Landlord demanding 4 months of rent in advance

clutton_2

of course he is in arrears if that is what his tenancy agreement says... he's just living in cloud cuckoo land hoping that "everything will be ok if i can quote a bit of law at the LL"

We all appreciate that being a student is fraught with difficulties these days, but, your number ONE priority is to keep a roof over your head..... end of......

Learning how to budget is all part of growing up and if this sounds patronising, it probably is, we get students here most weeks asking similar questions.....

ILW

Surely the OP has broken the terms of the contract agreed to.

tbs624

It's an interesting one - if this is an AST then the LL hopefully know that by requesting the rent in 3 or 4 monthly blocks, then 3 or 4 months will become the "rental period". Here's hoping that the tenancy does not become periodic after the Fixed Term expires.

OP - can you just clarify ? This tenancy agreement, has it been "professionally" drafted? Are you saying that the agreement requires the Ts to initially pay at three monthly intervals and then at a four monthly interval?

Or does it state that it's regular 3 monthly(ie quarterly) payments and your LL has merely *asked* for an additional 1 month's money to be tagged onto the next quarter payment?

tbs624

princeofpounds wrote: »

He would be two months overdue (relative to when rent is demanded), NOT 2 months in arrears (relative to when rent is 'consumed'). People often misuse the word arrears when they mean overdue.

But arrears is irrelevant. What matters for a section 8 is overdue.

However, it would probably take at least a month or two for the landlord to get a Section 8 hearing, and as long as he gets below 2 months overdue (even by one day) by the time of the hearing the section 8 cannot be issued.

Given that we are at the 2 month's borderline, it would be safer for the OP to hand over 2 months plus one pound, making it impossible for a valid section 8 to be issued at all.

The term is " rent unpaid" as in a and b below

Check, though, the rental period

Ground 8

Both at the date of the service of the notice under section 8 of this Act relating to the proceedings for possession and at the date of the hearing—

(a)if rent is payable weekly or fortnightly, at least [F9eight weeks’] rent is unpaid;

(b)if rent is payable monthly, at least [F10two months’] rent is unpaid;

(c)if rent is payable quarterly, at least one quarter’s rent is more than three months in arrears; and

(d)if rent is payable yearly, at least three months’ rent is more than three months in arrears;

and for the purpose of this ground “rent” means rent lawfully due from the tenant.

theartfullodger

As this is a student let are there perhaps guarantors??

If so and if you(or your fellow tenants) do not pay by the due date then expect letters/'phone calls pretty sharpish to the guarantors asking for the money from them.

Sometimes that will be mum, dad, grannie or granddad. Will they be happy??

I would suggest as outlined above contact LL and let him know what will be paid & when.

Cheers!

Artful

BitterAndTwisted

Alex, please bear in mind that as soon as you fail to pay the rent in advance in full as per your contract you risk your landlord issuing you with a Section 21 Notice aka a "No Fault Notice". This is not contestable and a court will award the LL possession. You might not have to vacate on the very day that possession is awarded but go you inevitably will. This is the main reason why you have been advised to keep your LL fully in the picture as to what you are proposing to do about your rent payments.

I don't want to appear completely judgmental but it beats me why you committed to this kind of arrangement and now have not made sensible arrangements to honour it.

tbs624

OP - if s/he comes back to the thread today/early Fri - can you take a copy of your tenancy agreement to the welfare officer or accomms office at your Uni or to the local Council's tenancy relations officer and get them to look it over?

The best route for any T who can't meet what they are required to pay is to talk to the LL asap and give him/her a firm date on which you will be able to bring the payment fully up to date. Bear in mind that if you are on a joint and several liability with the other occupants (ie, all signed to the one contract) your shortfall has repercussions for them too. The LL obviously won't be thrilled but is likely to be more cheesed off if you simply underpay and leave him/her to chase you up about it.

Do get that agreement checked out as a priority though..........

princeofpounds

Good point tbs, the tenancy might actually be interpreted as quarterly, which is interesting as according to what you have posted on section 8 might actually change things quite a lot and move it from a consideration of 2 month's rent overdue to 3 months rent in arrears.

For pupose of clarity, overdue in my previous post = rent ('rent lawfully due from the tenant') unpaid.

princeofpounds

a Section 21 Notice aka a "No Fault Notice". This is not contestable and a court will award the LL possession. You might not have to vacate on the very day that possession is awarded but go you inevitably will.

Only applies at the end of a fixed term, so assuming they signed up for 12 months with no break clause the notice could be given but it wouldn't affect their occupancy until the end of the tenancy by which point they would be prepared to leave anyway one would presume.

But yes, your general point that the T should stick to the contract is right. If you can't it's critical that you communicate with the landlord ASAP to minimise misunderstanding and upset and enable them to plan around any potential delays. You then work hard to minimise those delays as rent is the NUMBER 1 bill to be paying, up there with council tax.

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

of course he is in arrears if that is what his tenancy agreement says... he's just living in cloud cuckoo land hoping that "everything will be ok if i can quote a bit of law at the LL"

We all appreciate that being a student is fraught with difficulties these days, but, your number ONE priority is to keep a roof over your head..... end of......

Learning how to budget is all part of growing up and if this sounds patronising, it probably is, we get students here most weeks asking similar questions.....

How is this post helping the OP? So many of your posts seem to be of this type lately.

Despite your assertion in another thread that you'd check whether a poster was a newbie before giving them a tongue lashing you seem to be at it again. Shame on you.