Leaving rental property

gardening_lover

Looking for some advice...
Recently, we bought our first house. We asked for early release from our contract of our rental, which our landlord agreed to in writing, and as such asked for a completion date in line with this. 

The final inspection revealed a few issues, some we knew about and take complete responsibility for, but others that feel a little bit like nit picking, and as such the landlord has now said we cannot leave the contract early and will need to pay rent for the next two months. 

I suppose my questions are:

1) as he agreed to an early release and we have this in writing, can you back track on this?
2) Can we offer he keeps the deposit rather than pay another 2 months rent? The issues he has raised are an unclean oven and repainting a room, which don't feel like 2 months worth of work to me.

I'm aware we're to blame for some of it, so I understand keeping the deposit will probably need to happen, but paying 2 months of mortgage and rent at the same time just isn't feasible for us. We would have not completed until the contract was up if this was the case.

Voyager2002

There are two separate issues:

You had a contract and were obliged to pay rent until the end of your contract, but the landlord has agreed to end the contract early. He did not have to do so, but you have his agreement in writing;

The landlord states that you have damaged the property: if there really is damage that goes beyond normal wear and tear then you are obliged to pay to make good the damage. It might happen (by coincidence) that the cost of the damage happened to be the same as the rent for a two-month period, but even so there would be no obligation to continue to pay rent. Nor would making payments to repair damage give you the right to live in the property after the end of the tenancy.

BonaDea

Why not just clean the oven (Oven Pride, sold in supermarkets for £4 or so, makes this easy) and repaint the room back to its original colour?  That would be much cheaper than losing rent and/or deposit.

Jemma01

He can't just change his mind, things don't work like that. An agreement in writing, overrides the contract. He agreed to a new exit date, tough luck.

A professional cleaner wouldn't cost a whole deposit. Can you pay someone to clean the house? Same for painting, can you paint it yourself?

Ehat exactly have you damaged that warrants a whole deposit? (5weeks rent I'd imagine?)

Is your deposit protected by a deposit protection scheme? Make sure to contact them yourself to release the fund and dispute anything unreasonable.

RAS

When you say the LL agreed to early surrender, can you quote, please?

Presumably you and the LL have the incoming inventory and photos? He can expect the property returned to have the same state as he rented it to you.

Presumably you have already left the property so can't get in an oven cleaning company? And that the oven was pristine when you moved in?

Did you repaint the room? Or is the LL saying it now needs repainting because you've damaged the paint? Or just it is now old and needs repainting?

I'd add that given the demand for rentals generally, I'd be very surprised if he couldn't re-let as is, but he is entitled for compensation of damage.

propertyrental

See bold below

gardening_lover said:

....We asked for early release from our contract of our rental, which our landlord agreed to in writing, and as such asked for a completion date in line with this.  so was an actual end date for the tenance agreed in writing, or just an enenforceable agreement to end it early "when you have a Completion date"?

What date was agreed?

The final inspection revealed a few issues, some we knew about and take complete responsibility for, but others that feel a little bit like nit picking, and as such the landlord has now said we cannot leave the contract early and will need to pay rent for the next two months.  If no end date was agreed the LL can change his mind. If an end date was agreed, he can't.

I suppose my questions are:

1) as he agreed to an early release and we have this in writing, can you back track on this? see above. What date was agreed?
2) Can we offer he keeps the deposit rather than pay another 2 months rent? The issues he has raised are an unclean oven and repainting a room, which don't feel like 2 months worth of work to me. yes you can offer. Whether he agrees is up to hime.

Has the LL given you a cost for the 2 jobs (oven, re-painting?)? Are they realistic? What is the value of the deposit. Have you got your own quotes to have the jobs done? If less than the deposit, offer that.

Or if the tenancy early surrender HAS been agreed, and your quotes for the work are less than the deposit, then raise a deposit dispute when he deducts.

gardening_lover

Thanks everyone

For some clarity - we painted the house on the condition we repainted it back. We had some family situations over the same period as moving/repainting and didn't get to that one. We've offered to go back and return it now. 

The oven and house generally had been cleaned but the oven door has 2 glass panels that need to be removed and taken apart to be cleaned in between and I was nervous about doing this. We've offered to pay for a further professional cleaner.

These are the things pointed out to us which needed fixing and our landlord is stating that the house is in an unrentable condition due to this work and therefore we need to pay the 2 months rent. He is not accepting the offers we have given of the above or keeping the deposit, and has said we will also remain responsible for council tax and utilities. 

Early surrender was agreed and notice accepted for the 21st June. It was only on this day, when we contacted them to ask about the keys, that we were informed of the above. 

[Deleted User]

gardening_lover said:

Thanks everyone

For some clarity - we painted the house on the condition we repainted it back. We had some family situations over the same period as moving/repainting and didn't get to that one. We've offered to go back and return it now. 

The oven and house generally had been cleaned but the oven door has 2 glass panels that need to be removed and taken apart to be cleaned in between and I was nervous about doing this. We've offered to pay for a further professional cleaner.

These are the things pointed out to us which needed fixing and our landlord is stating that the house is in an unrentable condition due to this work and therefore we need to pay the 2 months rent. He is not accepting the offers we have given of the above or keeping the deposit, and has said we will also remain responsible for council tax and utilities. 

Early surrender was agreed and notice accepted for the 21st June. It was only on this day, when we contacted them to ask about the keys, that we were informed of the above. 

If surrender has been agreed, you are dealing with someone who has very odd concepts in terms of their belief they can unilaterally resurrect the tenancy. Just tell them that the tenancy ended by written agreement and request return of your deposit via the scheme. The landlord can request a reduction for the unclean oven and painting. 

doodling

Hi,

When you agreed the end of the tenancy, what was agreed about the rent.  To some extent, the two have to be considered and agreed separately.

It sounds like the tenancy was ended (and therefore you are no longer liable for utilities and council tax) but that is separate to the landlord waiving his right to the rent (or equivalent) for the rest of the fixed term.

Jemma01

gardening_lover said:

Thanks everyone

For some clarity - we painted the house on the condition we repainted it back. We had some family situations over the same period as moving/repainting and didn't get to that one. We've offered to go back and return it now. 

The oven and house generally had been cleaned but the oven door has 2 glass panels that need to be removed and taken apart to be cleaned in between and I was nervous about doing this. We've offered to pay for a further professional cleaner.

These are the things pointed out to us which needed fixing and our landlord is stating that the house is in an unrentable condition due to this work and therefore we need to pay the 2 months rent. He is not accepting the offers we have given of the above or keeping the deposit, and has said we will also remain responsible for council tax and utilities. 

Early surrender was agreed and notice accepted for the 21st June. It was only on this day, when we contacted them to ask about the keys, that we were informed of the above. 

Unrentable is a big word, I'll leave the dps to decide and not stress myself about it. He'll need to provide evidence and not just screech at you. I've just seen an unrentable house, it was not ventilated for probably two years, walls turned black, rust is everywhere, the kitchen is falling apart, the flooring is moving, that's unrentable and probably a hazard to rent as is.