To ask for help calculating my rent

[readyforchangenow]

I have handed my notice in to my private landlord today, giving 4 weeks notice to leave on 19th September. My rent is £550 paid calendar monthly on 3rd every month.

When working out what I owe to her on the 3rd September to cover me from 3rd-19th do I include the 3rd so it would be 17 days worth of rent to pay, or would the 3rd have been included in the previous months rent so it's 16 days starting from the 4th Sep onwards?

I'm so confused and landlady is disputing my calculation. Can anyone help please?

It really all depends and you would be far better off asking your LL than having a bunch of MN giving you their various different opinions.

It depends on:
Is the payment date the 3rd for a reason? I.e. you moved in on the 3rd of the month, so your first rent was 3rd-31st. Therefore, you would include the 3rd.

Or, is it the 3rd because that's the convenient date of payment for you. In that case, you may find your rent actually runs from 1st-31st, and your landlord is just being generous in letting you pay a little late each month.

Your tenancy agreement should make this clear. Or, like I say, just ask your landlord. Especially as they may have their own way of calculating pro-rata - it may be :
£550x12months/365 days x days owed. Or they may do
£550/31 days (whether it is 31 days in month or not!) x days owed.

You don't really get to set your own pro-rata payment, they should be telling you what you owe them.

Why is your LL disputing? What is her calculation & how did she get to that figure?

I would multiply the £550 x 12 and then divide by 365 and count nights - so £507 ish for night if the 3rd through to and including night of 31st

I would also question whether 4 weeks notice is the agreed upon amount of notice for your lease? If not, she has the right to demand payment for the entire notice period. Your post raises more questions than it gives answers I'm afraid OP.

You're best paying what she's asking you for, because if it's an assured shorthold tenancy (which most private rents in UK are) then you can only give notice for a rent period - so you should give notice on the 2nd of the month if you pay on the 3rd. It's likely she's in her rights to ask for payment until 2nd October so I wouldn't quibble about a day if she's let you give notice mid month.

I think it's a months notice from the day you pay rent. I might be wrong. So if you give notice on the 3rd of September you'd be leaving on the day of the 3rd if October.

You don't usually have to stay though, if you need to move out early you can hand the keys back.

I'd email and ask if you could adjust this period, it's worth a try. Ultimately it all depends on your contract.

You can't just give notice on a random day of the month, you will find that your contract probably states something like one month's notice from the day that months tenancy starts.

For example, you move in on the 1st of the month, therefore your monthly rent covers to the 1 of the following month where you pay again.
So therefore notice must be given on the first of the month.

You include the 3rd.

Thanks for replies everyone. The landlady has agreed to my giving notice from today as she is actually selling the house that's why we are moving so she is keen to get in and redecorate etc. I moved in on the 3rd of the month and paid rent a month in advance on that date. The only dispute I was asking was whether we count the 3rd in my remaining due rent or whether that had already been paid with the rent paid on 3rd August.

I've agreed to her calculation to save any fuss, it's only one day after all.

Unless you always pay late due to an agreement, and your AST is from the 1st of the month, paid by the 3rd, then yes, you do.

The 3rd is the first day of your new calendar month... so it should be included.

Imagine a month as a line of elephants, each holding the tail of the one in front on its trunk. The joining point is midnight... tail of an elephant starts a day, trunk ends it.. Tail of 3, 4, 5, etc until you get to the last elephant, you pay "on the nose" so to speak.

As you're rent is in advance, you should be including the first day, as you will be living there on that day, but providing you move out by a pre agreed time on the 19th, not the last day, as you will no longer live there. I don't think there's a rule about it, but I calculate/collect rents for a living and that's how I calculate it. We have midday as a general rule, so if someone pays rent on the 1st, they would have until midday on the 1st the next month to move out.

So:
3rd-19th= 16 days
£55012/365= £18.08 per day (I tend to round up or down at this point, although some landlords do the full sun and round at the end)
£18.0816= £289.28

However! I will say that unless your contract is very unusual (most landlords use a standard one) then it is likely that you should give one calendar month's notice, not 4 weeks, and legally, this should be in line with your rent cycle, so given in by the 2nd September that you will be leaving on the 2nd October, so that you are leaving just before the next rent cycle starts. So probably not worth arguing for 1 days worth of rent 😊

I suppose your landlord could have 12.01 as her time you have to move out by, in which case you would have to move out on the 18th or be charged for the 19th. We tend to be quite generous landlords!

If the 3rd was the date you moved in, then yes that should be included too.

That's great @KnobJockey thank you. Thanks everyone for your replies