How much rent to pay at end of section 21 notice

fryster2006

Good Evening,

We rent privately, and were given a section 21 notice which expires on 31st May.

We have another property, which is a housing association one, lined up to move into, and agreed with our current landlord that we would be able to remain here until 20th June. We have this in writing, and we asked for this as our daughter is severely disabled and the property we are moving into will need some adaptations before we are able to move in.

Need to know how much rent we should be paying. Would it be for a full months rent, or for the number of days that we are actually going to be in the property for. If we're liable for the full months rent then would we be within our rights to remain in the property until the end of the month?

Many thanks!

ThePants999

Technically, you're within your rights to remain in the property until he has a possession order from the court and bailiffs arrive to evict you...!

franklee

Sounds like you are agreeing a mutual surrender with your landlord? If so the terms such as leaving date and how much you will have to pay should be negotiated when agreeing the terms of the surrender. It could be he pays you to leave early, or you could pay him, depends on who wants what the most.

You can certainly put forward the suggestion that you pay rent pro-rata only for the days till your leaving date but the landlord doesn't have to agree.

If no agreement is reached then it was usual for rent to be owed in whole periods, so stay one day over and you owe the whole period's rent. That said the new section 21 prescribed form says: "Where your tenancy is terminated before the end of a period of your tenancy (e.g. where you pay rent in advance on the first of each month and you are required to give up possession in the middle of the month), you may be entitled to repayment of rent from the landlord under section 21C of the Housing Act 1988. ". What exactly "required to give up possession" refers to I'm not sure. There's this:

http://www.landlordsguild.com/apportioned-rent-repayment-after-a-section-21-notice/

So what I suggest is that you negotiate this with the landlord. If he wants you to pay the whole period then if you haven't agreed a leaving date you would be entitled to possession for that time. However it sounds like a leaving date has already been agreed? If you rescind that and haven't served your own notice then you could be liable for yet another month.

I think you have gone wrong by only half negotiating the deal.

Get any agreements made in writing.

[Deleted User]

When I was being evicted because the LL wanted to sell, I paid my rent on the 15th of the month, my tenancy (periodic) period would end on 14th of any month (I think) so the final month wasn't a complete month (the bailiff was coming round about three weeks into the final month, it was about 22 days).

I calculated the daily rate for the rent (i.e. 12xmonthly rent/365) and calculated how many days I would be there until the bailiffs came round.

This was, of course, with the agreement of the LL. I wouldn't have done it this way but the LL tried to get the bailiffs to come round early, so from that point I was happy just paying as the rent accrued, just in case he managed to get the bailiffs to come round early (he didn't). I paid weekly. I didn't want to pay for something I couldn't use on top of everything else.

Ianwzzz

Your landlord seems a decent landlord as he has let you stay extra time. I'm sure if you speak to them they will only charge you up to the day you leave.

[Deleted User]

But ask. Just in case.

fishpond

Ask the landlord what he/she would accept.
You could also do some sort of deal to enable the LL/agent to show prospective tenants around the property, possibly within the hours of 9-5 or whatever suits your situation, but ensure they give you a minimum of 24 hours notice.

Pixie5740

Ianwzzz wrote: »

Your landlord seems a decent landlord as he has let you stay extra time. I'm sure if you speak to them they will only charge you up to the day you leave.

Not really* since a Section 21 doesn't actually end a tenancy, that can only be done by the tenant, a court or as appears to be in the OP's case mutual surrender. The OP's landlord could not have made them leave (legally) 31st May.

I think from a legal perspective you need to pay the rent for the whole tenancy period which depends on the start date of your tenancy. However, this does not mean you can't negotiate pro rata rent for the final tenancy period with your landlord.

*I meant that he didn't let them stay extra time rather than he isn't a decent landlord...he might very well be.

G_M

Depends if the tenancy started before or after 1st Oct 2015. If after

Deregulation Act 2015

40Repayment of rent where tenancy ends before end of a period

After section 21B of the Housing Act 1988 insert—
“21CRepayment of rent where tenancy ends before end of a period

(1)A tenant under an assured shorthold tenancy of a dwelling-house in England is entitled to a repayment of rent from the landlord where—

(a)as a result of the service of a notice under section 21 the tenancy is brought to an end before the end of a period of the tenancy,

(b)the tenant has paid rent in advance for that period, and

(c)the tenant was not in occupation of the dwelling-house for one or more whole days of that period.

(2)The amount of repayment to which a tenant is entitled under subsection (1) is to be calculated in accordance with the following formula—
....................................................

fryster2006

Just to update about our circumstances further. We are currently renting privately, our landlord served a section 21 as she is selling the property and this expires on 31st May. We have secured a housing association property and we picked up the keys on 23rd May. However, because our daughter has a complex disability we are in negotiation with the council in order to receive LHA on both properties for about 4 weeks in order for us to adapt the property we are moving into to meet her needs. We had to get written permission from the landlord in order for the council to consider this, hence why we put down 20th June as the date we would vacate the property by. Still waiting for the council's decision, although whatever happens we will remain here until this date as there's no way we'd be able to move into the property as it is now. We decided to pay her the full months rent to save any argument, what we'd like to check is that in the unlikely event that we didn't have the property ready by this date, would we be legally allowed to stay in the property until the last day of June as we've paid up to this point?

We have been here for over 6 years, so the new rules regarding a refund from her aren't applicable.

G_M

fryster2006 wrote: »

...... what we'd like to check is that in the unlikely event that we didn't have the property ready by this date, would we be legally allowed to stay in the property until the last day of June as we've paid up to this point?

.

You can legally stay until a court orders you to leave. In fact even longer - till court bailiffs evict you.

I'm a bit unclear what you've agreed with the landlord. Is this correct.........?

* The S21 expires on 31 May
* you and the LL agreed to a surrender of the tenancy on 20th June
* you have paid rent to cover the period to 30th June

If that is the case, you should leave when agreed, 20th june. However
a) any reasonale landlord, if approached reasonable, would agree to alter the tenancy end date to 30th June (if so, confirm in writing), especially if you make clear you are happy to facilitate viewings etc by prospective new tenants
b) even if not, it would take from 21st june to 1st July at least to evict you.