Landlord has given us 2 months notice to leave

Gandalfthegrey

Hello

We are currently renting with a private landlord. The landlords put the house on market before xmas and have now accepted an offer. We received a hand posted letter from them yesterday giving us 2 months notice to vacate the property (by 30th March).
Trouble is I am currently 8 months pregnant and due on 3rd March. We already have another young child.
We have lived in the property for 2 years now and in that time local rents have increased. We actually got quite a good deal with this house as it is only £575 per month for 3 bedrooms (although no central heating and a ridiculously small kitchen, and LL's have no mortgage to pay on it, so that's probably why!)
I have looked in the local paper and online for other 2 or 3 bed properties and they are all very expensive. I can't even find a 2 bed for under £610.
We are actually at our limit financially with the rent we pay as it is, because my partner was made redundant last year so had to take a much lower paid job (min wage) in order to keep money coming in, and I have just started my maternity leave so my income will be slightly lower now.
Anyway i'm starting to panic as I dont think we will find anywhere that we can afford and we also can't afford to get the money together for a deposit/fees etc. The timing is not great either as our notice is only a few weeks after the new baby arrives.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? do you think the council would help us out? we are on the list with them already and have been on it for 3.5 years (thought we'd put our names down on list years ago) but we haven't ever got anywhere as affordable housing is in extremely high demand in our area and untill now we weren't a priority.
I am also worried because our landlords are actually also our next door neighbours so it makes things a bit awkward as we are struggling to find somewhere, because they will be anxious that we leave on time and I dont need the hassel (not that I am saying they will threaten us or anything!!)

Anyone have any advice?

Many Thanks

neas

the moral thing to do is to just leave as they sold it and have given you the proper notice.

Immoral and probably what some people would suggest is to stick it out in the house and get formally evicted and thereby given a council house.

Either way difficult road for you.

BitterAndTwisted

The first thing you need to satisfy yourselves about is that the notice has been properly served. Is it a Section 21 Notice? What are the start and end dates on your original tenancy agreement?

There are things you can do to delay being forced to leave but the time for panicing may not be today. You should start radically economising and start saving for what might become the inevitable. Meanwhile advice is to be had.

PasturesNew

Ditto what B&T said - the 2 months' notice might not be legal, which can buy you another 1-2 months.

Gandalfthegrey

Thanks. How do I find out if it is legal or not? it was literally just a hand written letter, would it need to come from a solicitor?

I just want to say I am not intentionally being difficult, we genuinely can not afford anymore than we are already paying in rent currently but im hoping something cheap will come up asap.

RAS

We need some more information, as above.

Also you need to go to the www.turn2us.org.uk webiste and find out what working tax credit or child tax credit you can get, and any LHA support.

What is the LHA limit in your area?

PasturesNew

Some outline ways:
1] The start date of the 2 months should be on/before a rent date, taking effect from the (next) rent date.
2] It will be formal looking and have the words Section 21 written somewhere.
3] Your deposit has been protected in one of the three schemes.

If any of the above are "no", then you're probably looking at an illegally issued Section 21.

If it's not a legal one you can stay quiet until they're surprised you've not moved out, then you can just mutter "yeah, illegal notice, bye" and shut the door in their faces. They'd then have to work out what to do, discover they illegally issued a Section 21 and start again.

moonbeam2007

Gandalfthegrey wrote: »

Thanks. How do I find out if it is legal or not? it was literally just a hand written letter, would it need to come from a solicitor?

I just want to say I am not intentionally being difficult, we genuinely can not afford anymore than we are already paying in rent currently but im hoping something cheap will come up asap.

Emm I'm almost sure it's 3 months from date of letter. Call your local CIB and ask them, you can also get advice from your local cancel although it's private their still be able to tell you what's legal.

Hope it works out

BitterAndTwisted

A HAND-WRITTEN LETTER! No, it's not the appropriate notice. Your landlord needs to serve what is known as a Section 21 Notice. Do not tell them that. Until the correct notice is served AND it has the right dates on it you do not need to move a muscle.

Until you get the S21 Notice in your hands your local authority will not be able to help you.

Even IF your numpty landlord figures out the correct documentation to issue they will have to go to court to enforce it. I'd say that you have at least another four months minimum before leaving this property is definitely on the cards.

In the meantime, you should apply to your local authority for help with your rent in the form of Local Housing Allowance if you haven't done this already. You may get a contribution towards it depending on income and the size of the property.

IronWolf

You've got 2 choices
1) Be sympathetic to the landlord
2) Become a nightmare for the landlord.

If I were you I would probably wait 1 month, until just past your rent payment date, then inform the landlord that the eviction notice is not legal and that he needs to issue a section 21. When he does this you should have just under 3 months to live in the property before eviction.

So you will have in total 4 months from now to find a new place, and you wont totally p*ss off the landlord by being a nightmare.

Remember you may need his reference to get a new place.

BitterAndTwisted

Only a damned fool with suicidal tendencies would helpfully inform a numpty landlord who's selling the property out from under them how to legally evict them!

I've never heard of such nonsense! It's a landlord's responsibility to know how to give their tenants proper notice and if they don't then it's completely their own fault.