Can we withdraw our notice to leave rental?

BirdSeed

Hi


We've been in a rental property for 20 months; on the 1st August we made an offer on a house. The offer was accepted and the mortgage process began. Our rental contract runs from the 2nd of each month, so in September we gave 2 months' notice which takes us to 1st November. However, it seems that we may have been a little over optimistic with a 12 week process as we're not very much further on than we were in August.


If things continue at this pace, and we have not exchanged / completed by the 1st November are we able to withdraw our notice on the rental property? Is this something that people do?


Thanks in advance.

libf

Ask your landlord. Depends if they've already lined someone up or if they just don't want to deal with messing about with dates.

Really you shouldn't hand in notice until exchange is complete. Better to pay for more rent than you need than to have to find a stop gap and move twice.

Guest101

Your notice period is 1 month, not 2.


And you can try to withdraw notice, but the LL doesn't have to accept and can even charge you double rent if you fail to move.

thesaint

A valid Notice To Quit cannot be unilaterrally withdrawn.

Guest101 wrote: »

Your notice period is 1 month, not 2.

You don't know that.

BirdSeed

Thanks everyone. I bit the bullet and called the agent. They said that we can withdraw the notice as the property hasn't been re-marketed. I asked whether our notice period was one or two months and was advised that legally it's one but they ask for two. They will get one month's notice next time!!

HappyMJ

BirdSeed wrote: »

Hi


We've been in a rental property for 20 months; on the 1st August we made an offer on a house. The offer was accepted and the mortgage process began. Our rental contract runs from the 2nd of each month, so in September we gave 2 months' notice which takes us to 1st November. However, it seems that we may have been a little over optimistic with a 12 week process as we're not very much further on than we were in August.


If things continue at this pace, and we have not exchanged / completed by the 1st November are we able to withdraw our notice on the rental property? Is this something that people do?


Thanks in advance.

Your only option is to negotiate with the landlord. You could sign a new tenancy agreement but if the landlord doesn't agree then you have to move out on the 1st November. If you fail to leave as has already been mentioned you are liable for double rent until you do.

jbainbridge

The advice given on here is to give your (one month) notice only once you have exchanged ... as anything can happen up to that point.

HappyMJ

BirdSeed wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I bit the bullet and called the agent. They said that we can withdraw the notice as the property hasn't been re-marketed. I asked whether our notice period was one or two months and was advised that legally it's one but they ask for two. They will get one month's notice next time!!

That's good news. If possible can you get that in writing rather than a verbal agreement over the phone?

Legally yes it's a minimum of one month's notice and that notice has to expire the day before the next rent period starts so can be anywhere up to 2 months minus one day as your minimum notice. You don't want to cut it too fine so give notice a few days maybe a week before you legally have to.

thesaint

BirdSeed wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I bit the bullet and called the agent. They said that we can withdraw the notice as the property hasn't been re-marketed. I asked whether our notice period was one or two months and was advised that legally it's one but they ask for two. They will get one month's notice next time!!

Please note, that you have to give "at least" one months notice and expiring at the end of a tenancy period(or the start of the next).

So for example, if your notice was "deemed served" on the 2nd(or any date after in Sep) Sep 2015, then your "one month" notice would expire at the end of the 1st Nov 2015.

If it was deemed served on the 1st Sep, then it would expire on the 1st Oct.

Guest101

thesaint wrote: »

A valid Notice To Quit cannot be unilaterrally withdrawn.



You don't know that.

I'd be confident of placing cash on it being.

BirdSeed

Tanks thesaint, that was one of my concerns as I was led to believe that I had to give two months' notice, which I thought would have taken me into January if we didn't have things sorted by November.


The house will be re-marketed when we (eventually) leave but at the minute it's not been marketed. The owner appears to want to keep it as a rental (it has been for c.15 years) as he's agreed for reimburse us for the carpets that we purchased for the house as the floor boards were manky.


I think I may have been a bit panicky but I do thank you all for your advice.