Student house fallen through

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My DS and 4 friends secured a student house for their final year (Brighton area) back in March. By April, deposit paid, first month's rent paid, tenancy agreement signed by all tenants, landlord and guarators, one of which is my DH. Move in date of end August. Great. All set.

Son now home ( 100 miles away from Uni) for summer. Just had an email from the letting agent saying the LL wants to sell the house so is cancelling the tenancy! Anyone who has had any experience with student lettings will know that at this time of year there are 1. Very very few student houses available as they are all sorted month's ago 2. The ones that are left are miles away and poor quality - hence being left and 3. More expensive. Son and friends were meant to be paying £150 a week each plus bills, the only properties available are around 180/190pw, they can't afford this.

We are waiting to hear back from the agent, but are we unreasonable for seeking financial compensation from LL, as he is in breach of contract? I have a friend that said LL is within his rights but from some research this is untrue. Son has nowhere to live in September. It is going to cost us, as parents, a lot of money to find somewhere at short notice. I think the LL should pay the difference in rent for anything over the 145 a week.

Has anyone got any experience of this?! So annoyed right now as DS did everything right by sorting this out early. The LL has also held around 7k from the group in rent and deposit since April then pulls this shit.

Thanks for any help. I will sue him for breach of contract of if I can.

What does the contract say? Does their contract say the house can't be sold whilst they are in it?

What does the tenancy agreement say?

No, he can't do that.

I would contact the agent and make it clear that you are aware that the tenancy agreement is legally binding (and I assume there is no break clause for the year).

Have a look at similar properties in the same area, find out how much more expensive they are and make it clear that you will take the landlord to small claims to recover the difference in cost if the contract is breached.

You then need to document everything. Screen shot a list of all the currently available student houses in the areas. Including unsuitable ones, you need lots of proof for small claims courts. I would include listing from several sites and maybe email the accommodation centre at the university as well.

It may well be that the landlord is in financial trouble, so has to sell, in which case it will be cheaper for him to offer you a settlement now, rather than you taking him to court, as the court costs are not insignificant.

Even if the landlord wrote the shittiest contract on loo roll, he is still within his rights to cancel a tenancy that doesn’t start until end of August. This is a statutory right, that no contract can supersede. Future tenants who are months way from moving in have zero statutory rights over a property compared to the owner of the property.

Has the tenancy actually started?

I’m afraid he’s within his rights to cancel before the tenancy begins, OP (used to rent out a property). You will waste time, energy and money going after him for this.

It’s very disappointing and annoying, however you just have to crack on and find the next best solution. For example, the group do not have to stay together – they will have a better chance at suitable and affordable accommodation if they look for individual rooms.

No the tenancy starts 30 August. He surely, once everyone has signed, and monies paid, IS in breach of contract? I imagine he would want compensation if the tenants changed their mind at this late stage. And it really is late for a student house. As I say, these are usually sorted by March latest. A tenancy agreement is a legal document. You can't just 'change your mind'.
DS says nothing mentioned is the agreement.

Have they seen the signed document from him?

You are getting a lot of incorrect advice on this OP by people saying it’s allowed. I’d recommend posting on landlordzone where you will hopefully get a clearer answer.

Apologies, OP, I thought they had signed and he had not, but taken a deposit.

Speak to Shelter, they are usually really good with knowing the legal position. I would think it is a breach of contract by the landlord if both parties have signed the contract and consideration has been made (e.g. the deposit being paid). Please don't just assume you can do nothing based off a few MN posters.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/buytolet/article-7178465/amp/Our-landlord-pulled-week-moving-day-rights.html

This article suggests you have rights

While a landlord can’t just change their mind, the landlord has the statutory right to sell even with a tenancy agreement in place and they are only not allowed to cancel a tenancy/evict tenants if it is during the first four months of a fixed tenancy (which would be end of August to end of December). They also have to give 60days notice. The notice has been given, it is not during the first 4 months of the fixed tenancy and it is currently more than 60 days before the move in date of the end of August.

Their statutory right to sell their property trumps any lease agreement contract so long as they meet the caveats above - which they do.

Much like the tenant’s right to quiet enjoyment trumps any lease agreement contract saying the tenant must allow viewings by prospective future tenants at the end of the tenancy, or buyers if selling- the tenant can legally refuse all viewings and while technically in breach of contract it isn’t enforceable and so the landlord can’t get compensation for any tenant exercising a statutory right.

I'd check with someone who definitely knows the law. I would not trust answers here.

Please take proper legal advice, people do put incorrect info on here.
On another thread someone has just claimed its illegal not to have a 6 month break clause in a Tenancy Agreement, which is completely wrong.
Speak to a lawyer before doing anything

But how is that right? DS has a maintenance loan and a part time job. He based what he can afford on this. He found affordable accommodation based on this months ago. Now he is faced with extra expense, money he doesn’t have, due to someone backing out of something they have legally agreed to.

Or is it OK to treat students like shit? Because you can bet your life if he pulled out LL would seek compensation.......it works both ways.
And yes of course we are looking for something else....... all too £££££ though. I despair.

Speak to shelter

Yes, please speak to Shelter for accurate advice. At the very least, their deposit and rent paid should be returned ASAP.

If it's too expensive to move to another shared house, they need to get their names down for Uni accommodation quick before they end up with nothing.

Consult the Brighton Housing Trust who are the Shelter equivalent of Brighton and know their stuff.

There is a lot of crap on this thread from people who are not lawyers, are certainly not well versed in either contract law or landlord and tenant.

Read the tenancy agreement. Its highly unlikely to have a landlord break clause pre tenancy commencing. Given you've paid your deposit this sounds like a repdiatory breach. Potentially you could enforce the contract by an injunction (give us access to occupy as per our contractual right) or claim damages (pay us restitutionary damages to put us in the position we would have been in had you not breached e.g. paying the difference in rent between this property and any now scarce comparable new property...)

No advice but commiserations. The same happened to DD in Brighton this time last year. They found somewhere in the end but it was horrible. Leaking roof, damp and the landlord let himself in unannounced regularly. She survived but found it all hugely stressful.

I'd ask student services for advice too. They were very helpful.

If he genuinely can't afford what's left they may have to split up and take individual rooms. There'll be people who will pull out of house shares, more will come up over August when students fail resits

Has the tenancy agreement been signed and dated (and just with a future start date) or was the plan to date it in late August?

Thanks everyone, I am going to get proper advice on this too of course. Just to clarify, all parties have signed, first month's rent and deposit paid ages ago.

Many different issues here. The LL in the article pulled out one week prior to move in date. The LL in the article 'pulled out' which is different from selling. LLs generally have the right to sell even if it means ending a contract with tenants living there let alone not even having moved in yet. They need to give notice and that notice is often around 2 months but it depends on the contract.

Your DS being a student is not really relevant. It's a contract and like all contracts there are rules.
LLs are of course allowed to sell. Even if they have tennants actually living in the house they can sell. What kind of law would you want where a property owner was forced not to sell their property?
They do have contractual requirements that generally involve notice periods. Standard think is 2 months/60 days for a 12 month lease. I'm not sure but it was this when I last checked.

The fact that it is hard to find other properties isn't the LLs issue. There aren't different laws covering university towns. It's simply a rented property.