Notice period for Rental Flat, Landlord being arsey

2bFrank

Hello,

Can anyone confirm the following for us. We currently rent a flat for over 2 years, we are now on a rolling contract as our ast ran out in August last year. We are currently in the process of buying a house, the mortgage is nearly sorted, however the only thing stopping it is a reference from our landlord.

Our Mortgage company wrote to our landlord on the 31st May, then again on the 5th June and then faxed the request as well. We let the landlord know that we needed the reference beforehand. It is now the 16th June, and when I chased it up with our Landlord, they are saying that they did not receive the request. :mad:

I believe they are being arsey to get a further rent period out of us. Our rental period falls on the 17th, to hand in our notice we have to give a full rent notice, i.e. if I put it in on the 18th June, I cannot move out until the 17th August. I really think they are trying to stretch the reference out for as long as they can, I rung up the landlord to chase the reference and they say they cannot give the reference until next Monday. I cannot wait nearly two weeks, for then to get the mortgage processed, then get the paperwork done, by the time this is sorted it will be 18th July, meaning I cannot move until the 17th September.

I maybe cutting my nose to spite my face, however I want to hand in my notice now. If I used special delivery and the letter got to our landlord tomorrow, could this count as notice served for the 17th, or does it have to be the day before. I will also e-mail the request as well.

Any help much appricated.

jamie11

You could give notice by email, get a read receipt for it if you do. Remember though that once given your notice cannot be rescinded and the landlord would be entitled to charge you double rent for any period you stayed on after your notice ran out (Distress for rent act 1733)

2bFrank

Thanks Jamie,

I spoken to a friend who said that we can store our stuff at his, and we can stay at another friends or I would get a cheap b&b if I had too. Was going to wait until the begining of July to hand in my notice, but after this kerfuffle, I now want to leave. Mortgage is just waiting on the reference, so I cannot see it being that long until it is sorted.

jjlandlord

2bFrank wrote: »

Our rental period falls on the 17th

What does that mean?
Does the period ends on the 17th or starts on the 17th?

2bFrank wrote: »

I cannot move out until the 17th August

You can move out any time you want, but will be liable for rent until the expiry of your notice.

jamie11 wrote: »

You could give notice by email, get a read receipt for it if you do.

Email clients ask whether you would like to send the receipt. If the landlord clicks 'no', what happens?

HappyMJ

What would happen if you couldn't get a reference? Which mortgage company is it? Not all landlords are willing to provide references so I don't see why the bank is insisting on it.

jamie11

jjlandlord wrote: »

Email clients ask whether you would like to send the receipt. If the landlord clicks 'no', what happens?

I didn't know that JJ, I thought you got an automatic notice when the email was read. Ah Well! back to semaphore then!

tomreid10

I'm going through something very similar. Our relationship with our landlord has been pretty poor and I queried Nationwide as to why they actually needed a reference from him.

They said it was because it was a large amount of money coming out of my account each month. Reading between the lines, as they have copies of my bank statements, they want to independently check that the £650 that comes out of my aco!!!! each month is rent, and is not paying off a loan that I have not told them about. If I had a "secret loan" that would increase my overal indebtedness and reduce my abiility to pay the mortgage. Oh and of course they wanted to ask the landlord if I paid my rent on time.

In the end, although we don't get on with the landlord, he rents through a property rental agency, who played this one fair and gave me a decent reference.

Good luck,

Tom.

jjlandlord

jamie11 wrote: »

I didn't know that JJ, I thought you got an automatic notice when the email was read. Ah Well! back to semaphore then!

Yes that's the trick. If you request a read receipt and never receive one it might just be that the recipient declined the request for it to be sent...

FTBFun

Is this common, a landlord as a mortgage reference? They never asked my last one, my landlord for 3 years.

dkmax_2

2bFrank wrote: »

We are currently in the process of buying a house, the mortgage is nearly sorted, however the only thing stopping it is a reference from our landlord.

A reference from your landlord? What the flip is that about?

If they want to see if you can pay a mortgage, they can look at your bank accounts for the last X years. I fail to see what a reference from a landlord would do to satisfy anyone - it can't make any promises and there is no guarantee that the document is reliable. The landlord could be your friend or relative for instance.

may_fair

2bFrank wrote: »

I believe they are being arsey to get a further rent period out of us. Our rental period falls on the 17th, to hand in our notice we have to give a full rent notice, i.e. if I put it in on the 18th June, I cannot move out until the 17th August. ...

I maybe cutting my nose to spite my face, however I want to hand in my notice now. If I used special delivery and the letter got to our landlord tomorrow, could this count as notice served for the 17th, or does it have to be the day before.

In a statutory periodic tenancy, the terms of the expired contract carry through into the SPT except for provisions relating to notice. You can give notice to quit at any time, but it must be at least one month, and also expire at the end of a tenancy period.

Assuming that the fixed term commenced on the 18th [mm/yy] and expired on the 17th August 2010, and your rent is payable monthly, then the tenancy periods run 18th - 17th of the month, and your notice would have to expire on the 17th.

You should serve the notice by tomorrow, the 17th, if you want the notice to expire on 17th July.