Urgent advice on notice/vacating a property

rero71

Hello,

we are on a 1year AST that expires on April the 30th, and we have given formal notice to our landlord right now, 14th of April.

He's asking for a full May month's rent, too.

We have this written on the contract:

We will be leaving the property in a few days, could anyone knowledgeable on the matter help us out understanding if the landlord is right or not?

Many thanks

Ayr_Rage

Looks pretty clear cut to me, if you have been paying rent monthly then you owe for May.

Bookworm225

you have a contractual condition requiring you to give the LL one calendar month's notice that you do not wish to continue the tenancy at the end of the fixed period. That therefore should have been served on or before 1 April and expires on 30 April

by waiting until 14th April you are too late and therefore jump 1 calendar month to the next minimum notice period being 1 May - 31st May 

by accepting the contract with that term in you leave yourself open to being sued by the LL for breach of contract, notwithstanding that the fixed term expired on 30 April. 

the LL is correct. Did the LL not ask you if you intended to continue after the fixed term (they are not required to but it would be strange business behaviour not to find out what was going to happen to their property on 1 May) as it seems odd that if you knew you did not want to, why ignore that contract term or at least let them know sooner than the 14th?

GDB2222

I suppose it is worth noting that you can stay on until 31 May.

Tabieth

Yes, as others have said, you owe rent for the whole month of May as you need to give a whole calendar month’s notice. 

FlorayG

Sad but true. You have to give notice of one 'payment period' and as you gave notice after the April payment was made, you owe May as well. LL can let you off that if they want to but if LL doesn't, you have to pay

rero71

Thanks everyone

Sue_S

If I were you I would check with Shelter as to the legalities.  My daughter was in the same situation and being asked for two months' rent.  She didn't have to pay as legally the contract expires on the date stated, a new tenancy doesn't start until one day later (usually a 'rolling' tenancy).  Legally you can leave on the last day of the contract without giving any notice at all.  Please check this out as this happened quite a few years ago and things may have changed.

rero71

Thanks everyone.

We’ve ended up paying rent until the 31st of May.

After a discussion with the (almost 80yo) landlord, who frankly struggles to communicate when someone disagrees with him, and because we no longer want any further involvement with him, we left the keys and checked out the house and had to agree that he could begin renovation works with his builders during May. This is despite the fact that we’re still paying full rent, water, electricity (no gas) and council tax, and remain legally responsible for the property. 

We have audio and video evidence of him stating that the house was in perfect, spotless condition when he briefly inspected it, before quickly leaving as the discussion became uncomfortable. We then had to go to his property to return the keys and complete the check-out.

He’s been greedy, manipulative, and harassing throughout the tenancy, and overall just incredibly difficult to deal with. We’re just trying to move on.

We were shouted at by his builder when we raised concerns about the cost of the storage heaters and suggested that the wall sockets might have been swapped with the Economy 7 ones, which turned out to be true.
We were also told we were "too European" simply because we asked for a mixer tap in the bathroom which was never mounted.

When we initially said we weren’t comfortable with him starting works while we were still liable for the property (so proposing a negotiation for May's rent), he even threatened to contact our new letting agency, despite having already given us a positive reference (as he should have, since we’ve been fantastic tenants).

Our question is this: if we find out that new tenants move in before the end of May, while we’re still paying for the property, is that legal? And if not, is there anything we can do about it?

This whole situation feels extremely unfair. We left the house in much better condition than we found it (apart from normal wear and tear, like a fresh re-paint needed after 5 years), we’re clean, respectful, and careful tenants. And yet, this landlord (who owns multiple properties) has squeezed every last penny from a young couple, all while pretending to care about how hard it is for young people to buy their first home.

If any landlords are reading this, what’s your perspective? Isn’t this exactly what greed looks like?

Bookworm225

Sue_S said:

If I were you I would check with Shelter as to the legalities.  My daughter was in the same situation and being asked for two months' rent.  She didn't have to pay as legally the contract expires on the date stated, a new tenancy doesn't start until one day later (usually a 'rolling' tenancy).  Legally you can leave on the last day of the contract without giving any notice at all.  Please check this out as this happened quite a few years ago and things may have changed.

breach of contract term is breach of contract term
it for the court to decide if any compensation arises from that 

FlorayG

This is what gives LL  a bad name and of course nobody ever bothers to post to say how fabulous and easy to negotiate with their LL is. Yes I agree with you your LL is just greedy and personally I would NOT have given his access until the last day of my tenancy - the builders will be using electricity which you will pay for and you're in a slightly sticky situation if the Ll moves in another tenant while you are still responsible for the property. Best wishes in your new place
As for contacting your new agency if you don't give access - that's coercion and illegal