AIBU to expect to be able to pay landlord part rent?

[KindnessofStrangers]

Myself, DD and DH are being evicted from our rented home as the landlord has sold the property. We have had a couple of months of stress with regards to moving and have had people come and view the house. Throughout this we have been extremely accommodating. We have now found somewhere to move to but need to move in mid month to get the property. We have asked the LL if we can give part payment of 20 days for that month so we are not doubling up on rents. This has given them six weeks notice but by law we would need to end the tenancy a day before rent is due so would by law owe a full month.
We have asked the LL to negotiate with us to come to an agreed fee but they have point blank refused and said they are surprised we would even ask this. They have said it is our 'choice' to move out mid-month, which seems a joke as they have evicted us.

We will lose about £350 if this happens. As the house has been sold the LL will recoup his 'loss' when the house is sold.

AIBU to expect them to at least negotiate with us and have some sympathy for a family they have removed from their home? I feel so frustrated I could cry.

Does your tenancy agreement say six weeks? Because Usually its 4 weeks notice from the tenant to move and 8 weeks notice TO the tenant.

It's a periodic contract which means we have to give 4 weeks notice but that period must end one day before rent is due, which means at the moment we will owe 10 days rent. I am really not someone who wouldn't honour money owed but I am asking for some room for negotiation seeing as they have had tenants in situe the whole time they had the house on the market removing any risk to them if it didn't sell.

You should be able to pay part rent.

I rented through an estate agency and when I gave them our notice, also gave them a date that we would be moving out of the property. I only had to pay rent up until the date that we would be moving out.

Do you have a tenancy agreement with terms about notice and moving out? Perhaps there are some estate agents on MN willing to clarify?

If they make you pay for it, once you're out and in your new place I'd be giving the nod to local squatters that there was a charming home vacated and ready for their use :)

He doesn't have to accept part rent. Good on you for asking though.

I like the squatters idea...

I thought the way tenancy clauses were normally worded were you had to give at least one months notice before the next month period.

E.g. if your tenancy started on the 15th of the month, you could give one months notice on the 14th of September and your tenancy would finish on the 14th of October. But I thought it was at least one month's notice so if you gave notice on the 14th of September that you were ending your tenancy on the 25th October that would be fine too.

As an aside, has the house been sold to a landlord or to someone intending to move in themselves. If the latter then I wouldn't have thought the solicitor would exchange without vacant posession.

Have you actually been served notice on the property?

I'm a firm believer in karma so wouldn't entertain the squatters route but I am a little bit tempted to deny access for the, not yet done, buyer survey.
I guess some of frustration is the total lack of protection for private tenants in the UK. On the continent it is not possible for a landlord to put a place up for sale whilst it has tenants in. I do understand that it's their prerogative to sell and as I said earlier we have been most accomodating to them. But their 'shock' at us asking not to pay these days just makes me angry. In the email they also mentioned that they had written us a 'good' reference to our new landlord, the tone of which implied we should be grateful.
I am very sad to be being forced to leave the home that I bought DD home to and would just like a little understanding from the LL to allow us to move when we need to without suffering financially, seeing as everything has been in their favour to date.
Maybe I am unreasonable to expect any empathy from them but I'd like to think that if I was in this position I would at least come to a compromise.

spoons

It's been sold to private individuals. The LL are pretty amateur a bit thickand have not served a proper notice 21, they just sent us an email. However, I don't really want to go down the route of being court evicted, especially as we have found somewhere to go but I did mention to them that we will have moved out to allow 'vacant possession' in time for their buyer, but this doesn't seem to register with them at all. I think they are just very greedy and want it all ends up.

We will have given six weeks notice if we move in mid month but according to UK tenancy law you have to serve notice so that the move out date is one day before rent is due again, which seems ridiculous but as I said before the law is very much on the LL side.

being

How can he get a court to evict you when you're moving out? The paperwork would take too long.

oldlady I'm not sure what you mean? being a bit thick myself this afternoon

OK, I see you mention "evicted" in your op, too. Are you actually "being evicted" (there's a court process) or has your LL given you notice to quit? Did he do this in writing, or did he just say he was selling, and that you should look for somewhere else?

Evicted makes it sound like you are being forced out Because you havent complied with your contract. Has your LL simply given you notice? It's absolutely fair enough that a LL does this if they need to sell, or simply need to stop renting out their house for other reasons. It sounds as though you've been excellent tenants, and if I were your LL I would certainly be very reasonable in the circumstances, but ultimately you'll need to abide by the terms of your tenancy agreement.

They have given us informal notice to quit via email with a move out 8 weeks from then. As we wanted to be reasonable and have the means (just about) to move we agreed that that was fine. We have been 'evicted' in the sense that the house has been sold and we have been asked to leave. We aren't looking to get into dispute with them but just wanted them to show some level of flexibilty towards us in relation to move out date. The house has been on the market since July so they've has the best of both worlds in many ways.

It isn't UK law that you have to move out a day before your rent is due unless that is what your tenancy agreement says. We have moved out mid month before because our agreements have just said that we had to give 4 weeks notice. Our agents then calculated how much rent we would pay for that month iyswim.
Unfortunately if your tenancy agreement states your tenancy agreement can only end the day before rent is due then that is what you've got to do.
But I do think you are in a tricky situation and I think your LL should be treating you better under the circumstances. I also agree that the law is far to much biased toward LLs.

Sorry didn't mean to confuse with the word evicted, I'm feeling upset and chose too an emotive word. We have been asked to leave due to house being sold.

bananapickle

Unfortunately it is the law, we have spoken to Shelter and taken advice You have to move out one day before the next rent is due unless a mutual agreement is made before, which I guess is what happened with yours. Tenancy agreements are never superseded by law so they can put whatever they like in an agreement but it can not over rule law.

Unfortunately they have the law on their side, I just hoped that as we had been reasonable, they would have been to.

When we moved out of our first rental place we had something similar. We didn't realise that notice had to be issued at the end of the tenancy period so ended up in a situation where we had a further 8 weeks to pay for as the tenancy period had literally just passed. I then told our landlord that we wouldn't be moving out and would have to look for another place as we couldn't afford to pay rent on two places at the same time. After I'd told him this we ending up agreeing that we would move out early and we paid half rent for the last half month.

Theres not a lot you can do apart from ask. I presume he'll deduct rent owing from your deposit if you don't pay up. I would explain the situation very clearly and politely in writing, but ultimately you can't force him to let you off if the tenancy agreement makes it clear you owe a full month

spoons Spookily I have just composed a similar email to LL and was considering whether to press send. We would loose our holding fee but that would be less than the paying double rent. I just don't know if I want the hassle of it but at the same time feel like I am not being met half way at all.

He doesn't have to let you legally but morally should do.

This is definitely how I feel and would like to think I would have responded like this if the tables were turned.