Landlord pulled out of tenancy agreement, do I have any rights?

natashaiken

I recently found found a house to rent that my partner and I both loved we put down a £500 holding fee and started referencing, our current letting agent charges £75 for referencing and so we will now have to pay that too, referencing had just passed yesterday and next thing I know the LA for the new house called to let me know that the landlord had expressed doubts as to whether or not he was going to go through with the let and has since completely ignored all attempts at communication.

We think its safe to assume the landlord has backed out but now we only have 2 weeks until we have to be out of our current flat which is incredibly annoying as the market is terrible at the moment and there's very little worth looking at, but if we don't settle for somewhere and sign into another year long contract in most likely somewhere we won't feel very happy with we will be left homeless (we have a 9 month old baby!)!

I'd love to say I was in the position to have a months overlap and kept our current flat just incase something like this did happen but we do not have the means to pay for rent for both places for a month as a safety net. and we had to hand in our notice to our current flat this month as they said we either had to leave or sign another 12 month lease ( our current flat has a minor pest issue that's been there since we have moved in and so we definitely do not want to stay another 12 months)

basically all I am wondering if there is any sort of legal action we are able to take with the landlord having left us pretty much homeless at the last minute and also for the money we have wasted in the process i.e the fee our current LA have charged for referencing?

sorry if this is a rather long post, we are just completely panicking as to what we are going to do next!?

thanks

theartfullodger

You MIGHT have a case against agent, but I doubt it. Holding & other fees should be returned.


Why do you think you HAVE to be out of current flat in 2 weeks?? Unless bailiffs are booked - date, time, court letter to you - you don't & even then you could appeal.


Has landlord issued any notice - probably headed "Section 21"? Such a notice does not end a tenancy nor require tenant to leave.

need_an_answer

Speak to the LA and see if you can find out the reason the LL has retracted at a late stage.

Legally as you have not yet signed the tenancy agreement nothing is enforceable but there is an obvious amount that you are out of pocket by way of credit checks and referencing charges.

A few years ago as a LL I pulled out of a planned tenancy due to an issue I discovered regarding the prospective tenants after referencing but before signing,I was able to come to an agreement with them over their charges and we both exited the deal.
It does happen and I think a polite request back to the LL/LA is the initial way to go but unless there is a quantifiable reason they wont let to you,you should be able to get the fees paid back.

wesleyad

You do not need to sign anything at your old place. Tell the agent you are rescinding your notice (if you have officially given it, if not ignore). At the end of your fixed term you will automatically go onto a periodic rolling tenancy. If at this stage the LL wishes to evict they need to serve S21 with 2 months notice. So you have plenty of time.

All of this is unlikely as in general LLs are fine with rolling tenancies (money is money). The ones pushing for a renewal will be the agent who get money from LL and probably you for re-signing every year.

theartfullodger

Sorry, missed you'd served notice. Was it formally accepted by agent or landord?

If accepted or if valid landord might be entitled to double rent but hopefully happy for you to stay on old terms.

For future reference a landlord cannot prevent a periodic tenancy occurring at end of fixed term.