Advice on dealing with a landlord when moving out of a property

1984cb

Hi. My girlfriend and I rented a flat and are now looking to move out. We're having a few issues with the landlord and I'd really appreciate some help from the more learned folks in here about what our rights and options are.

First of all, we are in dispute with our letting agents and landlord about the notice period. We initially signed a 12-month tenancy. At the conclusion of this, we enquired about moving to a rolling contract, "with a month or six week notice period". The letting agent responded that "as said as long as you give us 2 months’ notice in writing, it is fine for you to go onto a rolling tenancy." We responded by saying "that's great news" and asked when can we come in to sign the new tenancy agreement. The letting agent said "You won’t need to come in to sign anything your tenancy automatically goes into a rolling contract which is recognised."

So we reviewed our tenancy agreement and it does state that "If the Tenant stays beyond the end of the fixed term, and you have not already received from us two months’ notice to end the tenancy, it will carry on from month to month as a monthly tenancy."

We never signed (or were even sent by email) a revised tenancy agreement. We interpreted the letting agent's 'you don't need to sign anything, its in the original agreement' as saying that the terms of the rolling tenancy beyond the original 12 months would be as per the tenancy agreement. Therefore, we think that, despite asking about longer notice period in the rolling period of the contract, the tenancy agreement states that it is a month-to-month agreement. Therefore, the most notice that we would have to give is one month from the start of the next letting period (which actually works out to about six weeks).

However, the letting agent is saying that, as per our emails, we owe two months' notice from the next notice period. Is anyone able to advise about what the actual position should be?

Also, we emailed the letting agent about this on 30 May. They said, essentially, "leave it with us, we'll talk to the landlord and get back to you." In that time, we've put in an offer for another flat and started the referencing process. Today, I got an email from the letting agents saying that they had received a request for a reference and therefore setting out that they think we have a two month notice period, they need us to agree that they will take the additional rent owed out of our deposit and that they need us to "acknowledge this information and reply so that we can proceed with your referencing."

I am absolutely fuming that they appear to have ignored the query about the notice period for over a week, but then as soon as the request for a reference has come in, they have used this as leverage to get us to agree to their terms before they will provide us with a reference. Is there anything that we can do about this?

ripplyuk

Maybe it's a contractual periodic tenancy, rather than a statutory one. I'm not sure, but I think it could be, since the original tenancy agreement mentions what will happen at the end of the contract.

Guest101

What wording does your contract actually use?


Obviously 2 months notice would take you through to end of July, are you hoping to move before then?

1984cb

Guest101, the contract states "If the Tenant stays beyond the end of the fixed term, and you have not already received from us two months’ notice to end the tenancy, it will carry on from month to month as a monthly tenancy. If you give up possession on a date earlier than the date specified in the notice, the tenancy will end on the date specified in the notice."

We've both got new jobs in a different city, so we need to move at the end of this month. We're willing to pay a little bit extra (say a month's notice from the start of the next rental period, which would be mid-July), but the amount they are saying seems unreasonable.

Guest101

1984cb wrote: »

Guest101, the contract states "If the Tenant stays beyond the end of the fixed term, and you have not already received from us two months’ notice to end the tenancy, it will carry on from month to month as a monthly tenancy. If you give up possession on a date earlier than the date specified in the notice, the tenancy will end on the date specified in the notice."

We've both got new jobs in a different city, so we need to move at the end of this month. We're willing to pay a little bit extra (say a month's notice from the start of the next rental period, which would be mid-July), but the amount they are saying seems unreasonable.

Personally I'd dispute this with the deposit scheme, but if you need a reference you may need to agree for now.

1984cb

Thanks Guest101. The landlord has confirmed that their position is that "Notice whether on a rolling periodic tenancy or an AST, must be given on the rent due date. The notice period would come into effect from the rent due date after you emailed in. Your rent due date is 16th. So from 16th June 2017, two months’ notice from then to expire on 15th August 2017."

Given that we never signed anything relating to the periodic tenancy agreement, do you think we have any ability to rely on the terms of the original tenancy agreement (one month's notice), or are we basically at their mercy?

They've also advised that the property will be advertised this weekend, which I guess may be a ray of hope - if we confirm they can make it available from our preferred move out date, they may be able to rent it out from sooner (possibly for more) which could take us off the hook.

I really do hate letting agents.