Landlords lack of notice to quit.

[Moonflower12]

Our landlord has today given us 'Notice to Quit' by text. They want us out by October 25th as they have sold the property.

I have just checked the Tenancy Agreement and either party is required to give 60 days notice in writing. From today until October 25th is only 30 days.

We do have somewhere to go but it isn't ready until 31st October. We could scrape by for the week-storing our stuff at the new place in the one room not being redecorated and staying with friends and family.

So my AIBU is: are we being U expecting her to keep to the law?

Is there anything we can do about it?
Are we entitled to any form of monetary recompense for the inconvenience/ extra expense of paying an extra weeks rent at the new place etc?

Did you know the property was being sold?

I'd just message back as per our contract I'll be out on xx date 60 days time.

6 days is surely better than paying double rent for a month?

You have a contract. She has to keep to the detail of it.

They can’t force you to move out earlier than the notice period stated in your tenancy agreement - they should have taken that notice period into account when exchanging on their sale and exchanged with a 60 day completion period. You can refuse to move out, and they’d have to get a court order to get you out - the court will honour the 60 day notice unless the landlord can prove your tenancy should be terminated early because you’ve breached some other term (failed to pay rent, damaged the property etc).

Most sensible thing to do is:

• you explain you are prepared to move out earlier than required by the tenancy agreement, but will need until 31 October.

• they speak to their buyer and agree to push the completion date back.

You’re not automatically entitled to any compensation but if you agree to move out early you’re entering into a negotiation, so you could certainly say we’re prepared to waive some of the 60 days in exchange for £X to cover some of our storage costs.

Did you know the property was being sold?

Irrelevant, the landlord still has to keep to the contract terms!

@DonnaDarko
The property went on the market on August 31st and was sold on September 6th. The landlord told us she was thinking it'd be 4 months till completion but I think this buyer is a cash buyer so obviously a lot speedier in the process.

She only told us on August 30th she was putting it on the market after assuring us previously we had at least 7 years here as she'd moved nearer to a nice school to put her children through years 7-13.

@ambereeree Sorry the above reply was to you.

As pp, just say you'll be out in 60 days as per agreement. End of

@elizzza
Thank you.
That's sounds reasonable and what we were wondering.

Luckily the place we are going to is as stable as can be- fingers crossed we will stay there for years.

Our landlord tried this with us - we had told him that the house we were rennovating was going to be ready to move into soon but hadn't actually given notice. He then decided to sign a contract with new tenants before giving us notice and before we had given notice (he thought he had to give 30 days not 60 days notice as he didn't read the contract!). We explained what the contract said and gave him the choice of paying for our things to move out of our house and in to storage for 30 days and paying for 2 weeks temporary accommodation or we would stay and move out after the appropriate notice period. He opted for the former and we moved out when he wanted us to, went on holiday for 2 weeks, and are now camping out in our new house with minimal furniture while most of our things are still in storage.

Seems the landlord has lied to the purchaser (and their solicitors) ?

Decide what you want before you speak to him, but ultimately it's not a legal notice to quit. He has to serve you with a section 21 and 2 months notice.

I don’t have the legal know how so you’d need to run this past a solicitor well versed in tenancy law.

In your position I’d negotiate for monetary compensation. IE The ll agrees to put you up in x hotel (one with a kitchenette would be good) and pay for additional storage costs either until your next property is available for you to move in or until the date 60 days from the notice to quit (whichever is the earliest).

Another thing to negotiate is the costs for damages. As part of the agreement to go early, the ll waives the right to pursue you for damages unless ott . Ie There’d have to be some protection for the ll to ensure you didn’t vandalise the property but that way they can’t sting you because there is limescale in the loo or a small chip in the worktop.

I don’t have the legal know how so you’d need to run this past a solicitor well versed in tenancy law.

Start with basic property law. Unless there is something extremely unusual in this property sale, the vendor must have lied (a) to their own solicitors and thus, by extension to the purchasers solicitors when basic searches were being run. One of the first questions after "is the property yours to sell ?" will be "is vacant possession guaranteed ?". And usually if the answer to the latter question is "no", the prospective purchaser will be advised not to proceed with the purchase.

The OPs landlord is now looking at a whole load of pain - and potential legal action from the purchaser. Personally I'm too old and grumpy and bored to want a quiet life, and I certainly wouldn't see it as my role in life to make the landlords life any easier.

Don't take random advice here.

Go to Shelter website for info about this.

Regardless of what your contract says you have rights to a certain amount of notice, and notice must be given using prescribed paperwork or it is not valid. There are numerous other conditions the LL must meet.

This all assumes that you are in UK and specifically England and Wales. Advice may be different for Scotland and obviously useless outside UK.

Update:
I've spoken to the LL who had no idea they needed to issue a Section 21.
They have agreed to us leaving here at the beginning of November and will compensate us and let us have our deposit early to use as the rent for the first month in the new place.

Thank you everyone for giving advice. It gave me the confidence to know I was right to be affronted!
Thank you 😊