Tenants rights - can landlord change moving date at last minute?

becca0706

I'm a student and have joined three other girls (one of their friends dropped out) in renting a house for next academic year. The standard situation is to pay half rent for July and August (and not be able to move in to the house during this time) and then pay full rent from September and move in. However, it is quite common to be able to pay full rent in July and August and move in then instead.

I am currently on a placement year, so am working full time, so it was very important to me that should be able to live in the house over the summer. It was agreed with me, my letting agency and my landlord that this was allowable, and I have paid all my full rent for both July and August in advance.

Here's my problem: my moving date is the 1st July. My letting agency phoned me yesterday (4 days before moving day) to say that my landlord was no longer allowing me to live in the house over the summer, effectively leaving my homeless with only 4 days to find another solution. I have possibly found a place in a univeristy accommodation (fingers crossed!), however at great expense to me as I now have to pay half rent for the house I can't move into (£135) and £300 for the uni accommodation. This is just for July, I currently have no solution for August but I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it!

What I really want to know is if I have any rights at all in this situation? Do I just have to deal with being effectively made homeless with only four days notice and having being made £165 worse off by the situation? The landlord says he is doing renovation work on the house so it is not safe for me to be there, but I don't think being given 4 days notice of this is acceptable - although I think this might just be morally unacceptable rather than legally unacceptable!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

AnnaV

Do you have a written contract?

melancholly

make an appointment with the uni accommodation office asap or get on the phone to them. they may have leverage with the LL.

silvercar

Fairly standard conditions. Students pay half rent in July and Aug and the LL uses that time to transform the pigsty the previous occupants left behind into something liveable for the new lot of students.

Some LL who generally let not exclusively to students, will allow you to occupy year round, but then I wouldn't expect a discount on the rent in July and Aug. What would be ideal is if you can find a student who has had to pay full rent for the Summer but doesn't want to be there and sub-let off them.

mustrum_ridcully

silvercar wrote: »

Fairly standard conditions. Students pay half rent in July and Aug and the LL uses that time to transform the pigsty the previous occupants left behind into something liveable for the new lot of students.

Some LL who generally let not exclusively to students, will allow you to occupy year round, but then I wouldn't expect a discount on the rent in July and Aug. What would be ideal is if you can find a student who has had to pay full rent for the Summer but doesn't want to be there and sub-let off them.

Doesn't help the OP with this though:

However, it is quite common to be able to pay full rent in July and August and move in then instead.

I am currently on a placement year, so am working full time, so it was very important to me that should be able to live in the house over the summer. It was agreed with me, my letting agency and my landlord that this was allowable, and I have paid all my full rent for both July and August in advance.

They've paid full rent not discounted rent in advance, so will potentially lose money twice - once paying rent for somewhere they can't live over the summer, then once more for somewhere they can live over the summer.

The only half-decent outcome for the OP is to get back the money they paid to the LL for something they won't get. Sadly this could mean going to the small claims court.

melancholly

silvercar wrote: »

Fairly standard conditions. Students pay half rent in July and Aug and the LL uses that time to transform the pigsty the previous occupants left behind into something liveable for the new lot of students.

although usually it's the july and august after you've been there all year.... often used for people who have resits or later deadlines or masters students to stay.

becca0706

Thank you for all your replies - it looks like there's not much I can do about the situation Luckily, my letting agency were brilliant and found me somewhere to live for July and August, but I'm still paying full rent there and half rent in the 'problem' property which is less than ideal.

It just seems so unfair that someone can make you homeless and out of pocket with only 4 days notice and you can't do anything about it! I wonder whether he'd try and pull this stunt with a non-student tenant...

Sorry, rant over Thank you again for your replies - I think I was clutching at straws hoping that he might be legally in the wrong!

thegirlintheattic

Next time get all these agreements in writing if they are not in the tenancy agreement.

If you still need a place next summer, look for postgraduate 51 week lets instead of the student lets.