Lodger - No agreement - Month Notice

lucianobottin

Hello all,

I'm a lodger and have been given a one month notice to vacate. It was given as a short text message via phone - I assumed I had 30 days to vacate and would be liable up to the day I leave the place. The message just read as "I advertised the room and therefore give you one month notice".

Actually, the landlord now tells me that I should pay up to the final day of the notice period, which is in the middle of the month and not the same day of the end of the rent monthly period (the 30th).

Am I allowed to vacate the room at any time until the notice is up, without being charged for rent? It took one week for the landlord to explain he wanted me to pay the rent until the end of the period, and now I have already found another place to live and made a deposit to move the next week. I expect he will retain my deposit if I do not pay for the outstanding period after I move out.

Thanks for any advice.

Housebuy12345

You don’t have a tenancy?

lucianobottin

No, just moved in. No contracts, nothing on paper. What do you think? Can he discount my deposit if I leave the property before the period is up?

CarrieVS

As a lodger, unless there is an agreement stating otherwise, either party can end the arrangement with nothing more than "reasonable" notice. Reasonable is usually reckoned to be one rent period - so one month as you pay rent monthly.

This applies to either party so no, you can't leave on less notice and not pay rent (unless your landlord agrees. You can end the arrangement at any time if you both agree.)

Notice does not have to be in writing unless agreed otherwise.

Notice expiring in the middle of a rent period is perhaps a grey area but you really don't have very many rights as a lodger: I doubt it would fly.

All this presumes you are a lodger, not a tenant. If you suspect you may actually have a tenancy in spite of the agreement calling you a lodger, then it's a different kettle of fish entirely.

G_M

So have you been given a specific date the the agreement to end? or is it clear from the notice (ie 30 days from X date)?


You need to
a) leave on that date (or before)
b) pay rent till that date (but not later)


If a rent payment date is due between now and that end-date, then calculate the daily rent rate and pay for that many days.


If you pay for a full month and then have to reclaim overpaid rent, it is obviously more dificult (possession [of £] is 9/10ths of the law!).

lucianobottin

G_M wrote: »

So have you been given a specific date the the agreement to end? or is it clear from the notice (ie 30 days from X date)?


You need to
a) leave on that date (or before)
b) pay rent till that date (but not later)


If a rent payment date is due between now and that end-date, then calculate the daily rent rate and pay for that many days.


If you pay for a full month and then have to reclaim overpaid rent, it is obviously more dificult (possession [of £] is 9/10ths of the law!).

This was all I had been given..
"I advertised the room and therefore give you one month notice".
I think this is unfair as I already payed deposit to another room plus future rent. So I will be paying two places at the same time. I could not stay here anyway, because the landlord is continuously harassment, he complains of me flushing the toilet at night, i live in constant fear.

Thrugelmir

Move to the other property if it's available. If your LL hasn't drafted a formal agreement then that's his problem.

CarrieVS

lucianobottin wrote: »

This was all I had been given..
"I advertised the room and therefore give you one month notice".
I think this is unfair as I already payed deposit to another room plus future rent. So I will be paying two places at the same time.

That's very frustrating and I empathise, but it's not your current landlord's fault that you signed a new tenancy/lodger agreement to start before this one ends so it can't affect their right to have you pay rent until the end of the notice period.

I could not stay here anyway, because the landlord is continuously harassment, he complains of me flushing the toilet at night, i live in constant fear.

Complaining about you flushing the loo might be obnoxious but it's not a crime. However, if you feel unsafe, if he has made threats or done anything unreasonable to make you feel that you might be in danger, contact the police as soon as possible (101 if you're just reporting previous events. 999 if you feel you are in immediate danger.) That is an entirely separate issue from whether you have to pay rent to the end of your notice period.

G_M

lucianobottin wrote: »

This was all I had been given..
"I advertised the room and therefore give you one month notice".
I think this is unfair as I already payed deposit to another room plus future rent. So I will be paying two places at the same time. I could not stay here anyway, because the landlord is continuously harassment, he complains of me flushing the toilet at night, i live in constant fear.

If you have agreed to take a new room before your current agreement ends, then yes, that's down to you and means paying for 2 rooms.


Your LL has been perfectly fair by giving you one months notice. What would have been unfair would have been if he gave you less than a month (assuming you pay rent monthly).

lucianobottin

But the way he did it, just makes it hard - the reason why I wanted to move in the beginning of the next month was to organise my rent around my pay schedule. He gave a mid month notice - and I've told last month I would like to move soon (when it was a better date for me) but I stayed longer because it would be hard for him to find another lodger during the holidays.

So I thought that this was more or less unfair, since now he calls the shots on my schedule and I had no option because I'm starting a new work within the next two weeks so cannot spend time looking for accommodation. He was aware of this situation.

But ok, the law is the law, here in the UK, not all countries operate this way - but I think this is disproportionate, as he already found another lodger.

Honeylife

You are living with a Live in Landlord so yes you are a Lodger

You have no written & signed Licence Agreement, it's all verbal.

You have been given a months notice, there is nothing in writing when he should/shouldn't do this.

You are extremely fortunate to have been given a months notice, 'reasonable' could be any time period.

You decided to take another place early.

You are unhappy in your current accommodation anyway.

You are in the UK, so forget/don't mention anything how other countries operate, it's irrelevant.

Fair or Unfair, just move out and move on with your life. Chalk it up to a vital lesson on renting, and for goodness sake ALWAYS get a Licence Agreement.

It baffles me that in 2019 people are prepared to hand over money to a Landlord with no paper contract! Then complain. Get a Licence Agreement and read it thoroughly.