Landlord selling house

YvetteN91

We hope there is someone who can give me advise.

Currently Me and my partner are renting a property and the contract runs out on the 26th of August. The landlord wants to sell the house and wants to put it up on the market now. This is something we don't have a problem with, but we just questioning a few aspects he has mentioned in his emails. Just on a side note: we communicate through email since the landlord lives in New Zealand.
Obviously the estate agent will come in and take pictures of the house, but they want us to cut another set of keys which we will have to give to the estate agent. Even though the house is up for sale, we still live here, have all our belongings here and have a cat.:rotfl: We don't want people just coming in whenever they want, especially when we are not there. Because we assume they will want the extra set of keys to show people around whenever they like. Can we, as tenants, refuse to cutting another set of keys?

We have asked the landlord if we can leave as soon as we have found a place to live, even though this might be before the end of our contract. They are saying we can't leave unless they sell the house. To us, this isn't fair, but we would like to hear other people's opinion. Can a landlord do this?
We have found somewhere to live and can move into that property from the 18th of June. We don't want to let this opportunity go, but the way the landlord is telling us to stay, we have to.

Any advise will help.

Thanks!:)

Alter_ego

Landlord seems to want to have his cake and eat it.

Marvel1

Oh well, no spare key and no viewings.

franklee

Is there a break clause in the tenancy agreement? If not then the landlord can charge you rent till the end of the tenancy. You can move earlier but then you would have to pay for both places during the overlap.

You can try negotiation with the landlord. So no co-operation from him, no keys cut or co-operation from you.

Also if he's made a mistake in the paperwork you could use that to bargain with. So was deposit protected, prescribed information served, gas safety checked yearly?

Also do you pay rent to the landlord directly? If so have you and he complied with the Non Resident Landlord's scheme?
https://www.gov.uk/tax-uk-income-live-abroad/rent
So either you deduct tax from the rent, or HMRC have written to you to say you don't need to deduct the tax as the landlord has signed up with the NRL scheme or you don't need to deduct tax if you pay rent to someone in the UK like a UK based letting agent.

theartfullodger

YvetteN91 wrote: »

..... Just on a side note: we communicate through email since the landlord lives in New Zealand. ....

Is there an agent?? If not you should be withholding 20% of rent unless landlord produces documents from HMRC saying you don't have to....

This landlord is trying it on: Shame on the little scr*at!

Artful: (Landlord btw..)

YvetteN91

I don't think there is a break clause in the agreement.

Unfortunately negotiating didn't work, we did try. Just a question about the NRL Scheme. I didn't know about this. Can the HMRC check whether or not my landlord has sorted this, based in our address? What if he hasn't sort this out? what position does this give us?

G_M

1) do you deal with/pay a letting agent, or the landlord direct?
2) do you have an address in England "for serving notices" on the LL (typically C/O an agent/family/friend)?
3) Have you received a S21 Notice?
4) Did you pay a deposit, and is it registered?
5) what does your tenancy agreement say about access (esp in the final period prior to the end of the tenancy)?


Dear Mr landlord,

Thank you for your recent emails(s). I understand you are marketing our home for sale. As you will appreciate, repeated and un-arranged visits whether by agents, buyers, surveyors or whoever will be very disruptive to our quiet enjoyment of our home.

We should therefore like to come to a reasonable arrangement with you regarding the frequency of visits, their timing, and the amount of notice we will receive. We are unwilling to supply keys to your selling agents as we would in any event wish to be present during any access, though as said above, we are happy to facilitate reasonable access.

On an unrelated subject, you will appreciate that due to your intention not to renew our tenancy, we are commencing our own search for a new home. In the event of our finding somewhere suitable, we would, as I'm sure you appreciate, have to sign a new tenancy agreement. We would therefore wish to request an unconditional Early Surrender of our tenancy with yourself at that time.

I am sure that these two matters can be resolved to our mutual satisfaction, and look forward to hearing from you.

yours sincerely,

---

see what respnse you get and if the LL wishes to play hardball, you can garden your own position.

YvetteN91

That sounds great and I would love to send it to them. The only thing is: we have already asked to leave the contract early and they told us that we can leave but only when they have sold their house. Something I don't think is going to happen before the end of August. So this means, we will have to stay here, even though we found a property to move into next month. Meaning we can't move into this property, but if they do sell the house, let's say, within 2 weeks, we have to go?! This makes looking for a new property very hard, since we don't know when we have to be out by.

G_M

So adapt my letter accordingly! I'm not going to keep re-writing it!

point is, if the LL does not become more flexible about you leaving when you want, you can harden your position and make it impossible for him to sell by not allowing access.

How about the other Qs I asked.....?

franklee

YvetteN91 wrote: »

I don't think there is a break clause in the agreement.

Unfortunately negotiating didn't work, we did try. Just a question about the NRL Scheme. I didn't know about this. Can the HMRC check whether or not my landlord has sorted this, based in our address? What if he hasn't sort this out? what position does this give us?

The sooner you check it out the more rent you will have in hand to pay the back tax (if any). If you pay all the rent to the landlord and should have deducted the tax where will you get the tax money from? At least while the tenancy is still running you have some of the landlord's money in hand. I'd ring up HMRC and they will check it out for you. Note that this only applies if you pay a non-resident landlord directly AND HMRC haven't written to you to say you can pay the rent gross. If you pay an agent in the UK then the headache is theirs to deal with and not yours,

G_M

YvetteN91 wrote: »

...... Just a question about the NRL Scheme. I didn't know about this.
Can the HMRC check whether or not my landlord has sorted this, based in our address?
If HMRC investigate the LL's tax affairs it can come to light. HMRC have access to Land Registry property ownership details
What if he hasn't sort this out?
Read the link!
what position does this give us?

Liability for the tax.