Is my landlord deliberately being obstructive ?

sussexchick

bitsandpieces wrote: »

That did come to mind in terms of subletting/getting a lodger in. The main risk would seem to be if any damage was done, but otherwise what's the landlord going to do aside from evict? Of course, you may not feel comfortable with the risk, or with breaching your tenancy agreement.

If this is going to stop you from taking the new job, I guess you've tried explaining to the landlord that you'd have no money/have to claim benefits/risk being late with the rent/the council may tell you to stay until the bailiffs arrive when he does eventually try to evict...

Yes certainly tried explaining that it would be in his best interests to allow me to take the job offer as it would mean me claiming benefits etc. He just wasn't interested and said he'd enforce the agreement if needed.

He inherited the house from his father who passed away last year, I doubt very much whether his father would have sold up, if he hadn't of passed away !. .....

bitsandpieces

sussexchick wrote: »

Yes certainly tried explaining that it would be in his best interests to allow me to take the job offer as it would mean me claiming benefits etc. He just wasn't interested and said he'd enforce the agreement if needed.

Muppet - he can enforce the agreement (eventually, at significant cost) and get a CCJ against you for any money you owe him...but trying to get money from someone who's on benefits and doesn't have any is not exactly a rewarding process. Maybe you could encourage him to seek advice from NLA or similar - he may trust them when they explain why enforcing his agreement isn't exactly straightforward.

sussexchick

bitsandpieces wrote: »

Muppet - he can enforce the agreement (eventually, at significant cost) and get a CCJ against you for any money you owe him...but trying to get money from someone who's on benefits and doesn't have any is not exactly a rewarding process. Maybe you could encourage him to seek advice from NLA or similar - he may trust them when they explain why enforcing his agreement isn't exactly straightforward.

Thanks for your support, its much appreciated. I'm not prepared to walk away from a job offer, which I have now accepted, all contracts signed etc, I'm looking forward to the relocation to another area, and now at a point of admitting defeat and having to live off food rations for the next 6 months, in order to ensure his rent is paid on time. I'm a firm believer in 'karma' !

[Deleted User]

If I remember your other topic correctly, if you don't take the job you'll be unemployed, which means you won't be able to pay the rent. If that is the case it sounds that your options (forget the landlord for a minute) are either:

1. Move to a new place with a new job, have a tenancy you have abandoned that you owe ~6 months on that you can't afford to pay, but have a roof over your head and a future.

2. Don't move, lose your job and then can't pay your rent and hope you find a new job. If not, get evicted and end up homeless.

If this is correct than your options both have the same ending: you end up defaulting on your tenancy and owing the landlord money, however option #2 means you'll also end up homeless and how much chance of you getting another job is there?

Forget the landlord, he's going to get screwed either way, you've tried to communicate with him and be as helpful as you possibly can, he's going to have to accept his landlord experience is one of the bad ones and he got a bad tenant[1]. You need to focus on helping yourself now, reduce the impact that this situation will have on your life, treat this like a business, be ruthless.

Also it's worth noting that although I sympathise with your situation, it is your situation and the landlord is not in the wrong here. He will gain more from taking you to court and getting a ccj against you than he will accepting to end the tenancy early.

Even if your landlord tries to sue you for non-payment of your rent it's still in his best interests to get a new tenant, even if the courts require you to pay him back there's still no guarantee you can pay him and even then he still needs a new tenant in a few months once your tenancy agreement does end. Take advantage of this.

This is what I would do:

1. Send a letter to the landlord, explain that you will be moving out in 3 weeks, no matter what happens. Explain that you are trying to find a new tenant but you cannot guarantee this will happen. Commit to leaving, stop flip-flopping.

2. Work out the total value of the remainder of the rent and decide how much of an affect a CCJ would have on your life, does credit matter to you or will it in the next 6 years? If so, look at taking out a loan to cover the costs, yes it's going to sting having to pay all this money but... that's the situation you're in. You need to look at how to reduce the impact.

3. Try to arrange a deal with your landlord that works for him, offer him something that means he could come out ahead. Say that you'll pay him the next 2 months of rent if he ends the tenancy agreement 'cause if he can find a new tenant within a few weeks then he'll come out on top! Take advantage of his desire to make money.

Your goal now should be damage limitation. Your landlord isn't feeling charitable so don't invest time in that avenue, look at other solutions. They're going to be expensive for you but that's life. If you can get into the mental state where you've accepted this is going to suck for you, that you're in the wrong (even though it's not your fault) and focus on controlling the situation you'll come out okay. Yeah you might have to pay the landlord a bunch of extra money you don't feel you owe him, but it's that or future problems.

The best way to explain it is your landlord will come out ahead of you no matter what, so either you can help him do so and limit the problems for yourself, or fight it and come out even further behind.

[1] Bad tenant in that the tenancy turned bad, not that you are a bad person. Unfortunate situations happen to good people often.

bitsandpieces

sussexchick wrote: »

Thanks for your support, its much appreciated. I'm not prepared to walk away from a job offer, which I have now accepted, all contracts signed etc, I'm looking forward to the relocation to another area, and now at a point of admitting defeat and having to live off food rations for the next 6 months, in order to ensure his rent is paid on time. I'm a firm believer in 'karma' !

Glad you're able to take the job up, at least! Oddly, I guess rent on the property you won't be living isn't a priority debt/expense, in contrast to the usual situation with rent...

Fire_Fox

If he takes the property off the lettings market AND holds you to the tenancy agreement because he has a buyer, then arguably the landlord is not doing all he can to mitigate your losses so you might have a case there. I don't pretend to understand anything about that piece of legislation but some of the professional landlords do so would be worth running an advanced search. You certainly should not be paying the agent to market for sale, but you probably are not, the costs of that are usually a percentage of the sale price.

Otherwise just stop paying rent but don't let yourself be taken to court. Landlord doesn't know you are not willing to turn the job down, unless you tell him. You also don't have to permit surveys or mortgage valuations, good luck selling a property with an awkward tenant on sight only.

sussexchick

citricsquid wrote: »

If I remember your other topic correctly, if you don't take the job you'll be unemployed, which means you won't be able to pay the rent. If that is the case it sounds that your options (forget the landlord for a minute) are either:

1. Move to a new place with a new job, have a tenancy you have abandoned that you owe ~6 months on that you can't afford to pay, but have a roof over your head and a future.

2. Don't move, lose your job and then can't pay your rent and hope you find a new job. If not, get evicted and end up homeless.

If this is correct than your options both have the same ending: you end up defaulting on your tenancy and owing the landlord money, however option #2 means you'll also end up homeless and how much chance of you getting another job is there?

Forget the landlord, he's going to get screwed either way, you've tried to communicate with him and be as helpful as you possibly can, he's going to have to accept his landlord experience is one of the bad ones and he got a bad tenant[1]. You need to focus on helping yourself now, reduce the impact that this situation will have on your life, treat this like a business, be ruthless.

Also it's worth noting that although I sympathise with your situation, it is your situation and the landlord is not in the wrong here. He will gain more from taking you to court and getting a ccj against you than he will accepting to end the tenancy early.

Even if your landlord tries to sue you for non-payment of your rent it's still in his best interests to get a new tenant, even if the courts require you to pay him back there's still no guarantee you can pay him and even then he still needs a new tenant in a few months once your tenancy agreement does end. Take advantage of this.

This is what I would do:

1. Send a letter to the landlord, explain that you will be moving out in 3 weeks, no matter what happens. Explain that you are trying to find a new tenant but you cannot guarantee this will happen. Commit to leaving, stop flip-flopping.

2. Work out the total value of the remainder of the rent and decide how much of an affect a CCJ would have on your life, does credit matter to you or will it in the next 6 years? If so, look at taking out a loan to cover the costs, yes it's going to sting having to pay all this money but... that's the situation you're in. You need to look at how to reduce the impact.

3. Try to arrange a deal with your landlord that works for him, offer him something that means he could come out ahead. Say that you'll pay him the next 2 months of rent if he ends the tenancy agreement 'cause if he can find a new tenant within a few weeks then he'll come out on top! Take advantage of his desire to make money.

Your goal now should be damage limitation. Your landlord isn't feeling charitable so don't invest time in that avenue, look at other solutions. They're going to be expensive for you but that's life. If you can get into the mental state where you've accepted this is going to suck for you, that you're in the wrong (even though it's not your fault) and focus on controlling the situation you'll come out okay. Yeah you might have to pay the landlord a bunch of extra money you don't feel you owe him, but it's that or future problems.

The best way to explain it is your landlord will come out ahead of you no matter what, so either you can help him do so and limit the problems for yourself, or fight it and come out even further behind.

[1] Bad tenant in that the tenancy turned bad, not that you are a bad person. Unfortunate situations happen to good people often.

Thank you for taking the time to post such an honest and informative solution. I've thought about your post and you are absolutely right about the damage limitation process that I should now be putting into place. I suppose sometimes we all lose sight and feel aggrieved which is basically what I feel now.

The past few months have been fraught with worry and wondering what the future may hold for me. Combined with finding new digs to live in, a new county and a new job, it takes its toll !

I'm going to have one last stab at the LL (not literally!) to see whether he'd accept 2 months rent upfront on the proviso that a surrender of tenancy is with immediate effect.

Wish me luck, I may need it !

SC
x

sharp910sh

Find another job. He is not a charity, you signed up to the tenancy therefore you must honour it for the duration. I do not feel sorry for you at all! I feel sorry for the landlord.

If he goes to court he will win.

harpoboy

sharp910sh wrote: »

Find another job. He is not a charity, you signed up to the tenancy therefore you must honour it for the duration. I do not feel sorry for you at all! I feel sorry for the landlord.

If he goes to court he will win.

Although a little direct, this post mirrors my own thoughts.

You signed a 12 month lease, and are trying to wriggle out of it. This is your problem, not the landlords.

He has already tried to accomodate you, but you have been unable to find suitable alternative tenants.

sussexchick

sharp910sh wrote: »

Find another job.

Oh of course, I completely and utterly forgot there is a double, if not treble dip recession on ! - would you care to tell me where these jobs are, so we can all move and grab one ? how stupid of me to be made redundant ! how stupid of the government to hack and slash the NHS forcing the regrading of salaries to qualified staff ! how irresponsible of the LL to die ! (you get the drift)

But alas, the crystal ball wasn't left on the LA desk when I signed for a 12 month lease !

Wouldn't life be great if we all lived in a perfect world ! ..........