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?

She didn’t. She said she’d try. based on the assumption that proper notice would be given

And yet OP says "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."

I think it's poor form to come to a verbal agreement and then exploit the fact they haven't sent a document just because you can.

She’s not exploiting the fact - they legally HAVE to send the document. They haven’t. How is that OP’s problem?!

A tenant making clear they’re going to follow their contract isn’t poor form.

The OP doesn’t actually have the right to give notice to a random estate agent anyway. The LL will know this.

What people like you are suggesting is that she breaks her tenancy and leaves herself open to Costs

Exactly this. Receiving a S21 doesn't affect your credit rating, not paying your rent on time will do that. I saw no mention in OP that withholding the rent was planned. Stay until you receive the S21, and just keep looking. Beware though, i was in your position 5 years ago, been in a long term rental paying 595 pcm for a 3 bed semi, moved to smaller 3 bed semi and was paying 820 pcm and have since moved again to a 4 bed detached at 1300 pcm - so rental prices definitely going up.

You don't come to a verbal agreement when you are renting a house. There needs to be written notice

For all op knows the LL could have decided not to sell after all and she would then end up owing rent if she just moved out

I've never received an S21 in 15 years of renting.

@JenniferSlopez how were you asked to leave then?

The AIBU is 'To NOT leave rented house when I said I would?'

Most people know that going back on their word is shitty behaviour. If I knew they needed me out and realised they'd forgotten a form which I 100% needed I'd remind them, not try and exploit their mistake to my personal gain.

Some of them I gave notice. At previous flat my estate agent called and said LL was planning to sell the house and they wouldn't be extending rental period again. I, shock horror, moved out at the end of the agreed rental period and found another flat. The world did not end.

If a Ll is so unprofessional that they can’t issue notices correctly they have no business being a Ll.

Way I see it....if the waiter forgets to bring the bill it's still not reasonable to walk out without paying.

Your Ll was an idiot for not properly issuing notices (unless you gave notice to leave in writing).

That some unprofessional agents and LL’s get away with being such doesn’t mean all tenants should ignore laws and proper process.

Not remotely comparable.

Well it's lucky you could find somewhere else, op hasn't been able to and as she hasn't been given notice and the estate agent hasn't even mentioned it again for well over 6 months then she has no reason to make herself homeless moving out in March

Never said he didn't, it was just something people often don't know about the reverse so I was giving the information

This thread is really quite extraordinary. It contains so much incorrect information it’s staggering. I’ve also been a LL. I’ve also been a tenant.

All I can say if I were in your shoes is that I would contact LL to hear of future plans. Knowledge helps. You haven’t been served notice yet and there may well be some flexibility on both sides. Better to work with than against. A rolling contract may well work in your favour if you know what the situation going forward is. But if they do decide to sell you really can’t fight it.

But I would also say that the LL’s personal finances aren’t actually anything to do with you. That’s his/her business just as your own financial affairs are yours.

I took the property at market rate 9 years ago for £1100 a month. LL has increased the rent to £1600 a month as of last March. Obviously made business sense to keep a good tenant who always paid on time, looked after the property and increase rent slowly rather than risk getting bad tenants who didn't pay, damaged the property or risk void periods which could potentially have lost him more money in the long run. No favour to me at all.

Similar properties are now around the £2k mark and up. Not my fault properties have increased in price. Landlord has just been very lucky that they have. No improvements done to make a bigger rent increase justifiable.

Most of the higher priced properties have at least been modernised. This one still has the kitchen, bathroom and patio doors (all falling apart) from 30 years ago from new build. He'd have needed to replace those to get the higher rent before now.

The fact is, the LL likely hasn't issued the S21 because OP has verbally agreed to move out. Or perhaps has just forgot. However, it's highly unlikely its because he's decided to give OP a few more months.

With that in mind, it's pretty shitty to stay, even if you legally can.

You think it’s most likely the landlord hasn’t issued the S21 because they are giving the OP a few more months, but that the OP using those extra months would be pretty shitty? Why?

@JenniferSlopez Sorry, I misread you. Please ignore my previous post.

My point is that this is less about the LL clocking up the process as it is about OP wanting to stay and this being a fortuitous situation.

Were she desperate to leave would she still be contemplating staying a bit longer due to this?

No, read my post again.

A long term LL with that number of properties is in no way that naive to accept verbal agreement. Not a chance.

Either he’s changed his mind or the EA has fucked up. Either way, not down to the OP

I made the point that my landlord is a multi millionaire with a large property portfolio to avoid the inevitable pile on of 'you scummy tenant, your poor LL probably didn't choose to be a landlord, they could have accidentally become one and can't actually afford to be one, so you should get out of their house immediately and go live under a bridge with your DC so they can continue to afford to send their DC to private school' that would have followed if I hadn't made that clear😅

I think we're just not going to agree.

I'm the sort of person that sticks to my word, and their mistake wouldn't make me go back on my word.

If I'd verbally agreed a quote with a tradesperson and it was clear they'd accidentally put a lower amount on the supplied quote, I wouldn't be sitting there going "great, now I can legally fuck them over. Their mistake not mine, innit?"