AIBU to be absolutely shocked at my friend attitude towards her landlord and her not want to move out ???

[SpikeHairandFab]

Hi, I just need to get some perception ,sorry ,I am afraid it is going to be long
My friend is buying house, she has wasted almost 5 months waiting for her dream house but she didn't get it at the end ( due to some massive muck up from vendor side, not her fault) . Now she is in process to buy a new house. Everything is o.k with this one ,she will move in at the end of June.
The problem is her landlord has served her a notice to vacate the house . It was served in Jan ,and her last day should be 24th of May. But she saying she will not move out, she will stay 5-6 weeks longer, even though her landlord sold the house he is living in now, and he want to move to the house she is renting from him.
I tried to explain to her that she really need to move out,as it is not fair on her LL , that he has given her enough time to sort something out ,and that the Law is on his side , but she saying she has nowhere to go, and she can't rent anything short term ,as it is going to be expensive. She also saying that he will have to get her to court , and that will buy her around month or so, she thinks there will be no consequence at all , she will go when she is ready , and she doesn't give a sh@t about her LL. Also she said she will stop paying him rent from 25th May , as he getting her to court !!!! I this point my jaw just dropped to the floor
I know she has 3 kids and therefore a lots of stuff , but it seems like she is trying to get advantage (not paying rent) out of this whole nasty situation.
I am really trying hard not to be judgy ,but I can't help, she is in very tough situation but I think she should at least try to do something.

Is she right that there will not be any consequence at all? She said she was reading some forum and that she got that info out from it.

She is my very good friend and even though I don't like what she's doing ,I really need to help her(not that she asked for any help). I have offered her to borrow some money , but now I am more concerned about what she is getting herself and her family in to by not moving out.
Will she get any record ?
Any advice would be highly appreciate .
Thank you for reading

But that's the point of a tenancy agreement. It is a document that allows rental of the property for the prescribed period and BOTH parties are fully at liberty to end the tenancy if the appropriate measures are taken.

I would have far more sympathy for the OP's friend if she wasn't expecting to stay their rent free. Had she called the LL and said "I simply can't move but will pay an extra month's rent".

No-one can possibly condone that course of action at all.

Thank you all for replies ,
She tried to talk to LL , but he doesn't want her to stay even week longer. Thank you YELLOW, I will tell her about Gumtree ad.
I don't think LL is running any let - business , he just sold the house he living in now , I have no idea if has any more properties.

I will also tell her about the not pay-live for free thing , that she will not get away with it.

It is good that it will not go on her record, I was really worried about that.

So he has not power to make her move on the date he has set??

I am going to call her now, hopefully she will listen to me instead of kicking my back side for sticking my nose in her life too much. But I am very worried for her as I know she keeps her cool now, but when it comes to 25th May , and he start knocking to her door then she will start panicking . I am going to try make her to avoid that.

I don't know if it is relevant but she is renting through a letting agency, not private letting.

If someone were that reluctant to be a LL they'd have sold at a loss. If you become a LL for whatever reason you are in the pretty important position of providing a roof over someone's head.

This lady has three children. Perhaps she can't afford a short term let on a serviced apartment. Whilst I don't agree with her withholding the rent, if I were in her position I think I'd do exactly the same.

The court can order her to pay the rent up until leaving plus all costs of eviction process. If she reckons she can't pay that when she has an asset (the house) then a charge could be placed on it.

She needs to re-think. If she's insistent on staying she'd better pay rent and be prepared for court costs.

do you care about whoever has bought the house from the LL, Saucy? Just an ordinary Joe like the OP's friend, who has agreed a completion date which the OP's friend is now going to fuck up? What if they don't have anywhere to live at that point - care about that, do you?

The LL should have had the sense to wait until the tenant had vacated the property- or at the very least signed on a new rental/bought house- before selling his current property.

More faff for him, but that's his responsibility as a rental LL.

It is not the property the tenant lives in that has been sold so the buyers are nothing to do with this and it doesn't affect them at all.

No Saucy, it's not. His or her responsibility is to obey the law wrt to notice periods and/or any specific clauses in their lease. No more, no less.

In her position I would not vacate either - but I would pay the rent and tell the landlord that I wasn't going to vacate until the end of June so he could make alternative plans. There will be no come back on her, it'll take longer than that to evict her.

I wouldn't feel sorry for the landlord, anyone running a business has to weigh up the likelihood of something like this happening and make contingency plans. It doesn't make a difference if they have 1 or 500 houses they are still running a business.

*The LL should have had the sense to wait until the tenant had vacated the property- or at the very least signed on a new rental/bought house- before selling his current property.

More faff for him, but that's his responsibility as a rental LL.*

no it's not his responsibility to do that. It's his responsibility to give fair notice, and he's done that. it's his property, he's given fair notice and she should move out.

I can't believe the number of people that would condone this person's actions. She may have 3 kids, but so what. That's not a license to be a jerk. If she's in a position to buy a house, she is in a position to find a short term let. It's not the landlord's job to house this person.

it's stuff like this that gives tenants a bad name and gets landlords pushing for laws more favourable to them.

"He may try to claim any out of pocket costs from his tenant."

He could try but that does not mean he will succeed.

n.b.: There is no "law" to obey when it comes to tenancy agreements. These are contractual obligations, not the law.

A landlord serving a Section 21 Notice, regardless of how early this is served cannot and does not end the tenancy. Only the tenant or a court can do that

it's stuff like this that gives tenants a bad name and gets landlords pushing for laws more favourable to them

Absolutely. I'm completely in favour of laws to protect against unscrupulous LLs. But it should also be easier to get rid of unscrupulous tenants.

Some of the other posts here are, frankly, awful: so someone who is a landlord can be treated like shit by a tenant who chooses to please themselves instead of sticking to what was agreed and some of the other posters think that is perfectly okay? Unbelieveable - put yourself in that person's shoes and see how you would feel.

And not paying any rent for the period just makes it worse. What a cow this woman is.

Oh, she'll get away with it, she needn't worry.

Landlords don't have a leg to stand on most of the time.

Moral responsibility then Wilson. This thread is exactly the reason why private landlords shouldn't be letting out "their" own houses.

She's not unscrupulous. She's found a house, but she needs to stay another 5/6 weeks in her rental property. That's hardly unreasonable, and if it is so easy to find a short term let, the LL should do it. He's the one in the business of providing a home for someone, not her.

Bitter - and what do you think enforces contract terms and/or decides whether they are fair or not? Yep, that's right - the law. So breach of those terms may ultimately be decided on by the courts.

The government need to stop private individuals letting out one or two houses. It's not fair on anyone involved and if those rentals disappeared, the government would have no choice but to build more social housing so tenants would no longer be at the mercy of landlords that can't afford to do their job properly.

tenant who chooses to please themselves instead of sticking to what was agreed

I would agree if the tenant had agreed but the tenant has had no input and the ll is just forcing his decision on her.

So withholding the rent for the period she wants to remain isn't unscrupulous ballina? How exactly?

And why, when it's a property, is it okay for someone to hang on for it longer than agreed? If you lent someone your car for a month and they kept it for another month and you couldn't get to work, would you view that in the same way?

She's not unscrupulous

How can it not be unscrupulous to expect to stay in a property for free....

A landlord serving a Section 21 Notice, regardless of how early this is served cannot and does not end the tenancy. Only the tenant or a court can do that

I am not a solicitor, but is this correct. From the government's website

www.gov.uk/gaining-possession-of-a-privately-rented-property-let-on-an-assured-shorthold-tenancy

"Section 21 gives a landlord an automatic right of possession without having to give any grounds (reasons) once the fixed term has expired"

don't know if the OP had a short hold tenancy, so i don't know if this applies.

Actually wow if you read my earlier posts, she should pay the rent IMO.

It would be different with a car, you can't possibly compare a car to the roof over someone's head. You just can't. With the car analogy, she could take public transport or taxis without a huge amount of financial hardship. Imagine the cost of staying in a hotel or similar for six weeks.

She's not unscrupulous. She's found a house, but she needs to stay another 5/6 weeks in her rental property. That's hardly unreasonable, and if it is so easy to find a short term let, the LL should do it. He's the one in the business of providing a home for someone, not her.

not he's not. He's in the business of letting his property out according to contracts and the law. he's not a charity.

Absolutely. I'm completely in favour of laws to protect against unscrupulous LLs. But it should also be easier to get rid of unscrupulous tenants.

Exactly. I would be the first to admit that rental laws aren't very favourable to tenants here. But that doesn't mean you willfully do something like this. If I had to guess, no fix term lease was in place precisely so the tenant could leave when she wanted. Well, you can't have it both ways.

jacks - how do you know from the OP? Could be the case that the tenant spoke to the LL about wanting to buy a house and consequently LL served a long period of notice.

ballina - yeah, right. Take all those houses out of the rental market and see what happens. And just where is the government going to build all the necessary replacement social housing? If there wasn't a need and people ready to rent there wouldn't be a market for those rental properties. In the situation where someone was a tenant in social housing, renting from a housing association for example, would you think it was okay for them not to pay rent in such circumstances?

I think your friend needs to weigh this up against finding a brick through the window of her new house when she eventually vacates the rental property.

Some people can get very funny about this kinda stuff, including agents!!