Early surrender options (landlord won’t reduce marketed price)

dimbo61

So your dealing with the Lettings agents and not the foreign landlord.
I wonder if he/she is declaring and paying tax on the rental income.
I would also put an advert on spareroom for the property 

diggingdude

Is it a two bedroom property. You could probably take back possession (especially if you can prove landlord is expecting too much deliberately to avoid reletting). You could then take in lodger to assist in the payments. 

numbercruncher8

TBH unless you can really trust the person, sub-letting is a dangerous game.

The landlord is quite likely to not agree to it if it isn't prohibited by the agreement already. If they are getting money for an empty place, what's in it for them to accept the same money for a place that is being used? There is simply no motivation there.

They could simply have the property on the market at an inflated rent, so if someone is mad enough to take it they get a bonus, but if not, just reduce the rent to a normal level when the previous tenancy only has a few months to run. Which is exactly what I think will happen here.

What would happen if you re-let the place, and they refused to leave after a year when your contract was up? They aren't a lodger because your main residence is elsewhere. 

Unless you can prove some kind of discrepancy in the contract or persuade them to relent (perhaps with a payment), it is probably going to be an expensive lesson learned. That's the way it goes with property though, an oversight can be expensive.

[Deleted User]

I do think that the offer of 4-6 months rent up front could be quite attractive to the landlord as he could then rent the property out to someone else for the full rent maximising and for some months doubling profits. You could also imply that you are likely to default as the months pass by if this is not accepted paying your mortgage and rents.

Sensory

numbercruncher8 said:

That's the way it goes with property though, an oversight can be expensive.

[Deleted User] said:

I do think that the offer of 4-6 months rent up front could be quite attractive to the landlord as he could then rent the property out to someone else for the full rent maximising and for some months doubling profits.

That a foreign investor can seek to maximise their profits by plundering the entirety of my emergency savings during a pandemic, just because they can, is... quite damaging to my mental health. It's rather bleak when being reasonable (i.e. me reimbursing all losses including rental shortfall) is too much of an ask, because for the 'landlord' who cares not one iota about actually being a landlord, it's just about the numbers and return of investment.

numbercruncher8

Sadly that is the case for most investment landlords. But why are they not caring about being one? They are upholding their side of the contract, nothing more, nothing less. They are not trying to charge for something that was not agreed.

Under another circumstance, the deal you negotiated would have protected you. What if you didn't buy the house, and demand far exceeded supply for the flats and people were offering bigger rental payments? Would you be offering to compensate the landlord for this missed revenue? Of course you wouldn't, because the deal you signed entitled you to rent at an agreed price for an agreed time period.

I get that its an unfortunate situation but if you put this type of emotional argument to the agents and trying imply that the 'landlord doesn't care about being a landlord', it is just more likely to make them want to enforce the contract even more, isn't it.

It may be better to seek legal advice with regard to the contract, as there may be something in it which gives you some leverage. If this brings up nothing it may be the quickest and easiest option to negotiate a one-off payment to end things. An alternative is to find someone to take over the deal with the agents and pay them instead.

As someone who has lost a significant sum of money overnight through no fault of my own (more than a years rent) I can sympathise but try not to let it affect you mentally; times change and money comes back.

[Deleted User]

Sensory said:

numbercruncher8 said:

That's the way it goes with property though, an oversight can be expensive.

[Deleted User] said:

I do think that the offer of 4-6 months rent up front could be quite attractive to the landlord as he could then rent the property out to someone else for the full rent maximising and for some months doubling profits.

That a foreign investor can seek to maximise their profits by plundering the entirety of my emergency savings during a pandemic, just because they can, is... quite damaging to my mental health. It's rather bleak when being reasonable (i.e. me reimbursing all losses including rental shortfall) is too much of an ask, because for the 'landlord' who cares not one iota about actually being a landlord, it's just about the numbers and return of investment.

I sincerely see how unfortunate this turn of events is for you but I'm not sure that it is productive to speculate on the landlords morality. Feeling mistreated is just an interpretation. For example I could say that the landlord appears to have diligently complied with all the legal and health and safety protocols so far mentioned which is to his credit and places him in the bracket of competent landlords we should all hope to meet. It is somewhat a curious thing that in topics such as this we are all seemingly hoping for a paperwork problem (often this might mean that a health and safety breach has occured) to save the tenant and give leverage for them negotiate a painless surrender. The landlord continues to provide you with the property and abides by the contract but with that said you regard the landlord as uncaring. It is a bit of an overstretch in terms of expectations I feel.

greatcrested

To those who have pointed out the risks inherant in sub-letting - I agree. The OP said "I’m asking what options I have available" and I attempted to list all of them for the sake of completeness. I was not recommending any one of them over the others.

Sensory

numbercruncher8 said:

Sadly that is the case for most investment landlords. But why are they not caring about being one? They are upholding their side of the contract, nothing more, nothing less. They are not trying to charge for something that was not agreed.

They care enough to pass off management to a high profile estate agent to ensure they are legally covered, but when they take weeks to respond to anything that requires their actual input, what am I supposed to think?

numbercruncher8 said:

Under another circumstance, the deal you negotiated would have protected you. What if you didn't buy the house, and demand far exceeded supply for the flats and people were offering bigger rental payments? Would you be offering to compensate the landlord for this missed revenue? Of course you wouldn't, because the deal you signed entitled you to rent at an agreed price for an agreed time period.

I'm already reimbursing the landlord for all losses, honouring the agreement that was signed. I'm just hoping to not be exploited, i.e. the landlord benefitting from no further wear and tear (as opposed to me continuing to occupy the property), and actively taking advantage to maximise profits (above and beyond the agreement) at my expense.

There is a WORLD of difference between a landlord missing out on potential profit as a result of increased market demand, and a single human being losing months of their personal emergency savings; one is simply an inherent risk of investing in property (yet still profitable), whilst the other is a human being paying for accommodation, a basic necessity of life. Through my own naivety and ignorance, the landlord can now actively exploit my circumstances for personal gain, instead of lowering the marketed price to actual market price and being reimbursed (by me) the shortfall. If the market picks up again next year, the landlord can just increase the rent (which would be reasonable).

numbercruncher8 said:

I get that its an unfortunate situation but if you put this type of emotional argument to the agents and trying imply that the 'landlord doesn't care about being a landlord', it is just more likely to make them want to enforce the contract even more, isn't it.

The agent would do well to act in their client's best interests, because a desperate mentally fragile tenant could, in theory, run up expensive legal costs for the landlord (charged by the managing agent). If the landlord actually cared about their investment beyond numbers and profit, they would pay more attention to their means of communication when another human being is trying to engage them regarding paying for basic necessities (as opposed to uses of disposable income).

numbercruncher8 said:

It may be better to seek legal advice with regard to the contract, as there may be something in it which gives you some leverage. If this brings up nothing it may be the quickest and easiest option to negotiate a one-off payment to end things.

I've started the process already, but I don't expect a response for at least a week.

numbercruncher8 said:

As someone who has lost a significant sum of money overnight through no fault of my own (more than a years rent) I can sympathise but try not to let it affect you mentally; times change and money comes back.

I try to live by the age-old principle, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Young, naive, idealistic.
Grow up, become jaded, every man for himself, screw everyone else.

Sensory

[Deleted User] said:

I sincerely see how unfortunate this turn of events is for you but I'm not sure that it is productive to speculate on the landlords morality. Feeling mistreated is just an interpretation. For example I could say that the landlord appears to have diligently complied with all the legal and health and safety protocols so far mentioned which is to his credit and places him in the bracket of competent landlords we should all hope to meet. It is somewhat a curious thing that in topics such as this we are all seemingly hoping for a paperwork problem (often this might mean that a health and safety breach has occured) to save the tenant and give leverage for them negotiate a painless surrender. The landlord continues to provide you with the property and abides by the contract but with that said you regard the landlord as uncaring. It is a bit of an overstretch in terms of expectations I feel.

As I've mentioned previously, the landlord takes weeks to respond to anything that requires their input. Even the agent admitted to me that all their foreign clients from this particular country are very, very slow to respond to calls for attention. In one instance, the agent just gave up on expecting a response and proceeded to act on their best judgement, charging the landlord accordingly.