Ending tenancy early - due to problem with landlord & Neighbour

Hollypop_2

Not sure if anyone can help or give me some advise please.

My partner and I rented a property from a private landlord back in May 2010. We signed a 2 year contract of which i have a copy.

Without going into too much detail - We are having trouble with our next door neighbour (same landlord) she is into karaoke parties and rave music at all hours with the latest been 5am this Sunday morning.
This matter is been dealt with by the local authority (although not very well i must admit) the landlord is not prepared to do anything either his attitude is basically 'she is a single girl with a different life style to you' :mad:

Now our contract is offically up on the 29th May 2012; and the landlord has already said that our monthly rent will be going up.
With this inmind and all the problems we have with next door (as well as our landlord not been very good at fixing things within the house) we have decided we need to move.

After speaking to the landlord yesterday he has agreed he 'is happy for us to leave our agreement early as long as we give him the 2 months written notice' so in theory we could then leave on the 29th March.

However i cannot live in that house any longer - i am stressed out to the max and coming into work falling asleep i am so tired from the lack of sleep im getting at home.

Looking into our contract there is nothing that says what would happen if the tennancy was ended early. we also gave no deposit or bond - so have nothing to lose.

I cant help but feel the landlord is breaking part of his contract because it does state about not been noisy and regards to your neighbours ect. Of which next door is breaking her contract too by having all this noise.

Does anyone have any advise on what they would do in our situation?

Lots of my friends are saying just leave and send him a letter stating with immediate effect we are moving out due to the noise? However my partner thinks we should try and stick it out for the 2 months?

Any advise would be much appriciated!!

BigAunty

He doesn't have to let you leave early at all and can insist you see out the whole term. You risk court action from the landlord for the rent if you move out without serving valid notice.

Try earplugs and being tenacious with the local council.

The landlord, though he seems mellow about the noise and very unprofessional, is probably stuck with that tenant anyway if she has a fixed term contract as it is very difficult to evict tenants who pay their rent on anti social grounds.

poppysarah

Ask for it in writing about leaving early.


Speak to the local councillor about the noise issue if you think the council isn't dealing with it very well.

G51shopaholic

have you spoken to the girl next door and TELL her she is a noisy so & so

Landlord has a duty of care to ensure his tenants do not cause nuisance to other tenants.

check with local council to see if he's registered as a landlord. You say you have no deposit so you have nothing to lose! Walk away

BigAunty

G51shopaholic wrote: »

...

Landlord has a duty of care to ensure his tenants do not cause nuisance to other tenants.

check with local council to see if he's registered as a landlord. You say you have no deposit so you have nothing to lose! Walk away

Not in England/Wales - there is no landlord registration system there unlike Scotland.

OP risks getting a CCJ for unpaid rent.

BitterAndTwisted

Please do not take any notice of what your friends have to say about this. They are incorrect. You have no absolute right to end a legally-binding contract which you appear to have read, understood and freely signed.

If your landlord is prepared to accept an early surrender, and he's not obliged to, confirm his offer in writing, or have him give you his acceptance in writing and give him the two month's notice.

Noisy and anti-social tenants are very hard for a landlord to get shot of if, as another poster has said, because they also may have a legally-binding contract with the landlord. So he may not be able to rid of them legally even if he wanted to.

Hollypop_2

G51shopaholic wrote: »

have you spoken to the girl next door and TELL her she is a noisy so & so

Landlord has a duty of care to ensure his tenants do not cause nuisance to other tenants.

check with local council to see if he's registered as a landlord. You say you have no deposit so you have nothing to lose! Walk away

We stopped speaking to the neighbour back in September last year - when we text her at 4am asking her to turn the music down (as we always did at that time) and the reply we got back was 'grow up' :eek:
Ever since then we have been logging down each event - calling the council to come out after 11pm and also registered the complaint with the LA's ASBO department.

The landlord came round and spoke to her and said she was 'genuinly shocked and didnt realise and it wouldnt happen again' - Until 2 nights after it was louder than ever! She even sits in her car now with the doors open playing music; which not just us have complained about that one!

As someone said above; the landlord cannot kick her out - even though he has a letter from the LA regarding the noise complaint; Although he has told me he will not be renewing her contract when it does come up.

I do not want to just leave and then get a court order through the door - hence why I have asked on here for some advise.

I need to write our 2 month notice and post it to the landlord today; However i wasnt sure if i could write a letter stating that we were only giving 30 days notice - or less because we cannot live here any longer.

I honestly cannot describe to you how bad it gets - we have even swapped to the smaller bedroom at the back of the house to get away from the noise - without much luck. I feel so stressed but i come to work to get away from the noise!! :mad:

Cissi

G51shopaholic wrote: »

You say you have no deposit so you have nothing to lose! Walk away

Not true - the LL could pursue them in court for the rent for the remainder of the contract, ie to the end of May.

OP, firstly you need to get the LL to agree in writing to you surrendering the tenancy early. He has already indicated that he'd be prepared to agree with two months' notice, so you should give this in writing right away, per March 28th, not 29th. If your tenancy started on the 29th of the month you need to vacate the property on the 28th of whatever month you're leaving - unless you agree differently with the LL in writing of course.

I understand that you want to leave immediately but it doesn't sound as if your LL will agree to this, and March is better than May, no? In the worst case (provided that you get the LL to agree to the early surrender) you'd have to pay rent up to the end of March. If it really is unbearable, can you perhaps move in with friends or family for a few weeks, in the meantime?

McKneff

I think he is being pretty fair in saying you can leave early and leave at the end of March. He could just as easily
stand his ground and make you pay till the end of May.

Get this in writing, pay the rent till the end of March and move now if its bothering you that much.

Getting a ccj will trash your credit file for years.

BitterAndTwisted

I don't think you understand your situation properly: you may feel that you have an extremely compelling reason to quit this property. You can as long as you pay the rent. If the landlord has agreed for you to give two months notice and surrender your tenancy you should grasp it with both hands. BUT YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED YOUR LANDLORD'S WRITTEN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT or you could risk being pursued for the rent until May. The next-door neighbour's behaviour is not the landlord's fault.

19lottie82

I would keep on at the LL re the noisy neighbour. It’s his tenant so it is in his interest to deal with the problem. Call him EVERY time she starts making noise, and cc him in on any letters to the council. Anything to stand up and take notice. He has to realise that, if it is as bad as you say it is, that it is not acceptable, even for a “single girl”.

Explain to him that the likelihood is that the next tenant in your property is most likely to make the same complaints and get out of the flat as soon as possible.