Had a move in date for for rental property (renting whole house, ex houseshare rental)

seatbeltnoob

I know the landlord, me and my family were due to rent a whole house from the landlord.

Landlord gave 2 months notice for all current tenants to leave. 3 bedrooms were rented to 3 tenants, 2 tenants have left early but one tenant is sitll in property.

Landlord was receiving 2/3 of his rent for about 4 months and has been informed that the one who wasn't paying rent is the one who is still in the property.

The offical end date for tenancy is 31st August, and we were meant to move in 1st September.

I have been waiitng a while for this property to be available,  don't know whether we should move in and occupy the house. Problem is the rental is under different arragement. The whole house in ours, we will be paing for the full property and we have young children. But there is a woman in the property.

If we move in, does she have full rights as a tenant (can't be forcceibly evicted,, need to get a court order for eviction etc). Or does she become like our lodger where she has had no tenancy rights and we can just change the locks on her and turf her out of the property?

KatrinaWaves

seatbeltnoob said:

I know the landlord, me and my family were due to rent a whole house from the landlord.

Landlord gave 2 months notice for all current tenants to leave. 3 bedrooms were rented to 3 tenants, 2 tenants have left early but one tenant is sitll in property.

Landlord was receiving 2/3 of his rent for about 4 months and has been informed that the one who wasn't paying rent is the one who is still in the property.

The offical end date for tenancy is 31st August, and we were meant to move in 1st September.

I have been waiitng a while for this property to be available,  don't know whether we should move in and occupy the house. Problem is the rental is under different arragement. The whole house in ours, we will be paing for the full property and we have young children. But there is a woman in the property.

If we move in, does she have full rights as a tenant (can't be forcceibly evicted,, need to get a court order for eviction etc). Or does she become like our lodger where she has had no tenancy rights and we can just change the locks on her and turf her out of the property?

Of course you moving in does not make her your lodger. If the landlord can not legally evict her what makes you think you’ll have any more luck ‘turfing her out’ You could move in and use the other rooms and shared spaces, but you have no right over their room.

You cannot be granted a tenancy over a property whilst someone else has a tenancy over a room. That is currently her room and until she is legally evicted you cannot go into her room.

i believe there is currently a ban on evictions so your chances of moving into an empty property on September 1st are slim to none. 

[Deleted User]

If the lady has an AST from your LL with regard to her room, she will have an AST on 1st September.  She will never become your lodger.  A lodger is someone who has a live in landlord with whom she shares facilities.  She doesn't.  

You can't rent the whole property.  Your only legal options are to rent individual rooms yourself or to agree with the LL that they can't supply the original agreement and agree to mutually surrender the tenancy.  I suppose the LL could 'bribe' the lady to move on.., but no guarantee of success with this even if the LL was willing.

Annisele

Do you know if the bedrooms were let separately? If there were three tenancy agreements, with one bedroom and one tenant per agreement, that's one thing - and the landlord could let the two unoccupied bedrooms to you. But if there was only one tenancy agreement, where three tenants signed up for the whole house, then the remaining tenant is still the tenant of the whole house. If that's the case, the landlord can't let you move in at all.

Either way, if she's a tenant now she'll still be a tenant until she either voluntarily leaves or the court chucks her out. The court end of that is not happening before the end of the month!

ciderboy2009

One other point to add - if the landlord only gave two months notice on the Section 21 then, unless it was served some time ago, then it's likely to be invalid as it should have been 3 months.

If they re-serve the Section 21 then they've now got to give 6 months notice.

Allowing for the delays there will be in the courts when repossession cases start again then it's likely to be 12 or so months before the landlord regains possession if the tenant digs her heels in.

MaryNB

Something to bear in mind - if she can't afford to pay the rent she may have to look for council housing. It's unlikely the council will help her if she leaves after the S21. She'll have to wait for the landlord to apply to the court and for the court to grant an eviction order. If she leaves before the bailiffs arrive to evict her the council will deem her to have made herself intentionally homeless and may not help. 

Comms69

seatbeltnoob said:

I know the landlord, me and my family were due to rent a whole house from the landlord.

Landlord gave 2 months notice for all current tenants to leave. 3 bedrooms were rented to 3 tenants, 2 tenants have left early but one tenant is sitll in property.

Landlord was receiving 2/3 of his rent for about 4 months and has been informed that the one who wasn't paying rent is the one who is still in the property.

The offical end date for tenancy is 31st August, and we were meant to move in 1st September.

I have been waiitng a while for this property to be available,  don't know whether we should move in and occupy the house. Problem is the rental is under different arragement. The whole house in ours, we will be paing for the full property and we have young children. But there is a woman in the property.

If we move in, does she have full rights as a tenant (can't be forcceibly evicted,, need to get a court order for eviction etc). Or does she become like our lodger where she has had no tenancy rights and we can just change the locks on her and turf her out of the property?

Not only does she not become a lodger, she retained access to all communal areas. Pay her to leave

pinkshoes

seatbeltnoob said:

I know the landlord, me and my family were due to rent a whole house from the landlord.

Landlord gave 2 months notice for all current tenants to leave. 3 bedrooms were rented to 3 tenants, 2 tenants have left early but one tenant is sitll in property.

Landlord was receiving 2/3 of his rent for about 4 months and has been informed that the one who wasn't paying rent is the one who is still in the property.

The offical end date for tenancy is 31st August, and we were meant to move in 1st September.

I have been waiitng a while for this property to be available,  don't know whether we should move in and occupy the house. Problem is the rental is under different arragement. The whole house in ours, we will be paing for the full property and we have young children. But there is a woman in the property.

If we move in, does she have full rights as a tenant (can't be forcceibly evicted,, need to get a court order for eviction etc). Or does she become like our lodger where she has had no tenancy rights and we can just change the locks on her and turf her out of the property?

Well until the final tenant is evicted, which could take MONTHS given Covid changes, you cannot rent the whole house.

I would suggest renting the other two rooms for now. I'm not sure how long this woman will want to remain in a house with a family and young children... It might give her more of an incentive to move out, although unless you know her personal circumstances this might not happen. If she wants a council house, it is going to be a VERY long drawn out process.

Or you could get the LL to offer her a sum of money to leave? Offer her £2000 if she moves out by X date.

Hannimal

Find somewhere else and forget about this place.

greatcrested

seatbeltnoob said:

...

Landlord gave 2 months notice for all current tenants to leave. 3 bedrooms were rented to 3 tenants, 2 tenants have left early but one tenant is sitll in property.

Landlord was receiving 2/3 of his rent for about 4 months and has been informed that the one who wasn't paying rent is the one who is still in the property.

It is unclear if

* the 3 tenants were all on the same 'joint and several' tenancy though the sentence above about the arrears suggests this is so.In which case the remaining tenant has rights over the entire property and no on else can move in till she is legally evicted. Likely to be 6 - 12 months.

* or there were 3 separate tenancies - one for each tenant. In that case, the two unoccupied rooms could be re-let, with the common areas (kitchen,living room etc) being shared by the existing tenant and you (or whoever).

seatbeltnoob

The tenancies were seperate. They all had the same start date as the LA had 3 people all moving in on the same date. Each tenant has tenancy for their rooms and kitchen. There was a 4th room (the living room which was informally rented to a friend of LL). The 3 tenants through lettings agency had no right to the living room.

It's a bad situation because we need a property, and can't get any other place as the budget was reasonable and universal credit friendly.

I could move in and occupy the two bedrooms and living rooms, but that isn't ideal as I need a full house as my daughter is 2yo and needs all the space.

I am hoping this tenant moves out, not sure if I should move in and take the house which might prompt her to leave (if she had plans of overstaying her tenancy).

It's a small 3 bedroom flat and we're a young family - I can't fathom sharing it with an adult stranger who we've never met before.