Serviced notice pursuant to section 21 of the housing act!

evoke

franklee wrote: »

Perhaps you should try searching for Section 21 exceptional hardship. For instance this thread here:

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?35706-Exceptional-Hardship-defence-in-Section-21-court-proceedings

In particular this by a landlord with loads of practical S21 experience:

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?35706-Exceptional-Hardship-defence-in-Section-21-court-proceedings&p=280588#post280588

1. Imminent or recent (few weeks to couple of months) childbirth.

LOL. I quote the OP:

Now, we definitely want to move, but haven't found anywhere yet. Our baby is due in May, so ideally we want to be out by March at the latest, however we don't want to feel pushed out and have to rush into another house where we will be unhappy.

Where is the 'being pregnant causing exceptional hardship' in the OP's motivation for moving? She just doesn't like where she's living at the moment and wants to have her cake and eat it to, as do most of the pregnant posters on here, it seems.

digitalphase

franklee wrote: »

Perhaps you should try searching for Section 21 exceptional hardship. For instance this thread here:

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?35706-Exceptional-Hardship-defence-in-Section-21-court-proceedings

In particular this by a landlord with loads of practical S21 experience:

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?35706-Exceptional-Hardship-defence-in-Section-21-court-proceedings&p=280588#post280588

1. Imminent or recent (few weeks to couple of months) childbirth.

Thank you very much for this helpful reply Hopefully we won't need to postpone the repossession, we certainly don't want to, but if we struggle to find somewhere else we may need to. It's good to know your rights at the end of the day.

digitalphase

evoke wrote: »

LOL. I quote the OP:



Where is the 'being pregnant causing exceptional hardship' in the OP's motivation for moving? She just doesn't like where she's living at the moment and wants to have her cake and eat it to, as do most of the pregnant posters on here, it seems.

What's this carp about having my cake and eating it? We have spent the best part of a year paying a premium for living in a house which is in substandard condition, but have been tied into a contract with no way out.

Why do you have such a problem with pregnant women?

digitalphase

sonastin wrote: »

So 2 months isn't enough notice but 5 months is too much? Precisely how much notice were you requiring?


But back on topic, if your LL hadn't served notice and you hadn't found anywhere suitable in time to serve notice for leaving in April, you'd be stuck paying rent on this place until April 2012 as per the 2 year fixed term. In a way, your LL has actually done you a favour because he's forced you into understanding the implications of the contract you signed.

My advice is to focus all your energies on finding somewhere suitable before April. If you haven't got anything and you've got nowhere else to go, hang on in there until you do find something or the bailiffs knock on the door but make sure you're doing every last little thing possible to find somewhere else - they're not in that short a supply.

If they had let us leave 5 months ago, without having to pay all the fees, rent until the end of term, etc, we'd have gladly gone. There were also a few more suitable houses about then as well, typically.

You make a good point about the contract being renewed for another year, I didn't realise it worked like that. I thought the 2 year thing was solely for assured rent price.

I have rang up about 3 places today, but all have already gone. It's a tough market at the moment. You can't really comment on housing around our area either, as you have no idea where we live

franklee

evoke wrote: »

LOL. I quote the OP:

Quote:
Now, we definitely want to move, but haven't found anywhere yet. Our baby is due in May, so ideally we want to be out by March at the latest, however we don't want to feel pushed out and have to rush into another house where we will be unhappy.

Where is the 'being pregnant causing exceptional hardship' in the OP's motivation for moving? She just doesn't like where she's living at the moment and wants to have her cake and eat it to, as do most of the pregnant posters on here, it seems.

LOL I was responding from when you wrote "And what has you being pregnant got to do with the S21 notice? Exactly nothing." so I wanted to point out being pregnant may be relevant depending on the dates especially given the date of the notice is pretty close to the baby's due date from the OP (my bolding):

digitalphase wrote: »

So, today we have received two copies of the same letter, saying about this notice and due to the clause in our agreement where we can end it after 12 months. This gives us until mid April to find somewhere else to live. They are aware I am pregnant, which is another reason for the level of disgust at the way we have been treated with regards to the damp etc.

Now, we definitely want to move, but haven't found anywhere yet. Our baby is due in May, so ideally we want to be out by March at the latest, however we don't want to feel pushed out and have to rush into another house where we will be unhappy.

My question, after all this waffling, is can they chuck us out after April, if we still haven't found anywhere?

So I read that as digitalphase wanted to move but by March at the latest or if that's not possible after the birth thus avoiding having to move too near to the birth. So if it comes down it exceptional hardship may be of use and telling us about the pregnancy was of relevance. Hope that clarifies

digitalphase

franklee wrote: »

LOL I was responding from when you wrote "And what has you being pregnant got to do with the S21 notice? Exactly nothing." so I wanted to point out being pregnant may be relevant depending on the dates especially given the date of the notice is pretty close to the baby's due date from the OP (my bolding):



So I read that as digitalphase wanted to move but by March at the latest or if that's not possible after the birth thus avoiding having to move too near to the birth. So if it comes down it exceptional hardship may be of use and telling us about the pregnancy was of relevance. Hope that clarifies

Thanks franklee, that is exactly it

G_M

digitalphase wrote: »

If they had let us leave 5 months ago, without having to pay all the fees, rent until the end of term, etc, we'd have gladly gone. There were also a few more suitable houses about then as well, typically.

Clearly too late now as it's history - but if you'd posted here at the time we could have advised you on how to go about ending the contract early.

We have spent the best part of a year paying a premium for living in a house which is in substandard condition, but have been tied into a contract with no way out.

You have not been "tied into a contract", - you tied yourself in voluntarily. The flipside is that you gave yourself security as the LL could not end the contract except at the 12 or 24 month point.

digitalphase

G_M wrote: »

Clearly too late now as it's history - but if you'd posted here at the time we could have advised you on how to go about ending the contract early.
You have not been "tied into a contract", - you tied yourself in voluntarily. The flipside is that you gave yourself security as the LL could not end the contract except at the 12 or 24 month point.

Sorry, you take my quote a little out of context. I realise it was us who signed the agreement, but whatever way you want to phrase it we were still tied into a contract. Contracts ARE a tie. Although the landlord has broken the agreement by not carrying out repairs which are his duty to do so. We have certainly not broken the agreement in any way.

I am intrigued as to how we could have ended the agreement early. We took our tenancy agreement into CAB and they basically said there wasn't anything we could do. I am pretty sure I posted on this forum as well, asking for advice.
Obviously it is too late for this place, but would be interested to know for future reference

Edited to add: I definitely asked for advise on this forum before about ending our agreement early. You replied actually. I was also advised on that thread that after a year the contract would run on a monthly basis... Clearly some conflicting info!

Cissi

digitalphase wrote: »

I definitely asked for advise on this forum before about ending our agreement early. You replied actually. I was also advised on that thread that after a year the contract would run on a monthly basis... Clearly some conflicting info!

It sounds as if the posters who replied to your previous thread may not have been aware that you were actually on a 2-year AST as opposed to the far more usual 1-year term?

As Sonastin pointed out above, it seems the LL has actually done you a favour by issuing the correct 2-month notice at the 10-month point. If they hadn't done this, you would both have been tied in for the full 24-month period - which you clearly don't want!

Given that you communicated your desire to leave several months ago already, I'm not surprised that the LL did this - you can't blame them for not wanting to enter into a potential dispute with a tenant who wants to leave perhaps 6-8 months before the contract ends. While they would have been within their rights to demand that you pay the rent for the full 24 months as long as no other suitable tenant was found (and you would have had to carry the costs of re-advertising the property etc) this could have got very messy, and potentially costly on both sides. Also, frankly, what LL wants to be in the position of pursuing ex-tenants with a new baby for months' worth of rent?

As a former tenant of a Victorian house with a LL who cut corners wherever he could, believe me, I understand the frustrations of living with substandard maintenance (mould, dangerous electrics, failing heating etc etc - and incidentally, we moved into that particular house with a 1-year-old and left 4 years later, with a 5- and a 3-year-old). However, this unfortunately has no relevance when it comes to contract renewal or S21 (no fault) notice.

The way the UK system (specifically England/Wales) works is very different to other countries, where you can often give notice either any given month or every 3 months etc. The way it works here, tenant and LL both have a lot less room for manoeuvre. In this case you both had the possibility to give notice at 10 months to end the contract at 12 months, or else you were contractually obliged to continue until 24 months were up. The fact that you hadn't understood how the contract worked doesn't change the legal position unfortunately. Hopefully you will have learnt from this experience and be better equipped to negotiate rental contracts in future.

digitalphase

Cissi wrote: »

It sounds as if the posters who replied to your previous thread may not have been aware that you were actually on a 2-year AST as opposed to the far more usual 1-year term?

As Sonastin pointed out above, it seems the LL has actually done you a favour by issuing the correct 2-month notice at the 10-month point. If they hadn't done this, you would both have been tied in for the full 24-month period - which you clearly don't want!

Given that you communicated your desire to leave several months ago already, I'm not surprised that the LL did this - you can't blame them for not wanting to enter into a potential dispute with a tenant who wants to leave perhaps 6-8 months before the contract ends. While they would have been within their rights to demand that you pay the rent for the full 24 months as long as no other suitable tenant was found (and you would have had to carry the costs of re-advertising the property etc) this could have got very messy, and potentially costly on both sides. Also, frankly, what LL wants to be in the position of pursuing ex-tenants with a new baby for months' worth of rent?

As a former tenant of a Victorian house with a LL who cut corners wherever he could, believe me, I understand the frustrations of living with substandard maintenance (mould, dangerous electrics, failing heating etc etc - and incidentally, we moved into that particular house with a 1-year-old and left 4 years later, with a 5- and a 3-year-old). However, this unfortunately has no relevance when it comes to contract renewal or S21 (no fault) notice.

The way the UK system (specifically England/Wales) works is very different to other countries, where you can often give notice either any given month or every 3 months etc. The way it works here, tenant and LL both have a lot less room for manoeuvre. In this case you both had the possibility to give notice at 10 months to end the contract at 12 months, or else you were contractually obliged to continue until 24 months were up. The fact that you hadn't understood how the contract worked doesn't change the legal position unfortunately. Hopefully you will have learnt from this experience and be better equipped to negotiate rental contracts in future.

Thanks. I did say we had a 2 year agreement for the rent in my previous thread right at the start, which is what we thought it was.

Basically when we were discussing things with the estate administrator BEFORE signing anything, we said we were looking to stay for a year or so, but wanted a year's contract. They then drew up this contract. It was different to our contract in our old house, which was for 6 months, then went to a month-by-month contract, as it mentioned 2 years.

We noted the break clause and understood we could get out in a year if needed, but were happy that the agreement stated our rent would stay the same for 2 years. At this time we had no reason to believe we wouldn't stay for 2 years+.

So if we had been living here for 14months, then said we wanted to leave, we wouldn't be able to? Good job we found this out before then! We were under the impression we could carry on at a month-by-month basis after giving our LL notice. Obviously this isn't the case, and we were naive when signing the agreement. Lesson learned there! Thanks for your help.

We spoke to our neighbours when we moved in and they told us that in the two years they had been living there, we were the 5th tenants in this property! Other people had actually paid to get out of their contract. We thought that was why we had to pay a large deposit (held in a tenancy deposit scheme) and why they have such a huge contract. Incidentally our lovely landlord was happy for our next door neighbours to go without any hot water or heating for about 4 months over the extremely cold spells of weather we have had. Our poor neighbours are stuck here as they have 3 dogs, which LL don't usually like, plus they can't afford to buy, so are afraid to complain for fear of being chucked out. We are very fortunate that we can move.

Despite the odd few posters who have posted carp, I am glad I posted. We are very much looking forward to moving as well as our baby's arrival. Hopefully we'll have found somewhere and settled before he makes an appearance!