To NOT leave rented house when I said I would?

[WaitingForLifeToGetEasier]

Been in current rented house for 9 years. Landlord is a company with 30+ properties.

Tenancy is generally renewed every year as LL puts rent up.

Last year, less than 6 months into our latest year long tenancy agreement, an estate agent contacted me out of the blue saying he'd been instructed to sell the property so I needed to agree to a time for them to value and take photos as well for viewings.

I was shocked as LL has not said anything and it transpired that the letting agent has added a 6 month break clause into the tenancy agreement. There had never been one In previous agreements and I wasn't made aware.

I made it clear i was not going to allow anyone in the property until the end of the agreement and if the landlord wanted to sell, I'd leave at that time.

Tenancy is up in early March. I had expected to get a Section 21 in early January but nothing.

We have been looking but properties are either not available anymore or agent doesn't get back to us so have not found a property yet. Rents seem to have gone up £3-400 a month which is going to be impossible.

Not sure if LL is just expecting us to leave or what but I am not intending to leave in early March and will stay as long as possible - await section 21 etc.

AIBU?

Without a S21 the timing of the eviction was not FORMALISED. It has clearly been identified otherwise we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

Being rude doesn’t make you right.

OK, so

1. OP has not been given notice to quit
2. The 6 month break clause time has now passed and she can remain until the 12 months are up, even if/when she does receive a S21
3. I was confused by the timings but if the 12 months are up at the beginning of March then OP could be given 2 months notice, via s21, at any appropriate time (usually at month end/payment day)
4. The s21 itself won't affect credit ratings. Staying until being removed by bailiffs will
5. OP could contact the agents but why should she. The LL is paying them to manage the property. That is their job! But then again it might give her a better idea of what is actually going on

All else is pretty much conjecture and some daftness.

A break clause does not terminate a tenancy. It simply allows the option to terminate before the regular end of the contract should the qualifying parties wish to do so. To activate a break clause a landlord would still have to serve notice.

@FlairBand please point to the area of tenancy law that sets out the process for “identification” of a break clause and what it triggers…

No one doubts that a break clause existed and the agent expressed an informal view that the landlord had put it in for a reason.

I get what you're saying. If the agent has put it in writing to OP that the landlord was invoking the break clause in her tenancy agreement to sell up - she doesn't say in her first post that he called, everyone's assumed that – then they have followed correct procedure in that regard. It would then follow that they think OP has agreed to that, which is why she hasn't received a S21. If she tells them she's not moving in March when her tenancy expires, that's probably when it'll arrive.

OP, ignore all the nasty comments (probably posted by greedy landlords) and just focus on the following:

• you have not been served the correct notice yet. Your landlord has to do that first from a legal point of view if they want you to vacate the property
• you do not have to allow the estate agent into the property to take pictures or allow viewings.

I would continue paying the rent as normal but start making plans to find an alternative to give you plenty of time to find somewhere.

But if it comes to the worse and you have not found anything I would completely understand that you would consider staying to avoid homelessness and try to get rehoused by your local authority.

The idiots that are criticising are probably all sitting pretty in their own home or are landlords that make their money by doing next to nothing and charge their tenants extortionate rents.

I think we are going to see more of this issue this year, as it seems to be a trend for landlords to sell and tenants having problems finding alternatives, even if they have done everything they could to find somewhere to move to.

Frankly buy to let vultures have a lot to answer for as they helped destroy the housing market for the past 30 years so I am not going to feel sorry for them if their tenants has to stay longer than legally allowed...

Presumably you signed the latest agreement that had the clause. So you're in no position to not leave.

You go on about the millionaire LL, but so what. You're paying rent whether it's to him, someone else, or say towards a mortgage just like anyone else would do. It's a monthly expense.

You should start looking for somewhere to move to.

The break clause means the landlord is ending the tenancy agreement early, which will be in March. It's what OP signed, only she's saying she didn't realise.

You're also assuming it was an informal approach, but OP doesn't actually say how the agent contacted her.

Yes she has. She’s been very clear that nothing has been issued…

And no, neither letting agent nor LL has contacted me since our communications in August.

She even specifically addressed the possibility of an email.

You don’t “issue a break clause”. The break clause is included in the contract. It’s inclusion does not mean the contract stops at the “break”. It’s a break clause because it allows one or both parties to “break” the contract under certain conditions. It doesn’t require them to. A landlord would still need to take the normal steps for terminating and issuing notice, such as issuing a S21. The break clause would simply have allowed them to do so before the regular contract date. If the don’t do this, the break clause simply isn’t used and the contract remains at its initial 12 month date. And the Landlord would still need to issue a S21 if he wants them to leave.

S21 isn’t something LLs do when insisted, it’s a legal obligation to get the ball rolling on reclaiming their property

That is not what a break clause does 🙃 It going into the lease gives the landlord an additional option, but just putting it in doesn’t mean the tenancy ends.

Plenty of model ASTs have break clauses as standard when the landlord doesn’t even have any plans to deploy.

@Myotherusernamesafunnyone in what way is OP wrong?

No, it hasn’t. Seriously. A s21 is needed to give a tenant their notice

Break clause does not mean that. A break clause meant that the LL could end the contract early, not that he has. But he didn’t end it early and he didn’t provide OP with notice (S21). So she isn’t in breach of contract and won’t be until the LL issues a S21 and OP stays past the notice period.

You do come across quite vindictive and spiteful OP. Why do you keep mentioning the fact your LL is a millionaire and how you’ve paid off his mortgage? All completely irrelevant. Why didn’t you get a mortgage and buy your own house if you don’t want to “pay off someone else’s mortgage?” Maybe be grateful to the LL for providing you with somewhere to live? After all if you couldn’t get a mortgage and you’re not eligible for social housing where would you be without private LL’s (who take all of the financial risk)??

Landlords are getting out in droves partly bc of this mentality - and I don’t blame them. The government aren’t building nearly enough houses to meet demand, rents are rising astronomically as demand massively outstrips supply.

@FlairBand

We did have our own house but had to sell and rent 15 years ago due to DH getting made redundant along with most of our town so had to sell up and move away, me having a medical condition that meant I couldn't work for 3 years and having a DC with a disability (born before all that I might add) which became more difficult to manage when he became school age meaning long periods out of school so I couldn't go back to work for many years.

If greedy bloody BTL landlords, like mine, hadn't hoarded properties decreasing availability and increasing prices together with charging astronomical rents, we may have been able to save and afford to buy another property years ago!
^
Grateful that I'm paying off a rich landlords property? Landlords should be grateful there are people like me renting their properties so they can end up with hundreds of thousands of pounds in their pockets for virtually zero work, while we're left constantly worried that we will be left homeless at their whim.

Also ridiculous to say LLs face financial risk and they can charge astronomical rents as an argument!

I care as much as about my LL's finances as he cares about mine and will not move for as long as legally possible.^

A s21 is a notice to quit. The break clause is a red herring - and it doesn’t matter a single not if a section 21 hasn’t been issued

This

Please refer me to it.

She literally IS in a position to not leave because she hasn’t been asked to.

People think a break clause is a legal instruction to leave, which is ludicrous, because it would defeat the object of its intended purpose 😂

Why are you addressing that response to me? I didn’t write what you quoted.

No, it gives the option to end early formalised by a s21 notice

OP says in her OP the agent Calle she’s on the phone. HTH.

I’m actually really embarrassed for the people insisting a break clause terminates a tenancy.

If it’s a 12 month tenancy with a break clause after six months, and the definition of a break clause is ‘to terminate the tenancy’, I wonder what people think the point of a break clause is? If the other six months is never going to happen?

ignore everyone saying you’ve already been given notice and to leave- you don’t count an informal chat with a letting agent as notice to leave. Formal notice is a sec21 and they can’t do anything until that has been served, and equally you’ve done nothing wrong until it’s served and expired.

I get what you're saying, but when the agent contacted OP in August that was them invoking the break clause. As OP hasn't told them she's refusing to move now, does that not suggest the LL hasn't issued the S21 because he thinks she's amicably agreed to leave when the tenancy is up in March? The break clause notice was clearly given in August – PP are assuming it wasn't in writing and the agent just called up for a chat, but OP hasn't said that.