AST: Section 21: Buying a home

tara.holland

hello again,

after the last problem i had with an AST i thought id try my luck and come back here and see if anyone could help me.

We signed an AST for 12months on august 8th 2011, on the same day we were served with a section 21.

9 months later we have found a new build on the first buy scheme which we are intending on completing in june hopefully the end of june.

does anyone know where we stand inregards to giving up the tennacy?

from my past experience with the ADR & DPS i am sure that i learnt that a section 21 could NOT be issued at the begining of a tenancy. I have looked around and found that one can not be served untill 6 months into a tenancy or untill 2 months before the tency ends.

from my point of view we could easily work it from 2 points of views - a) it was served and therefore landlord could easily get the property back at no ones notice as 9 months has passed as per regs via the court.

b)we can give up the property no notice etc as the section 21 was served already.

hope someone can help and explain where i stand.

just so you know if none of my theorys work and we have to stay till august 8th 2012 then we will give them notice to quit and let the deposit cover the july payment for rent as by then we could be paying a mortages.

pmlindyloo

I will try to answer this and trust that if I get int wrong then others will come along and correct me!

I am assuming that you are in England/Wales.

If your LL served you a Section 21 notice at the beginning of your tenancy (and it was correctly done and your deposit is protected) then your LL is giving you notice to leave at the end of your fixed tenancy period. The LL cannot give you notice during your fixed tenancy.

from my point of view we could easily work it from 2 points of views - a) it was served and therefore landlord could easily get the property back at no ones notice as 9 months has passed as per regs via the court.

I do not understand this - perhaps others will know.

As far as I am aware unless you have a 'break clause' in your tenancy agreement then you are liable until the end of your fixed term.

I would suggest that you try to negotiate with your LL and ask if you can leave early (after all it's not that early). LL may ask for some compensation in the way of readvertising fees etc.

The bottom line is that you are liable to pay the rent until the end of your tenancy.

tara.holland

yes we are in england.

sadly after my ADR dispute with our ex LL we didnt learn our lessons in time and we know that this deposit on this property is not protected.

LL is a family freind and was rented directly from them as they knew we would pay and they had aweful tennants before.

we know that before we came and rented this place we knew the LL had ideas they would sell up and the LL isnt getting any younger.

System

Was the section 21 issued before the deposit was protected?
I.E. did you sign and hand over the deposit on the same day?
If so the S21 is invalid as it can not be issued before the deposit is protected.

tara.holland

we signed contracts and were issued straight away with the s21 and the deposit was handed over at the same time. we know the deposit isnt protected at all. we asked if he was going to put it in a DPS as we knew thats where it had to go due to what we were going through with the ex ll and he said no it was just going to sit in the bank account and would be returned when approriate.

pmlindyloo

!!!!!! wrote: »

Was the section 21 issued before the deposit was protected?
I.E. did you sign and hand over the deposit on the same day?
If so the S21 is invalid as it can not be issued before the deposit is protected.

I think the Section 21 notice is a bit of a red herring although the OP seems to think that if it was valid (which it isn't because deposit not protected) then she could leave before the end of the fixed tenancy (am I right OP?)

As it is she is stuck until the end of the tenancy unless she can get the LL to agree to end it early.

pmlindyloo

tara.holland wrote: »

yes we are in england.

sadly after my ADR dispute with our ex LL we didnt learn our lessons in time and we know that this deposit on this property is not protected.

LL is a family freind and was rented directly from them as they knew we would pay and they had aweful tennants before.

we know that before we came and rented this place we knew the LL had ideas they would sell up and the LL isnt getting any younger.

Is the LL planning on selling up? If he is then perhaps he will be happy for you to leave.

DVardysShadow

tara.holland wrote: »

we signed contracts and were issued straight away with the s21 and the deposit was handed over at the same time. we know the deposit isnt protected at all. we asked if he was going to put it in a DPS as we knew thats where it had to go due to what we were going through with the ex ll and he said no it was just going to sit in the bank account and would be returned when approriate.

Then don't make too much fuss about protecting your deposit just yet. Any S21 notice served before the deposit is protected is automatically invalid.

If your purchase completes in June, I hope you have taken into account your obligation to pay rent for the full term of the let. I think once you move into the new place will be the time to start instructing the Landlord to protect the deposit.

tara.holland

pmlindyloo wrote: »

I think the Section 21 notice is a bit of a red herring although the OP seems to think that if it was valid (which it isn't because deposit not protected) then she could leave before the end of the fixed tenancy (am I right OP?)

As it is she is stuck until the end of the tenancy unless she can get the LL to agree to end it early.

yes - what are my options by their neglect that will get me out of the property 1 month earlyer than the end of my agreement.

do i have any options or do i just ask and hope they will let us out 1 month early.

tara.holland

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Then don't make too much fuss about protecting your deposit just yet. Any S21 notice served before the deposit is protected is automatically invalid.

If your purchase completes in June, I hope you have taken into account your obligation to pay rent for the full term of the let. I think once you move into the new place will be the time to start instructing the Landlord to protect the deposit.

im not overly fussed about the deposit not being protected.

i am looking at my options if we are expected to stay in contract till august as my intentions (giving that the deposit isnt protected) is to after junes dd has gone out to stop the dd so the deposit then covers the short fall in rent from july to august.

franklee

When does the S21 require possession. Does it say he LL requires possession after August 7th 2012? If so then it's asking you to leave at the end of the fixed term and not earlier and so makes no difference to you leaving earlier.

What you need to do is check to see if the tenancy agreement has a break clause that would allow you to serve notice and end the tenancy early. If there isn't one then it's just down to negotiation but essentially you will owe rent until the end of the fixed term unless you hand the property back and the landlord uses it for something else, like he moves back in etc.

Can you delay the completion on your new home till mid July or so?

If your deposit isn't protected by tomorrow then you can claim for it's return and possibly some compensation under the changes brought in the localism bill. This could be a handy negotiating tool to help you and the LL reach agreement on settling up.