Can my landlord do this to us?

deedons

Hi, i'm in a whirl of emotions right now and not sure where we stand legally - I'm expecting our first baby, currently 5 months pregnant and living in a 1 bed flat so we decided that we need more room when the baby is here, also wanted to move out of the city (Manchester) where we could get more house for our money. In a nutshell this is what has happened;

We found a perfect house last week, met the new prospective landlords (which were lovely) who are still living in the property as they are buying another house up the road to move into. They advertised the house as ready at the end of October which was fine with us and we made absolutely clear that the moving in date was ok for the 1st November, which was all confirmed with the estate agent. So we handed in our notice on the 30th Sept. Then 2 days later the estate agent rings us saying the vendors won't be able to move out now until a few weeks after the 1st Nov due to some issues with their chain, so can we move in then - this put us in a difficult situation because our property is manged by a company so we don't deal directly with the landlord, however we immediately contacted our property manager and told him the situation and asked to change the notice date from the 1st Nov to 1st Dec - he replied saying this wasn't an option as we had already given notice for the 1st Nov and any later than this would effect their ability to rent out the property and would incur standing charges for the landlord - what else i should mention is that the day before they came round to assess the flat for double glazing and a improvement to the kitchen, so i can't see how they would be able to immediately rent it out as they are saying they have to?

I sent him an email explaining that if we are forced to move out on the 1st, we will loose our house, and being 6 months pregnant by then will be extremely stressful

Do we have any legal right to stay in the flat? we have never been in arrears and rented the property for the last 5 years, i feel so sad we're not shown any compassion at all, i know it's a business but we're not asking to stay for free, we have the rent to pay for next month and will be paying all other bills for as long as we are living here.

Any advise would be really appreciated - I've called the community legal advice line but we are not entitled to any legal advice from them and i can't seem to get through to shelter to ask them either.

many thanks in advance
Donna

HappyMJ

Well....you could stay...the landlord will be entitled to go to court straight away to get possession. If you could hold them off for two weeks you'll be OK. It might cost you quite a bit though and you certainly won't be able to get a reference...but you can stay. It might be a lot cheaper just staying in a B&B for a few weeks and putting your stuff in storage.

spacey2012

What tenancy type were you on.
You may be able to just inform them you are now not moving out and to begin eviction proceedings as this will take considerably longer than to the 1st of December, cost them a shed of cash and they may decide it is much less hassle to let you stay another month with rent.

skitler

if you now have a guaranteed move in date for your new home, you may consider putting your goods in storage or at friends and families for a week or two and book a all inclusive holiday.
sorry I don't know where you stand legally, but you do have some options.

hope that helps a little

please let us know how you get on

martinsurrey

spacey2012 wrote: »

What tenancy type were you on.
You may be able to just inform them you are now not moving out and to begin eviction proceedings as this will take considerably longer than to the 1st of December, cost them a shed of cash and they may decide it is much less hassle to let you stay another month with rent.

Its not a normal eviction, this isnt a landlord trying to end an AST, the AST no longer exists.

Well, since you handed notice in, the contract ends on 1st Nov , and there is nothing you can do about it, without the landlords agreement.

If you where still to be in the property after the contract ends, the LL can charge you double rent (called holding over).

You are not squatting as the legislation specifically mentions people holding over to NOT be squatting, so you can’t be arrested or anything.


But court costs, double rent and costs of eviction would all be passed on; it might be cheaper to look at temporary accommodation.

xoAmyox

You say you handed notice in, was this written, via email, or via another method?

ognum

It is not actually your landlord who has changed position it is your future landlords. While I have sympathy that you are pregnant it is actually irrelivant to the situation.

Why can you not explain the situation to your future landlord and ask them to move out early or pack your belongings and stay in a b and b or with family.

deedons

thanks guys for posting comments, we signed one contract when we first moved in 5 years ago but then I presume it's a rolling month on month contract as we haven't seen one since .. we have made it really clear to the future landlord what our situation now is as a result of them delaying the move but they are unwilling to move any earlier.

We gave notice via email, no signatures.

I guess we don't really have any legal protection in this case and at the mercy of our current landlord, which i'm not holding my breath for. Feel extremely saddened by the whole thing, I guess when it suits someone for their own gain they will do whatever it takes to make a few extra £, despite the consequences to other people

Thank you so much for your advice, it means a lot that there are some people that care enough to try and help.

Donna x

anselld

You should not have handed in notice until you had signed a new tenancy agreement with a definate start date. Nobody if profiting from this, you have simply and unfortunately had a change of circumstances.

You could try claiming that you have not served notice, since giving notice via email is not the correct way to serve notice. However, I suspect. court would still find against you and as Martinsurrey states it will be double rent plus costs to pay.

You really would be best to take the advice above of finding something temporary.

Kynthia

I'm sorry you are in this situation. You weren't to know but no move date by your future landlord was definite until they had exchanged, and you shouldn't have given your notice until then. Unfortunately eviction after a tenant gives notice is different to when the landlord wants to end the tenancy. All I can suggest is ask the agent a price to stay another month, find somewhere to crash for the gap, or see if you can find an alternative rental property that is available sooner. Good luck.

deedons

anselld wrote: »

You should not have handed in notice until you had signed a new tenancy agreement with a definate start date. Nobody if profiting from this, you have simply and unfortunately had a change of circumstances.

You could try claiming that you have not served notice, since giving notice via email is not the correct way to serve notice. However, I suspect. court would still find against you and as Martinsurrey states it will be double rent plus costs to pay.

You really would be best to take the advice above of finding something temporary.

We did sign a contract with a start date of November 1st. I guess we will in future be very aware that this can become an issue with renting off people that are intending to buy a house.

We are now in discussions with the landlord directly, as it turns out he seems to have been told that a new tenant is waiting to move in! this is in fact not true as nobody has viewed the property and the fact that we told the property management company only 2 days after giving notice that our circumstances had changed and he told us over the phone that no agents had been contacted.

Hopefully we can come to some arrangement now, I do feel better that we have cut out the middle man! We have also found out that tenants have a legal right to be able to open communications with a landlord if the property is managed by a company. So that's very good to know

Thanks x