Breaching Rental Agreement on purpose?

Okydoky25

Would anyone know what the implications are of breaching a Rental Agreement?

I'm in a property with a 12 month agreement 5 minths left but have had nothing but problems with the landlord who for ref does not have permission to Let from his Mortgage. Now I am also aware he runs his business from here. We constantly get debt collectors round and as I'm a SAHM I'm getting sick of it.

We have tried to negotiate an early release without any joy so I'm wondering now if we breached agreement ourselves resulting in hopefully a Section 21?!? What effect this would have on us moving forward? I'm not thinking of withholding rent btw. If we left the property because of a section 21 would be be entitled to our deposit if rents were all paid and the property was in good order?

BitterAndTwisted

Any Section 21 Notice issued to end the tenancy before the expiry of the fixed-term would fail.

anselld

Section 21 cannot come into effect until the end of the fixed term anyway. The least hassle must surely be to stick out the remaining five months.

Okydoky25

Is there not a quicker way for a landlord to evict then?

I've stuck out nearly 7 already if I can leave earlier and cause the LL some of the grief he's causing me then it would be a bonus.

Werdnal

And how will beaching your tenancy affect your future renting potential? I assume you will need a reference from this LL to rent elsewhere?

As others have said, the S21 does not come into force until the end of the FT. LL can use a S8, but you would have to seriously breach the tenancy to achieve one - stop paying rent etc, and even then, he cannot use on rent arrears ground unless you owe 2 month or more.

Other than the debt collectors and suspicion he does not have CTL, what actual issues are you having with the LL? Are there repair issues etc?

BitterAndTwisted

If you do want to cause the LL major amounts of grief just stick it out for the next five months and move out on the last day of your AST and only let him know two days beforehand in order to arrange the check-out and return of keys.

There's nothing like a nice, long void-period between tenants to cause a LL aggro.

Okydoky25

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

If you do want to cause the LL major amounts of grief just stick it out for the next five months and move out on the last day of your AST and only let him know two days beforehand in order to arrange the check-out and return of keys.

There's nothing like a nice, long void-period between tenants to cause a LL aggro.

Good idea! Tho believe the reason they won't agree to an early release is because they know they will struggle to let again as it was up for a long time before we took it on.

Nothing wrong with the house itself as such. Not now I've scrubbed it to within an inch of its life anyway but it is a rural location and a big house.

If I have to stay can I legally do the above?

Re comment about not knowing if they have permission to Let I know this to be true as I have had a representative from his bank on the doorstep who was very surprised I was here. Asked lots of questions and confirmed off the record my suspicions.

BitterAndTwisted

Of course you "can legally do the above". That's why it's called a "fixed-term" AST. Most sensible landlords would contact you before the expiry to sound out your intentions, but there's no statutory requirement to let them know.

If you do this you must expect the landlord to be a bit aggrieved and therefore could be as obstructive as they can to delay the return of your deposit.

If the landlord has had representatives from their bank on the doorstep, they are most likely aware that they are letting without consent, depending on what information you gave them at the time.

If you really wanted to dob them in the mire, once you've gone and got your deposit back you could consider contacting HMRC and tell them they are receiving rental-income from the property and you don't think they are declaring it. That would definitely set the cat amongst the pigeons but it depends on how vengeful you want to be.

brit1234

You could report him to the letting agency saying he does not have permission to let and requesting that they get you a new property for peace of mind. Also you can report him to the mortgage lender.

Yorkie1

brit1234 wrote: »

You could report him to the letting agency saying he does not have permission to let and requesting that they get you a new property for peace of mind. Also you can report him to the mortgage lender.

The OP has a tenancy with the LL. He is tied into it. The LA can't unilaterally decide to offer the OP an alternative place to live, as the LA is not party to the tenancy and therefore cannot decide to accept an early surrender of the tenancy.

Okydoky25

brit1234 wrote: »

You could report him to the letting agency saying he does not have permission to let and requesting that they get you a new property for peace of mind. Also you can report him to the mortgage lender.

I've done both of the above. The LA are just as annoyed with this LL as me but have said they can't do anything only advised me to go to the citizen advise.

Can I let HMRC know now or is there a reason I should leave this till we have left?