Acorn estate agent trying to force me to stay in property when contract has finished

jjlandlord

ceh209 wrote: »

And any contract that says otherwise would be laughed out of court if they even took it that far - the contract can't override the statute (i.e. the law)

This is not that straightforward, as it obviously depends on what the contract says.

In OP's case the contract could be worded to as to create a periodic tenancy with 18 months periods for example. But indeed I would think that the possibility that this is the case is extremely remote...

Assuming OP's tenancy is a statutory periodic one, as long as this notice to quit was valid there's nothing the agent/landlord can do.

woofy85

Say theIr contract is valid, I give notice and moved out. What sort of trouble could I get into? By law, would I be forced to pay for all of the remaining months I didn't stay in the property or would I just loose the deposit. What I am more worried about is getting bad credit rating. Once again, thanks for all your help!

RAS

woofy85 wrote: »

Say theIr contract is valid, I give notice and moved out. What sort of trouble could I get into? By law, would I be forced to pay for all of the remaining months I didn't stay in the property or would I just loose the deposit. What I am more worried about is getting bad credit rating. Once again, thanks for all your help!

Sorry but this is getting silly.

Get you contract out.

What date did it start? What was the fixed term? When did the fixed term end?

Have you signed any other contract since?

What date did you give notice? What was the date you proposed moving out?

RAS

jjlandlord wrote: »

This is not that straightforward, as it obviously depends on what the contract says.

In OP's case the contract could be worded to as to create a periodic tenancy with 18 months periods for example. But indeed I would think that the possibility that this is the case is extremely remote...

Assuming OP's tenancy is a statutory periodic one, as long as this notice to quit was valid there's nothing the agent/landlord can do.

Can you provide the statute law to support that? As it is not something that has occurred on here before and it would be useful to have the evidence.

jjlandlord

RAS wrote: »

Can you provide the statute law to support that? As it is not something that has occurred on here before and it would be useful to have the evidence.

The evidence is what was agreed between the parties. A tenancy agreement can be:
1. for a fixed term tenancy with specific duration,
2. for a periodic tenancy with specific period,
3. for a fixed term continuing as periodic with a specific period.

Standard case is (1) and therefore most likely what OP has (near certain imho), but until OP reads his contracts we cannot guess.

BitterAndTwisted

woofy85 wrote: »

Say their contract is valid, I give notice and moved out. What sort of trouble could I get into? By law, would I be forced to pay for all of the remaining months I didn't stay in the property or would I just loose the deposit. What I am more worried about is getting bad credit rating. Once again, thanks for all your help!

IF the terms of their alleged contact are valid (a very big if) and they claim whatever months of rent you are liable for AND they do not find another tenant to take your place, they will have to apply to the courts. IF a court finds in their favour you will only have a CCJ (which, as you probably realise, will have a very serious affect on your credit-record) IF you decline to pay the money over to the agent or the landlord they represent within the defined period set by the court.

So many IFs and ANDs.

Get your original signed AST out and read it very, very carefully indeed. My own feeling is that the agent is either woefully mistaken or just plain lying in order to intimidate you.

DVardysShadow

RAS wrote: »

Can you provide the statute law to support that? As it is not something that has occurred on here before and it would be useful to have the evidence.

It is precisely because of the remote possibility which jjl raises that I was somewhat equivocal about what the agent was saying and pointed OP to the contract.

It is for Agent to justify their position to OP. And for OP to check their contract and tell us whether it supports what the agent is doing - rather than for us to debate the possibilities.