Verbal agreement and leaving notice

edgat6

Hello,

I have a matter that I would like to request some help on.

I haven't had a contract with my agency for over a year now due to the fact that landlord who owns the property, has put it for sale. They let me stay in the house and said I am still bound by verbal version of the same contract.

However I was told I have to give 2 months leave notice which makes it difficult to move houses. Nobody is going to reserve a house I like for two months, they all say 1 month is maximum. Unfortunately I can't afford to pay for two houses for one month so I would like to ask for some help.

Is that verbal agreement actually valid? Can I just send a letter stating I wish to leave a month from next payment date?

amcg100

Well, if you verbally agreed to give 2 months notice and they can prove it then that would form part of your contract. If your original written contract provided for two months notice then the courts would likely consider that extended in the absence of any new written agreement.
Clearly you are unhappy with the two month notice period, so I would write a clear letter to the landlord to inform them that in the absence of a formal tenancy agreement you will not be prepared to provide any notice to quit.
It will then be up to them to respond, and any correspondence will form part of your contract.
I think you have the better hand, so long as you write the letter and keep evidence of its delivery.

G_M

You have a Statutory Periodic Tenancy.

You must give between 1 month and around 7 weeks notice depending on the timing when you sere it.

Full detail is here:

Ending/Renewing an AST (what happens when the Fixed Term ends?)(What is a Periodic Tenancy?)(How can a LL remove a tenant?)(How can a tenant end a tenancy?)

G_M

amcg100 wrote: »

..... so I would write a clear letter to the landlord to inform them that in the absence of a formal tenancy agreement you will not be prepared to provide any notice to quit.
.

I'm afraid this is dangerous advice. There is a valid tenancy agreement, and notice must be served.

Unless of course the landlord agrees to an Early Surrender of the tenancy without notice.

wanting_an_easy_life

as G_M says (and he really does know his stuff), you only need to give a month.

As someone who has just been through the process though, I find it's often a good idea to give yourself at least a week's leeway.

I took most of last week off to get my old place sorted and still need to take a day off this week to finish it!

Werdnal

As above, you do have a tenancy, a Statutory Periodic Tenancy or SPT which is totally valid and recognised in law.

The notice requirements in an SPT are 2 months from the landlord/agent, and 1 month from the tenant. However, the 1 month notice you give must co-incide with the end of a tenancy period, so as GM says, if you serve it the wrong time it could be anything up to 7 weeks/nearly 2 months!

When did your actual fixed term tenancy end - exact date, which will give us the date when your notice must end.

Notice must be given in writing - suggest a letter not a text, email etc, as you then have proof of posting and no chance agent can deny receiving it. Remember to allow 2 days if sending first class, to ensure it arrives in time to give the full 1 month notice required.

Werdnal

amcg100 wrote: »

Well, if you verbally agreed to give 2 months notice and they can prove it then that would form part of your contract. If your original written contract provided for two months notice then the courts would likely consider that extended in the absence of any new written agreement.
Clearly you are unhappy with the two month notice period, so I would write a clear letter to the landlord to inform them that in the absence of a formal tenancy agreement you will not be prepared to provide any notice to quit.
It will then be up to them to respond, and any correspondence will form part of your contract.
I think you have the better hand, so long as you write the letter and keep evidence of its delivery.

Totally incorrect advice!

amcg100

Werdnal wrote: »

As above, you do have a tenancy, a Statutory Periodic Tenancy or SPT which is totally valid and recognised in law.

The notice requirements in an SPT are 2 months from the landlord/agent, and 1 month from the tenant. However, the 1 month notice you give must co-incide with the end of a tenancy period, so as GM says, if you serve it the wrong time it could be anything up to 7 weeks/nearly 2 months!

When did your actual fixed term tenancy end - exact date, which will give us the date when your notice must end.

Notice must be given in writing - suggest a letter not a text, email etc, as you then have proof of posting and no chance agent can deny receiving it. Remember to allow 2 days if sending first class, to ensure it arrives in time to give the full 1 month notice required.

Proof of posting is not proof of delivery, even recorded delivery or special delivery proves nothing since the agent may claim they received an empty envelope or a blank piece of paper - E mail is best - ISPs must keep records, and your own records not only show time of despatch and delivery, but content as well.

mrginge

amcg100 wrote: »

Proof of posting is not proof of delivery, even recorded delivery or special delivery proves nothing since the agent may claim they received an empty envelope or a blank piece of paper - E mail is best - ISPs must keep records, and your own records not only show time of despatch and delivery, but content as well.

Email is absolutely not best.
As is repeated ad nauseum - written and posted from two separate post offices with proof of posting is considered by courts to be acceptable proof of delivery.

So that's two loads of garbage on one thread.

Werdnal

amcg100 wrote: »

Proof of posting is not proof of delivery, even recorded delivery or special delivery proves nothing since the agent may claim they received an empty envelope or a blank piece of paper - E mail is best - ISPs must keep records, and your own records not only show time of despatch and delivery, but content as well.

A court will accept proof of first class posting as proof that the notice was served, should it ever get that far! For a belt and braces approach, the tenant should send 2 separate copies from 2 separate post offices, keeping both proof of postage with a copy of the letter to which they apply.

Sadly, the British legal system and housing law have not kept up with modern technology, and I have yet to see a case proving the acceptance of emails, texts etc as proof that notice has been served. Besides, anyone can send an email claiming to be the tenant and giving notice, whilst a typed/written and personally signed letter cannot be disputed.

The original tenancy agreement probably states that notice from the tenant should be received in writing - ie good old fashioned pen and paper, or typed/printed letter, via snail mail, or handed to the agent with an independent witness.

DevCoder

Emails can easily be forged including the message header details so it appears something was sent by someone, to another person on a certain date.

Can demonstrate this fairly easy with an open smtp (mail) gateway, can even make it look like the email originated from you

Maybe a reason why the courts dont readily accept email.