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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that my (upcoming) landlord should pay to put me in a hotel?

260 replies

RogelioMyBrogelio · 27/08/2018 08:32

I’m due to move into a flat next Monday, but unfortunately I’ve had a call today to say that the upstairs flat has had a burst pipe and my (soon to be) flat has significant damage to the ceiling, walls and electrics. An insurance assessor is coming tomorrow apparently, but my new (upcoming) landlord says I won’t be moving in next week by the looks of it. I’ve asked if she can put me up in a hotel until then, as my current tenancy ends next week too. She has said no as the new tenancy hasn’t started so she doesn’t have me covered on her insurance, and I also haven’t signed a contract (she did send me one but I was just gonna leave it until the day I moved in to sign it). I have given her a month’s deposit, which she has protected and is offering to send back to me today out her own pocket so I don’t have to claim, but what I really want is to be in that flat! a contract has been drawn up and dated 2 weeks ago so AIBU to think that the protections stipulated in that contract should apply to me (it says in the case of emergencies that the landlord will put the tenants up in a hotel)

OP posts:
SurfingOwl · 28/08/2018 18:53

@Racecardriver no, a deposit was taken but the OP did not pay her rent or sign a contract. At very best she could argue she has a right to be able to sign a contract to move into the property she has paid a deposit for but she has not signed a contract to agree the date it will start from.

Racecardriver · 28/08/2018 18:58

@surfingowl do you have an authority for that? Paying the deposit was part performance as was her ll putting the deposit in a scheme. As a general rule performance amounts to acceptance (in lieu of a signature). The rule can be found in Brogdem v Metropolitan sonething or other.

ClaireAnne1976 · 28/08/2018 19:01

Legally you have no rights. The contract cannot start until it has been executed which can only happen from the start date once you’ve both signed. Even if you’d signed you’d have no rights until that happened.

You have the right to withdraw your notice on your current property so you won’t be homeless.

Just to say i have an advanced qualification in Landlord tenant contract law.

Morally though you not signing so that you could pull out was very wrong.

IhatetheArchers · 28/08/2018 19:04

If we are going to start quoting case law, Taylor vs Caldwell,; Frustration of contract.

GinandGingerBeer · 28/08/2018 19:11

Wow! I can't see you moving in tbh OP Hmm
Landlady will realise what a lucky escape she's had even though she has a flood to deal with, small price to pay! Shock

LeftRightCentre · 28/08/2018 19:17

I can't believe you think she should cover your extra rent. She'll come back and tell you it will take 6 months because no one in their right mind would ever want you a tenant.

SurfingOwl · 28/08/2018 19:27

@Racecardriver yes and many other better qualified have stated the same.

InfiniteSheldon · 28/08/2018 19:38

Best thread in ages Grin

Theluckynumberthree · 28/08/2018 19:45

I think your having a hard time here OP. Def phone for some advice but maybe ask your new landlord if you receiving your deposit back means you lose the flat or if she is happy for you to use the deposit for a hotel or b&b in the meantime and once the flat is square then redo the deposit etc all over again. Just explain you still want the flat but will need the deposit to cover somewhere to stay?

Walkingdeadfangirl · 28/08/2018 19:46

Do any of the so called experts know how much money someone would have to spend and how many months/years a person would have to spend in courts before they could force a landlord, whom they never signed a tenancy with, to put them up in a hotel for a month?

LeftRightCentre · 28/08/2018 19:58

I have a better chance of winning the lottery than this woman's becoming the OPs new landlord.

Treacletoots · 28/08/2018 21:26

Shamelessly placeholding. Seriously how the fuck can OP be so blind to the fact she's behaved like a complete and utter entitled test?

Sounds like your landlady has had a lucky escape.

Treacletoots · 28/08/2018 21:27

Test! Clearly meant twat. Bloody autocorrect

TrueLoveWays · 28/08/2018 21:35

Why would landlord sign contract now?
Why would she sub you 70 quid ..

FuckPants · 28/08/2018 21:35

I think your having a hard time here OP. Def phone for some advice but maybe ask your new landlord if you receiving your deposit back means you lose the flat or if she is happy for you to use the deposit for a hotel or b&b in the meantime and once the flat is square then redo the deposit etc all over again. Just explain you still want the flat but will need the deposit to cover somewhere to stay?

Would you want a water damaged property and would you spend months in a B&B whilst the damage was fixed rather than finding a different non damaged property? Hmm

Theluckynumberthree · 28/08/2018 21:55

Would you want a water damaged property and would you spend months in a B&B whilst the damage was fixed rather than finding a different non damaged property?

The Op said she didn’t want to find another property as she still wanted this flat. She obv is aware of looking elsewhere but didn’t want that as an option- therefore trying to help her with other ideas. Some ideas and advice is what she was looking for. I’m not here to judge her or anyone- just trying to help

jacks11 · 28/08/2018 22:09

It’s a private landlord. She wanted me to meet to sign the contract when she drew it up but I wanted to do it last minute to protect myself (I had a restructure coming up at work and luckily found out last week that my job is safe). I didn’t say this to her as I didn’t want her to revoke the offer of the flat, so just said I was away until the day before moving in!

I see- so you were happy to waive your rights to avoid your responsibilities when it suited you. However, that has now come back to bite you now... I'd say you have no-one but yourself to blame and this paints you in a very poor light TBH OP.

I don't know where you stand if you have not signed your contract but have paid a deposit. I wouldn't think your protection would kick in if you haven't signed a contract and therefore the lease hasn't started.... but could be wrong.

TrippingTheVelvet · 28/08/2018 22:22

OP my dear old dad used to describe people like you as 'one that would take the eye out of yer head and then come back demanding the eyelashes as well' Wink

Racecardriver · 28/08/2018 22:34

@surfingowl can you tell me? I'd like to know bjyv not enough to actually go through the thread.

robusttoday · 28/08/2018 22:38

I'm in the same position as DigDeep79 Have been so stressed and fed up by tenants like you, and am tired of being seen as some kind of enemy
. I'm selling up. Fewer houses to rent nation wide, now, because so many Landlords are selling up. Supply and demand issue is therefore getting worse, so I guess rents will go even higher. I used to keep rents as low as possible, but the kinder I tried to be, the more pushy tenants were.

langley0509 · 28/08/2018 22:43

Omg. You must be winding us up! Yavvu; your not quite 'LL has been very fair with you, in fact probably better of without you. Your moral compass has gone slightly adrift!!

langley0509 · 28/08/2018 22:44

Lots of private landlords selling now ...... considering doing so myself

oyYou · 28/08/2018 23:14

robusttoday "the kinder I tried to be, the more pushy the tenants were"

OMG - that is so true!!

StepBackNow · 29/08/2018 07:57

You really are a CF, OP.

There's no way I'd allow you to move into a property I was renting out. I'd be thanking God you hadn't signed on the dotted line. Start looking for somewhere else, if she has any sense she'll find a reason not to let you move in.

You're going to be a nightmare tenant.

Feelingsad33 · 29/08/2018 08:22

So you didn’t sign the contract in case there were reasons you couldn’t move in. But now the landlady has a reason that you can’t move in you want the contract (that you haven’t signed) to be valid??

Do you really need to ask if you are being unreasonable?