Landlord wants to evict me and move back in!

Miss_Samantha

Ozzuk wrote: »

Firstly, your 'break clause' does not come into effect until after the fixed term ends. This should be extremely quick for you to verify.

How?

As said it is a question of interpretation of the wording.

Whilst the landlord does not seem to be competent, the way the clause is drafted may be interpreted both ways.

In any case, I would avoid lengthy back and forth of emails going all over the place.

jimbog

m0bov wrote: »

Meanwhile change the locks!

I really would do this at the weekend. The Landlord may have a mate in the UK

bouicca21

I suggest something much shorter

I have taken legal advice and suggest that you should do likewise. I will not enter into any further correspondence with you on this matter.

m0bov

I would still be tempted to just ignore it, it will only add to your stress. Just put the effort into saving and looking for your next rental. Nothing will happen till you get your S21

itchyfeet123

Miss_Samantha wrote: »

How?

As said it is a question of interpretation of the wording.

Whilst the landlord does not seem to be competent, the way the clause is drafted may be interpreted both ways.

As a legal principle, any ambiguities in a contract favour the party who did not write the contract. Thus, even if you are correctly seeing an issue of interpretation everyone else has overlooked, the OP gets to choose the interpretation that suits his/her purposes.

silvercar

I wouldn't ignore it, last thing you want is the hassle of landlord turning up with removal truck on your doorstep.

I would email once and say you've taken legal advice and your contract is valid until August. I wouldn't even mention the tax situation at this point. I would also say that you will only communicate in writing from now.

Miss_Samantha

itchyfeet123 wrote: »

As a legal principle, any ambiguities in a contract favour the party who did not write the contract. Thus, even if you are correctly seeing an issue of interpretation everyone else has overlooked, the OP gets to choose the interpretation that suits his/her purposes.

I would not say it is ambiguous. It just needs reading carefully.

It is not difficult to notice something that everyone on MSE has overlooked
However, I would agree that in all likelihood the landlord will be scr*w*d until the end of the term.

Guest101

Miss_Samantha wrote: »

I would not say it is ambiguous. It just needs reading carefully.

It is not difficult to notice something that everyone on MSE has overlooked
However, I would agree that in all likelihood the landlord will be scr*w*d until the end of the term.

Just one additional, the tenancy term must be equitable, and it really doesn't say anything about the tenant giving notice. A break clause cannot be one way

MrNiceGuy_007

Thanks for the help on this matter, I have complied some of the posts within this thread.

I replied with......

# My Reply
"I sympathize with your loss. We too have personal events happening in our life. However I feel keeping personal attributes aside with this matter is professional best practice and nothing more will be said herein.

Unfortunately, you are mistaken to assume the contract states "you have the right to move back in". The tenancy agreement provides a reference to a much larger Housing Act which cannot be acted upon until after the 12 months. These are the terms we all signed up to and now you are calling us the bad guys for adhering to the contract? Choosing us to take over the property was and still is a good idea, as we would never miss a payment and make sure the house is looked after as per the contract. Which is what you want from a tenant?

We are not holding you ransom, the contact was put in place to protect both parties. If for example we wanted to terminate the contract early, we would still be liable for the remaining months of the contract. Would you have said OK with no penalty? I doubt so, as you would be without rental income until the property was occupied again.

We are prepared to negotiate, but due to the inconvenience on our side, we are only prepared to stick to the terms of the contract and remain until we receive a valid S21 (or at the end of the fixed term), or under the terms of the financial proposal we have already put forward.

There are other outstanding issues that have come to light during my research.

# You have failed to provide an address for serving notices in Eng/Wales, Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 S48

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1987/31

~ By law we now have to stop paying rent until you provide this information. This doesn't mean you will not get the money, we are still liable for the rent, and rent due will be payable in full once I receive the Eng/Wales address.

# Your address is not UK and therefore I am required by law to register with HMRC and possibly deduct tax at source from your rental income.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/paying-tax-on-rent-to-landlords-abroad

~ I will be calling HMRC today about this to query.

Moving forward I think you should seek legal advice, at least to confirm what I have said is correct. After which I am more than happy to come to an agreement and vacate the property."


.....and got the following response. :j

# Landlord response
"With regard to the Inland Revenue we informed them before we left the country and I think if you contact [Letting Agent] you will find that it was done, as rent was paid via them in the first year and they needed this so as to not deduct tax. The agent for your friends transaction with me. We are not liable for tax as we are expats and we each receive the full UK tax allowance, and as the rent is to us both we each can offset it against our allowance, hence it is way under.
We are not at liberty to provide this information to you.

I am extremely distressed at the tone and content of your email. I have been unable to function since I read it. If you wish to withhold funds I cannot stop you but am distraught that you have taken this stance. All we did was hope you would let us have our home back. It is clear that you won't so we will wait until August to take the keys. I really thought you would understand and look for somewhere, particularly as you now know we will be taking it back anyway. "

jamesb1983 wrote: »

Here is a link to the sanitized tenancy contract
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9AA3gDqhbQ0T0psSFRjSi1jc0E

Miss_Samantha

OP you do not have to copy paste the whole correspondence.

As suggested by others there is no need to reply to every email, especially to add more points to argue about. You are just making the situation worse for no reason.

However wrong your landlord is, your replies make you sound more and more like a tenant no landlord would like to have.

Guest101 wrote: »

Just one additional, the tenancy term must be equitable, and it really doesn't say anything about the tenant giving notice. A break clause cannot be one way

Have you got a case law confirming that a break clause cannot be one way?

Especially in this case (assuming we have a break clause) since it is quite restrictive.

In any case, this wasn't the point, was it? But let's argue for the sake of arguing...