Being served notice.

specialboy

Daughters 12 month lease is up on August 12th and she had an informal agreement that she could remain in the property until March next year. The landlord has reneged on this and instructed the agents to issue notice to quit when her contract expires in August as he wants to move back into his property. My question is this, do the agents have to issue an s21 or does her contract just expire and she needs to get out on the 12th Aug? If an s21 is needed does this have to be 2 months notice of rental period ie as long as she gets the notice by 12th June she has to be out by 12th Aug but if she doesn't get it until 13thJune her notice is extended until 12th Sept? Thanks.

booksurr

LL has to issue notice (s21)

if served BEFORE the expiry date of the contract then it needs only be 2 calendar months notice, not 2 rental periods notice

jamie11

specialboy wrote: »

Daughters 12 month lease is up on August 12th and she had an informal agreement that she could remain in the property until March next year. The landlord has reneged on this and instructed the agents to issue notice to quit when her contract expires in August as he wants to move back into his property. My question is this, do the agents have to issue an s21 or does her contract just expire and she needs to get out on the 12th Aug? If an s21 is needed does this have to be 2 months notice of rental period ie as long as she gets the notice by 12th June she has to be out by 12th Aug but if she doesn't get it until 13thJune her notice is extended until 12th Sept? Thanks.

A S21 is not a NTQ (notice to quit) it merely allows the landlord to start possession proceedings, from start to finish that could take up to 5 months before eviction.

If she started her tenancy on 12th August last year then the final day is 11th August, she is entitled to leave by then with no further notice and no further rent to pay. If she decided to stay on then she might be bound by the contractual terms.

if she doesn't get it until 13thJune her notice is extended until 12th Sept? Thanks

No! If the S21 does not give the correct dates then it's void, note also that the correct date should be written (in this case) as after 11th/August/2015 and also that if posted there must be a sufficient period for delivery, usually about two days

Pixie5740

A Section 21 does not end a tenancy. A tenancy can only be ended by the tenant or a court so all the Section 21 does is inform the tenant that the landlord has started the process to regain possession of the property.

Your daughter can leave at the end of the fixed term without serving any notice although it is polite to do so (how polite she feels give the landlord has gone back on his word I leave up to her). If she is still in the property come 13th August then she will have an SPT and will have to serve notice accordingly to end the tenancy. Note that she cannot serve notice to end a tenancy that hasn't started yet.

G_M has written a guide explaining what happens at the end of an AST but I can't find the link right now.

Edit: Found it.

Ending an AST

Vectis

I'm not sure there's such a thing as an 'informal agreement' in property rental, certainly it's not something that would be usable to prevent an eviction.

The LL will have to issue an s21 notice and I'd assume that is what is meant when you say the LL has told the agent 'to issue notice to quit'.

Your daughter can make things difficult, maybe argue about the dates if they're slightly wrong, but she will, eventually, get evicted. Does she want to go through all the hassle of trying to avoid eviction until the last possible moment? It's likely to get a bit unpleasant and stressful. Is it not better to accept that she will have to leave and to make alternative arrangements, even asking the LL for a bit of extra time if she's having problems finding other accommodation?

It's better to negotiate rather than have confrontation.

thesaint

What was the "informal agreement"?
Is there any proof of it?

G_M

If 'informal agreement' means a firm agreement that was verbal as opposed to written, it can form contract and be enforced. Provided of course there is no dispute that the conversation took place, since by definition, proof of verbal contracts can be difficult.

If 'informal agreement' means an indication was given by each side to the other that at that time they intended, when the time came, to continue the tenancy, then that is nothing more than an indication. If circumstances changed for either side between the date of the 'informal agreement' & the tenancy expiry date, then it becomes history.

The process for eviction is as outlined above, and in the link provided kindly by Pixie.

jjlandlord

Assuming that this is indeed a fixed term tenancy then it will end on the 12th August.

Now, the 'informal agreement' may be a contract to create a new fixed term tenancy after that date. If there is evidence of the agreement, of course.

specialboy

Thanks all for your input, just to add that my Daughter knows she has to leave and has no real problem with that I was just trying to clarify the process. The reason for the informal agreement was that the LL wanted to cut ties with his agent in August but they demanded £x amount off him unless my daughter left and he found his own tenant so he was going to let her run through to March when she is hoping to have bout a property of her own, perhaps renege is the wrong term to use and the LL has been pretty decent throughout the 2 years so she is willing to leave but needs to work her dates out as she needs to find a short term (6month) let to tide her over.

thesaint

If your daughter does indeed get served with a notice, then I advise you update this thread.

She will be required to serve her own notice if she wishes to leave on or after Aug 12th 2015.

specialboy

She called me 5 mins ago, just received an s21. If in the unlikely event that she can't find anywhere to go by August what happens next if she doesn't leave? (Hoe it doesn't come to that)