Student house fallen through

[Silverstar2]

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.

Update. Hopefully today they have found another property through the same agent. It is £80 each a month more expensive. So yes, costs HAVE been incurred (or will be), not just inconvenience. My son can't even view it as 3 hours away and working.

The inconvenience is not the problem here, it's the additional cost through no fault of ours and the other lads.

Anyway, thank you all for your replies.

There really wasn't much of a choice. It's pretty late in the day for student houses in the city concerned, as I previously mentioned. This is going to cost us almost a thousand pounds extra - we didn't choose this for goodness sake 🤨🙄

Thank goodness they’ve got somewhere. It’s all a huge pain, but at least they’ve got a place, you must’ve been so worried.

Did the landlord register the deposit within 30 days of receipt with a registered protection agency?

Try the letting agents ombudsman, they were very helpful when I used them for a similar issue.

It's worth checking if landlord registered deposit and/or provided deposit info as you can easily sue for at least 1-3x the deposit back if not.
You could also small claim for the difference in rent between the properties if they are comparable. A court would likely have sympathy!
Glad you've found somewhere!

The LL is probably selling because Labour are going to make section 21 illegal from day one they are in office. The result many LL's decided to sell up.

Most of the landlords who would sell up have already done so as a result of s24, the epc debacle, and Renters Reform Bill, although there might be a few stragglers.