Covid - Am I protected from being evicted without an official tenancy?

mrkat

I moved into my rented house 1.5 years ago and was on an assured shorthold tenancy for 1 year with an estate agent and then for 6 months privately with the landlord. This was fixed for 6 months, ending in May and I was given official notice in March but we agreed that we could stay informally (no contract) while he sold the house which he thought would take a 3-4 months. It's actually going much quicker and 3 weeks ago he said we need to move out by July 5th but now he's saying June 14th, if not earlier. 
We are doing all we can to move but the rental market is crazy - we've called over a hundred places and everything's going within days, even hours! Because we have dogs, we're obviously bottom of the list as prospects. 
In the event that we can't move, are we protected? I know that since covid, the law states a landlord needs to give 6 months notice (which would mean we can officially stay until September as he gave us notice in March) but as we were on a 6 month contract and have no official contract for now, does that still apply?

anselld

Your contract does not terminate at the end of the fixed period.  It continues on the same terms on either a contractual or statutory periodic tenancy depending on what is written within the contract.

If the L gave you valid notice (s21) in March then that would be six months notice, ie September.  If they give notice from tomorrow it is four months, ie October.

Even if the s21 is valid you do not need to leave until the L obtains a Court Order which may be several more months.

There are many reasons why a s21 may not be valid.  Check here ...

   https://markprichard.co.uk/content/documents/180408-Section-21-checker-tool.pdf

Blue_bell_20

You will be on a rolling/monthly contract. Just because the initial ast has ended it doesn’t mean you lose your rights to stay. It sounds like the landlord either doesn’t know or they are hoping you don’t.

mrkat

anselld said:

Your contract does not terminate at the end of the fixed period.  It continues on the same terms on either a contractual or statutory periodic tenancy depending on what is written within the contract.

If the L gave you valid notice (s21) in March then that would be six months notice, ie September.  If they give notice from tomorrow it is four months, ie October.

Even if the s21 is valid you do not need to leave until the L obtains a Court Order which may be several more months.

There are many reasons why a s21 may not be valid.  Check here ...

   https://markprichard.co.uk/content/documents/180408-Section-21-checker-tool.pdf

Thanks so much for this, it seems that the S21 isn't valid for a few reasons. We're hoping it won't get to that as we've had a good relationship with the landlord and are still trying the best we can to leave. I just wanted some assurance that we wouldn't end up homeless if we couldn't find a house in the next 2 weeks! So thank you

theoretica

The landlord has a huge incentive to help you find someplace - and the landlord's estate agent too - do they also handle rentals?  Make your problem theirs too - 'we've been looking, but can't find anywhere, can you help us find someplace with XYZ criteria?'

Grumpy_chap

As others said, once the fixed term ends, you just move into a rolling contract.

Have you given a statement to the LL that you will vacate by a certain date (either verbally or in writing)?  Or have you just said you will start to look for somewhere to move to?  I very much doubt the LL will be able to exchange on the sale unless they have the certainty of vacant possession.

Irrespective of whether the S21 is or is not valid, it is pragmatic to stay on the side of the LL, given that you do not appear minded to force this to stay as long as possible.  You could mention to the LL that the market is inflated at present and see whether there is an offer forthcoming to assist with the move and change in monthly cost.

macman

There is no such thing as an 'official/unofficial tenancy'. You either have a legal tenancy, or you do not. If the S21 is invalid, then the LL must start again and re-serve you with 4 months notice as of tomorrow. Then maybe another 8 to 12 months at least if you decline to move out until a possession order is obtained. So I can't imagine what makes you think you could be 'homeless in two weeks'?

mrkat

Grumpy_chap said:

As others said, once the fixed term ends, you just move into a rolling contract.

Have you given a statement to the LL that you will vacate by a certain date (either verbally or in writing)?  Or have you just said you will start to look for somewhere to move to?  I very much doubt the LL will be able to exchange on the sale unless they have the certainty of vacant possession.

Irrespective of whether the S21 is or is not valid, it is pragmatic to stay on the side of the LL, given that you do not appear minded to force this to stay as long as possible.  You could mention to the LL that the market is inflated at present and see whether there is an offer forthcoming to assist with the move and change in monthly cost.

We haven't given him a set date and have just emailed to say we're finding it challenging. We had always said that we were flexible and he said he would give us 2 months notice which he did but then cut short by 3 weeks. We didn't know that the market had become so challenging when we agreed to being flexible as now, it doesn't seem like we can be. We had planned to move abroad but that's got slowed down. Now, with health issues, we've been looking for another short term rental in England or long term as well - basically, anywhere that will allow us with the dogs but we're not having any luck competing against dogless people! 

mrkat

theoretica said:

The landlord has a huge incentive to help you find someplace - and the landlord's estate agent too - do they also handle rentals?  Make your problem theirs too - 'we've been looking, but can't find anywhere, can you help us find someplace with XYZ criteria?'

Thanks, we'll try the estate agents, that's a great idea

mrkat

macman said:

There is no such thing as an 'official/unofficial tenancy'. You either have a legal tenancy, or you do not. If the S21 is invalid, then the LL must start again and re-serve you with 4 months notice as of tomorrow. Then maybe another 8 to 12 months at least if you decline to move out until a possession order is obtained. So I can't imagine what makes you think you could be 'homeless in two weeks'?

Hopefully it won't come to this, I don't think we're going to say it's invalid as we've been on good terms with him and don't want to make things nasty. It's just good to know that legally he can't evict us if we can't find anywhere else to live. Thanks for your help

wilfred30

You may not have been aware that when he gave you a S21 in March, the notice period should have been 6 months due to Covid, but it's highly likely that the LL did so it looks like the 'good terms' you describe might not be so 'good' from his side.
You don't need to rush/panic as it will take him a long time to actually evict you due to the enormous backlog of cases.
Also, he should've waited until you had left before he put the house on the market.