Tenancy agreement help

xxmazza07xx

Thank you for your help, much appreciated 

xxmazza07xx

Hello,

We have spoken with the landlord direct who has said to pay rent up to the end of the year but has said my partner is liable for the council tax still after that as he signed a 2 year contract.  We have since found a text from last year from him confirming it's a 1 year contract.  Is that correct regarding council tax?

He has also said my partner needs to take photos of the house, advertise it for rent and show people around if they are interested explaining terms etc. Surely that can't be right?

Any further help appreciated.

Thanks

Comms69

xxmazza07xx said:

Hello,

We have spoken with the landlord direct who has said to pay rent up to the end of the year but has said my partner is liable for the council tax still after that as he signed a 2 year contract.  We have since found a text from last year from him confirming it's a 1 year contract.  Is that correct regarding council tax?

He has also said my partner needs to take photos of the house, advertise it for rent and show people around if they are interested explaining terms etc. Surely that can't be right?

Any further help appreciated.

Thanks

You have evidence to say its 1 year. Why are you entertaining further discussion? I'm not being funny, but the advice still stands. 

Pay up to the one year mark. Move on. If they want to take it to court, you have evidence. Let the court decide

saajan_12

All well and good for someone on the internet to roll the dice with your money and 'let the court decide' but the reality is the court could decide either way. You have a text message + witness indicating 1 year, the LL has a paper contract indicating 2 years + 1 day. So on one of them must be wrong. Yes, the court could decide the actual agreement / 'meeting of the minds' was on 1 year based on the witness & text. Alternatively, the court could infer the plan changed after the text and before the contract, or the text was a typo whereas people are more likely to double check a signed contract, or the witness is biased. 

You don't know. If the decision is 1 year, still pay one lot of rent whether here or at your next place. If the decision is 2 years, you could be liable for some of the LL's lost rent, damages, court costs (on top of the rent you're paying at your next place). So unless it makes a massive difference to you, I'd expect its safer for you to stay and negotiate with the LL. Realistically the LL doesn't care whether its you or another tenant paying the rent, barring the void / effort in readvertising. So maybe you can help find a new tenant to reduce the LL's void, and in return agree an earlier end date for you. 
negotxxmazza07xx said:

Hello,

We have spoken with the landlord direct who has said to pay rent up to the end of the year but has said my partner is liable for the council tax still after that as he signed a 2 year contract.  We have since found a text from last year from him confirming it's a 1 year contract.  Is that correct regarding council tax?

He has also said my partner needs to take photos of the house, advertise it for rent and show people around if they are interested explaining terms etc. Surely that can't be right?

The council tax point doesn't make sense, as if a new tenant is found, they would be liable for council tax. Either your tenancy ends (including rent and CT liability) or it doesn't. As for advertising, it sounds like the LL is treating it as a 2 year tenancy which you're asking to be let out from - in that case the LL can impose any conditions, and it makes sense for the tenant to help find a new tenant as that would encourage the LL to terminate their own tenancy earlier. That isn't necessarily the case, but I'd still suggest negotiating rather than leaving it to court where you have all the risk.