Shorthold Tenancy - Any advice would be great!

clutton_2

Stu sorry i had missed this bit ! ""'the landlord may bring the tenancy to an end at any time before the expiry of the term by giving to the tenant not less than 2 months written notice'""

i agree with others that this is an unfair term.


as dougk says, it may take some months to go thru the conveyancing process, and you could be a bit "slow" in responding to letters and phone calls now and again !

At the end of the day, if you have to pay a couple of months rent, and get your dream home, or not pay and end up with a huge mortgage for life, and a CCJ and not be able to get any other credit - what choice are you going to make ? i doubt it will come to all this however. In a few months, your landlord will perhaps be in a different frame of mind.

Stu_Nic

Thanks everyone!

From what has been said, I am going to ask next week about the validity of the landlord being able to give us 2 months notice (perhaps at the citizen's advice) but longer term I'll wait and see what sort of timescale the house purchase is going to be.

Hopefully if we can delay it until December or even January, then there will only be a couple of months left of the tenancy.

Thanks again,

Stuart

clutton_2

Shelter has some fantastic legal advice on its website, as does https://www.landlordzone.co.uk

Sulli

You can give notice, legally, it will be 2 months notice - about the time your house buying will take. You can extend or withdraw this any time up to the end of your notice period. He can't remove this right.
He can give you 2 months notice, any time after 4 months into the agreement, so you can't be required to leave before 6 months. If he does this he can go for accellerated possession through the courts and get it - not an unfair contract term as mentioned before, but legal under all of the Housing Acts, that's whay it's an AST, as opposed to Assured or Secure.
So just give a proper notice in writing, needs to be worded properly, for 2 months and you are OK - trust me;)
Any questions, just ask.

clutton_2

Suli this is interesting - ""He can give you 2 months notice, any time after 4 months into the agreement"" - -does this apply in the 12 months term as above ?

Mrs_pbradley936

Sulli wrote:

You can give notice, legally, it will be 2 months notice - about the time your house buying will take. You can extend or withdraw this any time up to the end of your notice period. He can't remove this right.
He can give you 2 months notice, any time after 4 months into the agreement, so you can't be required to leave before 6 months. If he does this he can go for accellerated possession through the courts and get it - not an unfair contract term as mentioned before, but legal under all of the Housing Acts, that's whay it's an AST, as opposed to Assured or Secure.
So just give a proper notice in writing, needs to be worded properly, for 2 months and you are OK - trust me;)
Any questions, just ask.

I have been told this by my letting agent too. Anyway I would not seek to prevent anyone leaving early because flats rent out easily in this area (M11 Corridor London to Cambridge). I think it would be more trouble that it is worth to try and keep someone who did not want to stay.

Stu_Nic

Hi Sulli - is this correct that I could legally give 2 months notice and end the contract? I'd heard that I could give notice, but would still be liable for the rent until new tenants are found.

Do you have any further info or links to the part of the housing act which states that we could do that without any sort of consequence?

Thanks!

Sulli wrote:

You can give notice, legally, it will be 2 months notice - about the time your house buying will take. You can extend or withdraw this any time up to the end of your notice period. He can't remove this right.
He can give you 2 months notice, any time after 4 months into the agreement, so you can't be required to leave before 6 months. If he does this he can go for accellerated possession through the courts and get it - not an unfair contract term as mentioned before, but legal under all of the Housing Acts, that's whay it's an AST, as opposed to Assured or Secure.
So just give a proper notice in writing, needs to be worded properly, for 2 months and you are OK - trust me;)
Any questions, just ask.

clutton_2

""""He can give you 2 months notice, any time after 4 months into the agreement"" - -does this apply in the 12 months term as above ?""

this is the question that needs answering. i totally agree with this post for a 6 month AST. but i do not think that Sullis answer applies to a 12 month one. i keep meaning to contact my professinal landlords body and keep on forgetting.

real1314

perhaps one way for the OP to adress this is to write to the landlord pointing out that the contract does include a 2 month notice period for the landlord, and therefor to be fair to the tenant, he chooses to exercise the same notice period. Normally after the expiry of a 6 month tenancy, the landlord has to give 2 months notice but the tenant only 1.
You might just get a bit of sympathy from this if he did take you to court.

Also, if you do give notice and leave, the landlord must try to mitigate his losses by attempting to re-let.
However, he CANNOT attempt to re-let at a higher rent. By doing this he is damaging the likelihood of reducing the losses and effectively ending your agreement anyway, by changing the aamount of rent required.
Let him go ahead with this, and it's likely the court will not hold you responsible for his losses.

If he were to re-let at the same rent, you'd be resposible for any advertising costs, any fees payable and any void period.

Personally in your situation I'd give notice of when you intend to leave on the basis of the 2 month break clause implied in the contract, tell him you'll pay up to then, you'd like your deposit back and he can re-let the property as he sees fit. Also tell him that you are willing to allow the property to be viewed by potential tenants in the meantime subject to 24hrs(?) notice. Keep a copy of all correspondance in case it goes to court.

all IMHO of course and INAE.