Being evicted before completion

Apollo1988

Hello, first time poster, long time watcher, so please use the kid gloves.

We are in the process of buying our first property (yay), waiting on the searches to be completed and then hopefully shortly after we can get a completion date.

However we are on a AST rental that ends on 29th May. Two months ago when our letting agent asked if we wanted to extend we explained we were looking at buying our first property and if we could go on a rolling monthly contract. Rather than renewing for another 12 months. Mainly as we didn’t know how long it would take. We also asked what the costs would be for terminating early if we did renew for another 12 months. The letting agent responded with issuing us S21 notices to vacate on the 29th May.

Luckily we found the house we wanted and had our offer accepted. Due to a 5 week delay with Habito sending our documentation to the solicitor they engaged for us, it’s taken much longer than we expected and now I’m almost certain we won’t be completing before the 29th May.

Not really sure what to do. Neither of us have family in London. Always paid our rent on time and never thought we’d be in this position. Short term let’s seem to be mostly hotels running into the multiples of thousands of pounds.

I’m hoping we can get a date for completion before the 29th May, so do we stay in our rental property beyond the date our contract expires?

user1977

In short, yes. You don't get evicted on the date stated in the S21 notices, that would come a long time afterwards if your landlord went to court about it.

RAS

Hi, the S21 does not end your tenancy; it automatically rolls-over to a periodic tenancy, by law. 

All the S21 does is allow the LL to ask the courts to grant possession; sometime in the next 6-18 months based on recent reports.

Read your tenancy agreement so that you understand whether your roll over to a contractual tenancy or a statutory one. And find out how much notice you need to give. 

canaldumidi

For a full explanation see

Post 4: Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

saajan_12

Apollo1988 said:

Hello, first time poster, long time watcher, so please use the kid gloves.

We are in the process of buying our first property (yay), waiting on the searches to be completed and then hopefully shortly after we can get a completion date.

However we are on a AST rental that ends on 29th May. - the fixed term ends 29May. The underlying tenancy continues beyond that automatically. 
Two months ago when our letting agent asked if we wanted to extend we explained we were looking at buying our first property and if we could go on a rolling monthly contract. Rather than renewing for another 12 months. Mainly as we didn’t know how long it would take. We also asked what the costs would be for terminating early if we did renew for another 12 months. The letting agent responded with issuing us S21 notices to vacate on the 29th May. - no, that can only be a S21 notice that they'll go to court on or after 29th May, to ask for a possession order (ie you vacate) by some date in the following months. 

Luckily we found the house we wanted and had our offer accepted. Due to a 5 week delay with Habito sending our documentation to the solicitor they engaged for us, it’s taken much longer than we expected and now I’m almost certain we won’t be completing before the 29th May. 

Not really sure what to do. Neither of us have family in London. Always paid our rent on time and never thought we’d be in this position. Short term let’s seem to be mostly hotels running into the multiples of thousands of pounds.

I’m hoping we can get a date for completion before the 29th May, so do we stay in our rental property beyond the date our contract expires? - yes, you stay. When you're ready to leave (ie exchanged) then you serve notice based on the periodic tenancy you're on at the time. Unless it takes another several months (eg 6+) its unlikely the court process will get anywhere before you're ready to move anyway. 

Whatever they say, your tenancy continues beyond 29th May and their notice is NOT asking you to leave. The court then have to review, and if all correct then grant a possession order which will give you another few weeks to actually leave. 

After 29th May, you'd automatically go onto a periodic tenancy - the terms of which can be checked on your last contract, or if it says nothing then its a SPT whereby you can give 1 tenancy period notice ending on the 29th of a month. Once you exchange, then serve notice per this periodic tenancy, to leave on say 29th June / July / Aug. Note if you only exchange on say 1st June, you'll be too late to give notice for 29th June. You may be able to negotiate a mutual termination date that suits you and the LL, but they can refuse, so the earliest termination date you can enforce unilatterallly would be 29th July, ie nearly 2 months away. Hence you might need to budget for a couple of months of overlap of rent + mortgage. 

diego_94

Just ignore them. Make sure you give the required notice as per your rental contract AFTER you have exchanged contracts on the house you are buying.

CardiffCrank

I'm preparing for this too as our landlords want to sell. I think we'll be out before they start pushing though. Give the S21 a going over with a fine tooth comb and if you find any issues, don't mention them until they're about to get their court hearing. Then they may correct the S21 and start again. But fingers crossed you won't need anything like that much time.

CardiffCrank

And let them know a bit in advance if you're not going to be leaving. My understanding is that it costs you nothing, and may avoid any potential unpleasantness with them turning up expecting an empty flat.

Gycraig

Looking about 6 months minimum to be removed by a s21 at the moment and would be a massive waste of time if you are planning to leave anyway, just tell them what your plan is and leave them to it 

ProDave

What a stupid landlord.  He knows you will be leaving soon and leaving amicably.  If that were me I would just have let it roll to a periodic tenancy and await you the tenant giving your notice when you have a completion date.

Instead, the idiot wants to evict you.  Just what does he hope to gain?  He won't get you out sooner as already explained, he will just incur extra costs and will have soured what was probably a good relationship before he did that.

What a plonker.

Sit tight, proceed with your purchase and leave when you are ready.  I guess the only upside of this is no need now to give notice, just leave on your completion day.

sidneyvic

It's not the landlord, it's the letting agent cashing in. getting paid to issue a 12 month AST, getting paid to issue a section 21 etc etc.
They have to screw whatever they can out of gullible landlords now they can't screw tenants as easily.
If I was the op I would write directly to the landlord explaining their intentions and that as is their right they will not be leaving when section 21 expires.