Contract woes... is the landlord voiding the contract?

Mesothere

I've a contract which states I'm to move into my accommodation on the 17th August. It's now obviously the 20th, and I've yet to hear from my landlord. Everytime I ring him he doesn't answer, never responds to emails etc.

So I tried to get some answers today. I went to the house and there are still people living there, and the landlord hasn't informed them of when they're about to move out...

Is the contract now voided? He's not provided the accommodation on the date it was promised, and he's essentially double-renting with these other tenants.

Has anybody has any experience with this? I want to ideally move to another landlord, since this one is clearly incapable.

Thanks!

DVardysShadow

It is a difficult one. The general principle is that you give the other party a reasonable opportunity to rectify their breach and tell them that if they do not, the contract will be rescinded.

Your contract with your LL makes him responsible for providing yo with accommodation. You could charge him for the cost of temporary accommodation as long as you pay the rent. Have you paid over any money?

I would suggest writing a real letter with a stamp on it sent with a certificate of posting from each of 2 post offices. Give him 7 days to give you the property otherwise you will regard the contract as rescinded and expect your money returned in full.

dancingfairy

Presumably you coul sue him for consequential loses - like DVardy says the cost of having to pay for temporary accomodation etc etc. I suggest you keep a copy of all receipts for things you have to spend out on in the following weeks in case you need to sue him. You are also of course required to mitigate your losses so you need to show you have acted reasonably etc etc.
Whether it would be worth actually taking the landlord to court and suing them and whether you would get the money is another matter entirely but could be a possibility.
I think also that it is unlikely that you will actually get the property you have signed up for. This is because either a) the landlord has served the correct notice and the tenants are refusing to move and the landlord will have to go to court etc etc which could take ages or b) the landlord hasn't actually served notice on the tenants. Unless he can effectively bribe them out you could be looking at a long wait for the legal process to go through
Send him a letter as suggested above but I would start looking around now
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DVardysShadow

dancingfairy wrote: »

Whether it would be worth actually taking the landlord to court and suing them and whether you would get the money is another matter entirely but could be a possibility.

If OP has paid money over already, and LL does not return it promptly, it would be worth going to court for that - and adding the other costs onto the claim.

Yorkie1

Sounds as though the previous tenants have (possibly unexpectedly) refused to leave on the date the LL expected them to.

I agree with all the above advice.