Been offered cash to leave my rental

bertie1979

I've been renting a place and owners have tried to evict me 3 times now.
First time previous owners didn't follow the S21 procedure.
Second time went to court and pointed out I had an LPG fire in the lounge & new owners didn't get a gas safety check (S21 procedure).
Third time, current owners again couldn't prove they issued the S21 notice correctly and was due to go to court on Monday, the owners have now withdrawn their court case and sent via text message a "Without Prejudice" offer of £10k for me to vacate the property by 31st March, I have 14 days to respond to him via text or email to his business email address (he owns a finance firm), the letter also states if I don't accept they'll use the funds set aside for legal recourse.

just to confirm they have sent the same letter/text to my phone twice (same day from different phone numbers) and to my rental address & my parents address, I've also received a letter from their legal reps to tell me they have removed their last S21 court claim.

Now what's the best way to go about this? Is this offer legally binding?

Obviously I'll accept, do i tell him to write to my home address & email account via his solicitor (well barrister)?
Do I get a solicitor of my own to reply?
How do I ensure I receive the cash?
Does a solicitor hold the cash in escrow, so that when I inform them I've vacated, the funds can then be sent?

I'm not interested in negotiating with him (worried if went back and said I'll take £10k plus won't pay rent until i move out for instance it then makes his offer null & void??).
my rental is only £775 a month so £10k is quite a chunk and I'll make sure i find somewhere suitable, will be able to afford more now.

thanks

propertyrental

Sounds like a good offer, which you seem keen to accept.

It seems inevitable that eventually the lL will get the S21 straightened out and you'll b evicted - just a question of time.

As for the practicalities of ensuring both sides are protected.

* LL needs to protect themselves against giving you the £10K and then you don't vacate
* you need to protect against vacating and then not receiving the £10K

One of the solicitors here will advise the best way....

user1977

Arranging it between your respective solicitors (and getting the LL to pay the legal costs) would seem the safest option, but I don't know what's normal for residential tenancy surrenders. I suspect many just involve a wodge of cash being handed over in exchange for the keys.

letom

Get your own solicitor then it's a solicitor to solicitor transfer and everything can become more legally binding, e.g. he should be writing to you as opposed to texting. However if you can get a quick agreement sorted between solicitors then this should be the best way for both parties to gain comfort. In terms of who pays for your solicitor, well you could try and get him to but then in effect you're saying you'll leave for £10+ e.g. £500, so are negotiating upwards their offer. Given it seems to be a good deal I would just use the monies to pay off the solicitor.

housebuyer143

Well played 👍 

macman

Your LL clearly has more cash than intelligence...what a shambles.
I agree, with the above with a sum this great they need to make you a written offer (though the texts still have legal validity, so save them), and then the cash should be held by a third party. They should pay the solicitor costs of both sides for the escrow.

silvercar

I witnessed this done once. The tenant packed up and moved everything out at which point they literally swapped keys for cash on the doorstep. The tenant signed that they were moving of their own free will and surrendered all rights to the property. The landlord also signed that he accepted the end of the tenancy and I witnessed. Two copies, one retained by the tenant and one by the landlord. In this case no solicitors were involved. 

bertie1979

just to clarify, letters have been posted to my parents address & rental address as well as the texts (I'm guessing the letter was crafted and then copied into text as it's exactly the same text).

but looks like solicitors will be the way to go.

macman

I'm not sure I'd want to do a doorstep exchange for as much as £10k. The OP might just get unfortunately mugged by an associate of the LL straight after the handover...

bertie1979

well as you can obviously tell there's a bit of animosity, so i don't want any physical direct contact with them anyway.

i just want to ensure that if i now move out in the next 6 weeks, i definitely receive the cash as opposed to me leaving and him then saying "ok see you in court for getting this cash".

so i'll be happy to leave the property without the cash, but still want my tenant rights until the money hits my account.

saajan_12

You could go the solicitor route, but then you're effectively negotiating for the amount of (both) solicitors costs. 

I'd just reply stating you agree and that forms a contract. To be extra clear, specify the vacation date, what happens to the remaining rent, what happens to the deposit and any potential deductions.

Then either exchange the cash on the doorstep, or the LL can send a faster payments transfer on the day, in front of you even. Unlikely to be any issues, but as a backstop you can always raise a money claim online for the money, citing your agreement. This is the same risk that LLs take every month with a property in a tenant's possession, hoping they pay ongoing rent.