appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

lynzpower

Hi there

Had you signed a tenancy agreement to move into the new place?

Does your current agreement have s21 served ( It should say in the agreement if it has)

pyueck

Sounds like a nightmare! Don't panic, you can't be evicted from your current place unless they have a valid section 21, then have gone to court to get a posession order and then got an order instructing a bailiff to evict you.

If the agent is half decent tell them that you will have nowhere to live and wish to stay where you are for another two months. If they say no, then say to them as you would be homeless if you moved out you are staying. As a posession order normally takes way more than two months to go through the court process, and then the judge can award you another 42 days to move out from the hearing (which if you will be homeless he probably would) I would just stay where you are. Obviously look for somewhere else as well.

Just so you are clear, if the agent or landlord tries to evict you before they have an order for a bailiff this would be illegal eviction, which can get the landlord two years in jail, and large compensation for yourself, so I very much doubt they would try it. Also if you have paid a holding deposit for the new place, you should be able not only to get this back, but also to claim the same amount off the landlord, as unawise the contract would be unfair on the parties to the detriment of the consumer (see unfair terms in consumer regulations)

Silvakrystal

Thank you both for your replies.

We had not yet signed a tenancy agreement for the new place, but had put in a holding deposit and had given the 'Homelet' papers, we were due to sign the agreement on the day we move in i.e.end of this week. Our current agreement doesn't mention S21.

Luckily our current place is through a private landlord, we have been amicable the past years we've been staying here, and as there is not a section 21 in the agreement we're hoping not to have to go to court etc. but the news has been an inconvenience for him also what with him trying to find tenants to replace us in such short notice (8 days), so it initially wasn't easy to convince him to let us go. But if he were to find/has found replacements then that makes it difficult. On the otherhand if we did find a new place soon, our landlord would have doubts again as to whether we really are moving or not.

Unfortunately this agent isn't half decent, they have let us down before with their disorganisation and unreliability, excuses/lies...one sided communication i.e. mostly me calling them, I'm wondering if I hadn't got through to them yesterday would they even have bothered contacting/informing me.

Yes we had put a holding deposit last week, and was told yesterday that we'd get this back. Do you possibly have a link for this unfair terms consumer regulations please? So you're saying that we are entitled to double the amount - holding deposit back from the agent and then the same amount from the landlord of this property?

Fair enough they have said that we'd get our money back and have been given an apology, but surely it can't be as blase as that? Do we have rights/grounds for an argument as they put us in this mess, but now that money's no longer involved they can just forget about it, but unfortunately for us we can't. Are they allowed to let other people suddenly move in before us and tell us 2 days prior to moving in?

bryanb

I think they can just forget it if no contract exists, seems rough on you though. There could be some mileage in looking at the terms of the holding deposit.

Silvakrystal

The rent and moving in date had been arranged and confirmed with the landlord through the estate agent, hence we put in a holding deposit/fee of intent.

I called the agent yesterday to ask to see the flat before moving in, we agreed on a time, but the agent warned that (apparently) they couldn't get hold of the landlord, he hadn't been accepting their calls or calling them back, so the moving in date may be delayed until they hear from him. A few hours later the agent said that the property was no longer available as the landlord had already moved people into the flat.

Yet the paperwork says that once the fee of intent has been paid, the property will be reserved for that person and removed from the open market, so we should be entitled to the property, not the people who have just moved in there.

RobertoMoir

If the LL has moved people in "behind the backs" of their own LA then it really does place the LA in a difficult position. "Stitched up" springs to mind. And that is what I'm getting the impression might have happened here.

Frankly, a LL who would do that is clearly a bit of an idiot. As inconvenient as events are, and regardless of anything else, I might regard this as a lucky escape.

tbs624

Ts should just refuse to hand over a "holding deposit". The fact that you are prepared to cough up for a credit reference, plus give them all you personal info to be able to do that, is a pretty clear "statement in intent" and as the OP has discovered, in the absence of a signed tenancy agreement/payment of tenancy deposit/1st month's rent there is not a great deal to stop them reneging on their offer. This is especially the case when , as RoberoMoir says, the LL is also having a dabble whilst simultaneously using an LA.

OP - they have to give you back their "holding deposit". Try to find a new LL who self-manages - go via the local LL association or ask the local council if they have a list of accredited private sector LLs.

The fact that you have been with your current LL for a long time and have had a reasonable relationship ought to stand you in good stead if you need to renegotiate for a bit longer with him. If he hasn't yet got new Ts he may be very pleased to have you there a bit longer. If he *has* lined someone new up this is one of those unpleasant downsides to being a LL - the disappointment/anger gets passed back down the rental chain to other Ts thru no fault of that particular LL.

Unfortunately, this scenario is one of the reasons that LLs routinely serve S21 notices - see discussions in this thread. Had your LL done so he could have proceeded straight to court - now, if you remain in situ, he has to serve you a s21 timed with the next rental period and then apply to court if you still don' t leave. Good news of sorts for the OP but not for their current LL