When to leave after section 21 (periodic tenancy)

Rollinghills

I think my plan would be to move out on 28/04. Failing that we negotiate early surrender or give our 1 month's notice and pay rent. If he takes us to court we defend it and counter claim if necessary that prescribed information wasn't re-issued when tenancy went periodic.

LplateSaver

franklee wrote: »

Options are to move out at the end of the section 21 notice period, stay in a B&B or whatever with your stuff in storage.

I'm confused by this, another poster said the OP had to give notice. Do they still have to give notice if they move out on 28th April?

SerialRenter

LplateSaver wrote: »

I'm confused by this, another poster said the OP had to give notice. Do they still have to give notice if they move out on 28th April?

Technically yes.

But it could be seen as an unwritten mutual agreement to end the tenancy if they comply with the S21.

However, you must ALWAYS get it in writing that both parties agree to the tenancy ending on that date as otherwise the tenant will be open to financial exploitation by a rogue landlord, who may claim the tenancy had not ended (as a landlord cannot end a tenancy) and claim for additional rent.
Which by that point would require another two months rent payable. One to get them to the next end of rental period to submit notice, and another for the notice period itself.

Edit: Basing this on the sword of damocles not altering the requirements for tenants to give notice to quit. It could be argued that a S21 does not constitute the landlords agreement to surrender on any date, only the option to seek possession after the date on the notice has passed.
Please feel free to disagree, as far as i'm aware, nothing like this has gone to court, so who knows how it would pan out.

Rollinghills

SerialRenter wrote: »

Technically yes.

But it could be seen as an unwritten mutual agreement to end the tenancy if they comply with the S21.

However, you must ALWAYS get it in writing that both parties agree to the tenancy ending on that date as otherwise the tenant will be open to financial exploitation by a rogue landlord, who may claim the tenancy had not ended (as a landlord cannot end a tenancy) and claim for additional rent.
Which by that point would require another two months rent payable. One to get them to the next end of rental period to submit notice, and another for the notice period itself.

Yeah, I understand and I agree that there is potential for "misunderstanding" here aka another way the landlord can cause misery to the tenant. How would an average unsuspecting tenant be aware of these intricacies is beyond me. Hopefully my landlord isn't reading this and isn't aware of it either! I will try to get something in writing when we move out, whenever it is.

Hoploz

28th April is a month away. If you dont have a chain then the likelihood is you will be in your new place by then. What stage is your purchase at? Are there any complications?

Rollinghills

Hoploz wrote: »

28th April is a month away. If you dont have a chain then the likelihood is you will be in your new place by then. What stage is your purchase at? Are there any complications?

We were hoping to be moving now. There are complications with building regs and restrictive covenant breach, and on our side the mortgage is taking ages, it's been 5 weeks since application submitted.

jjlandlord

Rollinghills wrote: »

How would an average unsuspecting tenant be aware of these intricacies is beyond me.

By being prudent and using common sense...

Rollinghills

jjlandlord wrote: »

By being prudent and using common sense...

I don't think tenant having to give notice after receiving section 21 is common sense. Maybe I don't have the mind of a rogue landlord.

jjlandlord

Rollinghills wrote: »

I don't think tenant having to give notice after receiving section 21 is common sense.

Well, seeking to clarify the position (here for example) and arranging a check out with the landlord and having it confirmed in writing all seem rather prudent and common sense.

Rollinghills

Arranging checkout and agreeing in writing is common sense.

But being liable for a whole month's rent isn't necessarily common sense. Section 21 expires on 28th April so common sense tells me that ll wants possession on 28th or as soon as possible afterwards, not on the 28th of the following month and so on. I can see the logic now but I dare say it is not common sense. Of course common sense cannot be defined so no point arguing about that.