How to get out of a 12 month renting contract when you were mislead and assured their were buses

margaretbrowning221

My daughter signed a 12 month contract and can not afford to learn to drive or a car and has a dog. She signed the contract and moved in only to find the bus stops had been taken down and there are no buses. The taxis will not take her dog to the vets unless she pays an extra £60. she can not afford to take the dog to vets and can not get a bus. The bus company told her they have stopped stopping near her house in the middle of no where because of shortage of bus drivers. The landlords assured her there was public transport and buses. she moved 2 & 1/2 hours away and had no transport so could not go to find out and now she is in this situation that she can not get her dog to vets or get anywhere. The last tenant was in same position and moved quickly but the landlord has tightened up the contract making it impossible to get out of it and is being told public transport / lack of is not covered. On the advertisement it stated good public transport links. Is there anyway she can get out of her contract?

propertyrental

I really don't think that public transport or the lack thereof is the LL's responsibility.

By your own admission, there used to be a bus stop. The LL cannot be expected to monitor every change, it's really down to the tenant to check the property, and its location, meets their needs before signing.

I take it there is no Break Clause in the contract? In which case she is dependant on the LL agreeing to a mutual Early Surrender, for which, assuming he agrees, he can demand prety much what he wants. Typically rent till a replacement is found and/or the marketing costs for finding a replacement.

housebuyer143

margaretbrowning221 said:

My daughter signed a 12 month contract and can not afford to learn to drive or a car and has a dog. She signed the contract and moved in only to find the bus stops had been taken down and there are no buses. The taxis will not take her dog to the vets unless she pays an extra £60. she can not afford to take the dog to vets and can not get a bus. The bus company told her they have stopped stopping near her house in the middle of no where because of shortage of bus drivers. The landlords assured her there was public transport and buses. she moved 2 & 1/2 hours away and had no transport so could not go to find out and now she is in this situation that she can not get her dog to vets or get anywhere. The last tenant was in same position and moved quickly but the landlord has tightened up the contract making it impossible to get out of it and is being told public transport / lack of is not covered. On the advertisement it stated good public transport links. Is there anyway she can get out of her contract?

Did she not think to look at the bus timetable and map before moving in if it is such an important requirement? 
I tend to look at important car routes before I move somewhere in case the journey times makes it unsuitable. If I didn't drive I would be looking at all public transport locally to ensure I could get around and probably wouldn't live rurally. I live semi rural now and wouldn't consider it wouldn't a car because even with a bus to the village it only runs once an hour!

Grizebeck

housebuyer143 said:

margaretbrowning221 said:

My daughter signed a 12 month contract and can not afford to learn to drive or a car and has a dog. She signed the contract and moved in only to find the bus stops had been taken down and there are no buses. The taxis will not take her dog to the vets unless she pays an extra £60. she can not afford to take the dog to vets and can not get a bus. The bus company told her they have stopped stopping near her house in the middle of no where because of shortage of bus drivers. The landlords assured her there was public transport and buses. she moved 2 & 1/2 hours away and had no transport so could not go to find out and now she is in this situation that she can not get her dog to vets or get anywhere. The last tenant was in same position and moved quickly but the landlord has tightened up the contract making it impossible to get out of it and is being told public transport / lack of is not covered. On the advertisement it stated good public transport links. Is there anyway she can get out of her contract?

Did she not think to look at the bus timetable and map before moving in if it is such an important requirement? 
I tend to look at important car routes before I move somewhere in case the journey times makes it unsuitable. If I didn't drive I would be looking at all public transport locally to ensure I could get around and probably wouldn't live rurally. I live semi rural now and wouldn't consider it wouldn't a car because even with a bus to the village it only runs once an hour!

When we brought our next house the first thing i did was check buses ( i drive but wanted bus connections
Its common sense

CSI_Yorkshire

Unfortunately, the advert isn't binding, only the tenancy agreement is.  I don't think there'll be anything in there saying "the tenant can leave if there isn't enough buses".

There are two ways out, as other posters have noted - either a break clause (which will usually define when it can be used and how much notice is required) or mutual surrender (which can involve paying a lot of money).

saajan_12

margaretbrowning221 said:

My daughter signed a 12 month contract and can not afford to learn to drive or a car and has a dog. - okay, so she presumably checked out the local vets, dog parks, public transport connections etc
She signed the contract and moved in only to find the bus stops had been taken down and there are no buses. 
The taxis will not take her dog to the vets unless she pays an extra £60. she can not afford to take the dog to vets and can not get a bus. The bus company told her they have stopped stopping near her house in the middle of no where because of shortage of bus drivers. - well 3rd party bus company decisions and availability of drivers can change even during her tenancy, they're not answerable to anyone in the property industry.. Taxis will charge £60 more, or just that's the cost for a journey.. If she wants to reduce it, then maybe try to find a neighbour that drives and swap favours, or get a taxi upto a bus stop, or walk.. 
The landlords assured her there was public transport and buses. she moved 2 & 1/2 hours away and had no transport so could not go to find out and now she is in this situation that she can not get her dog to vets or get anywhere. - any 'assurances' that she expected to rely on should have been included in the contract.. beyond anything the LL or agent says should be treated as background info, to be checked out by the tenant if important. Sounds like its not even an attempt to mislead by the LL as there was once a bus route, and they may not have known that changed. Its not their responsibility to check. 
The last tenant was in same position and moved quickly but the landlord has tightened up the contract making it impossible to get out of it and is being told public transport / lack of is not covered. - Well daughter could read what was / wasn't covered and what the notice periods were before signing the contract.. Public transport wouldn't be covered as standard, and contracts should be 'tight' so both parties can rely on them.. nothing sneaky there
On the advertisement it stated good public transport links. - right, that's an advert, one person's 'good links' may be different to someone else's. Thats why daughter needed to check out exactly what transport and whether it suited her needs. 
Is there anyway she can get out of her contract? - per the notice clauses or by negotiating with the LL. The latter will likely include finding a replacement and paying the rent in the meantime, plus any reletting costs so the LL suffers zero loss. 

Comments in line.. basically the transport links are not the LL's responsibility to check and regardless things may change.. Any comments made would be for background information only. It was up to daughter to check the transport if that was important and read the contract get out clauses. 

At this stage, the options are to
a) live with it and pay the taxi / walk, then give notice when the contract allows, or
b) negotiate with the LL, offering to find a replacement tenant and pay the reletting costs plus rent until someone else can start. 

ArbitraryRandom

Trying to find a positive, hopefully this can be a learning experience for your daughter. Something bad now, but that will help her in the future. 

Next time I would recommend she tries to view the property by travelling there on public transport. That would let her gauge what the services in the area are actually like. 

One thing I like to do is have a drink and/or a meal in a local pub/cafe. You can sit and spend an hour or so listening to the locals and a get a good feel for the area before making a commitment - something I do because of previous bad decisions that I learnt from. 

[Deleted User]

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Unfortunately, the advert isn't binding, only the tenancy agreement is.  I don't think there'll be anything in there saying "the tenant can leave if there isn't enough buses".

There are two ways out, as other posters have noted - either a break clause (which will usually define when it can be used and how much notice is required) or mutual surrender (which can involve paying a lot of money).

Thanks for posting something constructive and helpful. Most people just seem to come here to have a go at people they regard as having made mistakes.

Clive_Woody

The landlord cannot be held responsible for availability of services outside of the property (and not immediately related to the property). It is a renters responsiboto confirm what public transport, cafes, libraries, supermarkets, etc are available near the property.

sevenhills

Contact the vet, perhaps they can arrange transport or a home visit, or maybe their is a retired chap in the village that might give your daughter a lift.

deannagone

I would suggest your daughter tries to find a local facebook page (or nearly local) and asks if anyone would help with transport or asks what other people do.

In my area I use Uber and look for a car that will take pets.  My German Shepherd went to the vets in a taxi yesterday lol (although it has to be said, the driver wasn't exactly welcoming when he saw us lol).  But realise if it is an isolated area, there may not be many uber taxi's around (although you can prebook them).