Financial advice needed - rent paid late

[NCrent]

Previous flatmate had been chasing me for rent but I wasn’t sure if I was liable.

I left my previous tenancy early but found someone to replace me in the contract, and officially left on 7th December. It was an agency landlord and we had a ‘property manager’ from the agency for all queries.

The rental contract first started mid month (eg 14th January) and rent was due every month on the 13th. I paid rent as usual on the 13th November then left 7th December.
I called my property manager checking if I also needed to pay the first 7 days of December rent on top and then the replacement would pay the rest for December.

Agency property manager said I was only liable to the 7th December but because I pay rent mid month (13th November) it should be covered until the 13th December, so actually owed few days by replacement who moved in 8th December.

Hence, I explain this to the previous flatmate but they claimed the agency property manager is making a mistake and I still need to pay those 7 days of rent. Previous flatmate thinks despite us paying rent mid month it only covers until the 31st, so my last payment covered until 31st November not 13th December. The previous flatmate has also never lied to me.

English is not my first language, and I struggle reading formal contracts and the original tenancy agreement doesn’t clearly state whether rent covers from 13th to 13th of next month if that makes any sense. It just says that rent is paid monthly / due by the 13th.

Previous flatmate kindly forwarded agency email saying £200ish rent was still overdue (this equals 7 days of rent missing from month) so he thinks I need to pay it. It was only directed towards the previous flatmate and my replacement as I’m no longer on the contract.

Due to the festive period, the agency has temporarily closed until 28th December. I was panicked about owing money and delaying it more incurring further charges so have paid this remaining rent today directly to agency.
I obviously would have paid straight away if they had chased me directly or told me I owed this money, but they never did. Again, my previous flatmate had no reason to lie.

It doesn't sound like anyone was lying just that there was poor communication.

If you moved in on 13th January did you pay a month's rent then and then a month's rent Feb 13th? If so I'd assume your contract runs 13-13 so your rent covered to Dec 13th.

If you moved in on 13th January and first payment was 13th February, you were paying in paying in arrears so 13th Dec would be for Nov/Dec and you'd owe three weeks from 13Nov to 7Dec

If you moved in on 13th January and paid 2 weeks til end of month then 4 weeks in February so that covered the whole of January, you'd owe one week.

You really need to speak to the lettings agency. It should be clear on their books what the rental period is.

How is it anything to do with your previous flatmate? Surely you pay the rent to the agency & they've already said you're paid up until 13 December.

Thanks @SleepingStandingUp I will definitely chase agency first thing once they reopen. Looking back I have always paid rent once a month, including a month’s rent for when we moved in.

The flatmate had also replied directly to the agency chasing him for the £200ish week of rent, CC’ing me and explaining to them he (and my replacement) had paid the rent but the rest was owed by me. I doubt he would have told the agency that unless he was confident he was correct.

The agency never replied to confirm to him that I owed the money or not (presume because they had finished for Christmas by then).
The agency ‘property manager’ (who said my November rent covered first week of December) is a different member of staff to the person in the agency who chases for overdue rent too which makes it slightly more confusing. I’m not even sure whether she was aware part of the rent was overdue.

I’ve paid it now as I was scared delaying it if I was liable would make the situation worse, but I’m slightly frustrated the agency couldn’t have made things clearer before hand.

@ILikeItWhatIsIt Yes I have only ever paid rent to the agency, but because of what my flatmate had said I was paranoid they had made a mistake and the last rent paid had only covered until 31st November. I don’t think my flatmate would lie about this, and he had even emailed the agency themselves to say that I was the one who owed a week of rent (they didn’t reply to confirm because now out of office).