Tenant has handed in notice but won't pay rent for April 2025

cs95aam

Hello,

I'm asking on behalf of an elderly landlord. His tenant has handed in his notice and has said he will leave at the end of April. He always pays his rent on the 3rd of the month but he didn't for this month. The landlord only noticed a week ago. He asked him about it and the tenant told him that his laptop was damaged and he suffered loss of data several months ago when a portion of the plasterboard from the bedroom ceiling fell. The ceiling was repaired. At no point did the tenant complain about the laptop back then. The tenant and landlord have been on very good terms for many years although I think the landlord was far too friendly and lenient with him. A year's agreement was initially signed many years ago but the landlord did not renew it after a year. Perhaps he wasn't aware.

The deposit is protected with the DPS but is far less than the current rent. We've sent him an email last night asking for an explanation as to why he has not paid rent and when he will pay. No response so far. 

There is one other tenant in the property who pays his rent to the leaving tenant and he has already paid his rent to him. So the departing tenant has his portion of the rent too.

The landlord fears the departing tenant will probably leave without paying. Landlord says he has his onward address but we're not sure if it's genuine. Even with the deposit returned back to landlord he will be considerably out of pocket and is causing him considerable distress. Thanks.

silvercar

No need for a landlord to renew a fixed term, it just becomes periodic. If the tenant doesn’t pay the rent, the landlord could deduct it from the deposit. If that leaves a shortfall the landlord could take the tenant to court, or just chalk it up as one of the costs of being a landlord. 

itsthelittlethings

It’s only really acceptable not to pay your rent for the last month if your deposit covers the rent.

Sam_666

It's landlords  fault for not asking  for 5 weeks deposit at start and not  running business as business.
Hopefully lesson learnt.

RAS

@cs95aam What exactly is the arrangement regarding the tenancy, since you refer to two tenants. 

Do the tenants rent separate accommodation, but the habit has been for the departing tenant to collect the other's and pass it on?
Is it an HMO, with shared common space and separate sleeping quarters which is let on a room basis?
Is it a joint tenancy in which both tenants pay half the rent?

Voyager2002

As a matter of urgency, the landlord should contact the second tenant and change the arrangement so that the rent is paid to him directly, not to the departing tenant.

Voyager2002

itsthelittlethings said:

It’s only really acceptable not to pay your rent for the last month if your deposit covers the rent.

Not even then. The deposit is held to cover possible damage and so forth, and should be returned promptly after the final inspection.

silvercar

Sam_666 said:

It's landlords  fault for not asking  for 5 weeks deposit at start and not  running business as business.
Hopefully lesson learnt.

It may be that the deposit was 5 weeks rent at the start of the tenancy. Many landlords don’t see the need to increase the deposit mid tenancy when they have good tenants.

cs95aam

Sam_666 said:

It's landlords  fault for not asking  for 5 weeks deposit at start and not  running business as business.
Hopefully lesson learnt.

He's still reluctant to ask the next tenant for 5 weeks rent. So what happens if the rent goes up? Does the landlord need to ask the tenant to top up the deposit? Not sure how that works.

cs95aam

silvercar said:

Sam_666 said:

It's landlords  fault for not asking  for 5 weeks deposit at start and not  running business as business.
Hopefully lesson learnt.

It may be that the deposit was 5 weeks rent at the start of the tenancy. Many landlords don’t see the need to increase the deposit mid tenancy when they have good tenants.

It was 4 weeks rent and it was an incredibly low amount and it was set up a very long time ago. So now the rent is a lot higher but still considerably lower than the local average. Even if the landlord claims the deposit he will be considerably out of pocket. He was a good tenant but I often thought the landlord was being too nice to him and I warned him about being such good friends with a tenant. 

cs95aam

RAS said:

@cs95aam What exactly is the arrangement regarding the tenancy, since you refer to two tenants. 

Do the tenants rent separate accommodation, but the habit has been for the departing tenant to collect the other's and pass it on?
Is it an HMO, with shared common space and separate sleeping quarters which is let on a room basis?
Is it a joint tenancy in which both tenants pay half the rent?

It's a shared house. Yes the departing tenant said he'd make things easy for the landlord by collecting, the other tenant has one room. Really there was no need for him to do that. He should have collected the rent directly from him. Each tenant has their own contract. The departing tenant paid more as he is renting more bedrooms.