Is landlord being unfair here?

[Anotherdayanotherusername]

Earlier this year we signed a 12 month tenancy agreement with a 6 month break clause. The 6 months is up in October. We then unexpectedly found a property to buy and are due to complete in the next month. As we will struggle to pay both mortgage & rent, we asked the landlord via the letting agent if they would let us out of the contract early. Agent said that usually if a new tenant can be found to move in earlier, a landlord will consider an early exit so would ask landlord. Agent came back to say that as they have decided to sell the property they will not be looking for a new tenant so we will need to pay up until October even if we move out earlier. I texted the landlord directly pleading my case, asking if we could even terminate a month earlier than contracted (September) but they got the Agent to reply to say no. Their argument is they too have a mortgage to pay and had been counting on having rental income until at least October while the property is on the market.

AIBU in thinking this landlord is just being greedy? This decision is putting us in financial strife and could jeopardise our purchase and I really don't know where we stand.

Any advice on what to do. Can we just refuse to pay?

Unfortunately I don't think we can afford to pay the rent & mortgage so have told them that we may have to pull out of our purchase in the hope they agree to compromise.

😂😂😂. You really are a CF of the highest order!

You told your landlord this…?

Surely you can't afford to buy a house if one month of paying rent too is going to be unaffordable. Plenty of things can go wrong that you'd need to pay for and quickly when you own your own home- what would you do if the boiler needed replacing for example?

If this was just to emotionally blackmail your landlord, why would they care really?

Are you sure you can afford a house if one month’s rent is going to cause financial difficulties? The landlord is not being unreasonable.

So from trying to guilt trip your LL into covering your failure to plan now you are pushing the problem on your vendor.

Where is your personal responsibility in all this?

It really is an absolute basic part of the maths people do for a house purchase, factoring in double costs for a month or two. Unless someone is very fortunate that the dates line up exactly, it's rare that there's no overlap in costs and you should have accounted for that. If you can't afford double rent/mortgage for that period, surely you just give your completion date as the date your contract ends? That's the other way people work this. To not do either, and to put your fate in the hands of the infamously unpredictable house buying process on the hope that your landland will waive you £££ because of 'goodwill, is your mistake to deal with and shouldn't be visited on other people who've done nothing wrong.

He won't care if you pull out. He will have rent for longer and then sell after 12 months maybe and you will have to find somewhere new to rent. You really have made a mess of this.

Compromise on what? You owe them the rent for the contracted period. Beyond that, whether you buy a house or sleep on the street is of zero interest to them.

Well, you and your partner are obviously shit at planning ahead, which doesn’t bode well for having the biggest financial commitment of your lives hanging over you and dealing with the things that go wrong and not having a landlord to pay for white goods replacements etc.

Have you taken unto account your abortive costs for the legal fees, survey etc if you pull out of your purchase now? Or what you will do when your landlord doesn't renew your rental agreement in October? You may well find yourself far more out of pocket than the cost of paying the extra month's rent.

Of course you need to pay. You were fully aware the break clause only kicks in from October so were aware this would be an additional cost when you agreed to the completion date on your new home.

If you can't afford to pay both mortgage and rent for 1 month then I guess you have no contingency plan for all the unforeseen extra costs that come with a house move/purchase. I'd be looking very carefully at your financial position and assessing if you can really afford to buy a house if that's the case.

Yes you need to pay but if I was paying I’d be keeping the keys and wouldn’t allow viewings. We kept our rental for a couple of months when we bought our first house. It was a challenge but meant we did all the moving at a slow pace. Did the decorating needed in the new house and avoided the cost of a mover. I hired a van and we did it all ourselves

In which case buying probably isn't for you at the moment if you're that short of cash and can't afford 1 additional month of rent.

How would you pay for an emergency in the new house?!?

Why not rent out your new house as an airbNb for a month?

YABVU. Why should the landlord take the financial hit due to your poor planning. You knew the contract when you arranged to purchase a new property.

You told the landlord this? I don’t think they will care tbh 😂

Surely you’ll struggle to pay the rent for just one more month you’re hardly in a position to be buying??? It’s very risky to literally put all your cash into it.

Perhaps you mean tell the owner of the property you've offered on? They might not be in a rush and will agree to compromise with a long completion period, depends really on their moving plans. You do sound a little 'this is what I want and I want it now!'.

Are you serious? 😂

@Anotherdayanotherusername @ByCupidStunt

It is not correct to use the deposit as a last month's rent.

I have had tenants and make it quite clear that if they do that I will refer to it [breach of tenancy] in any asked for reference.

The deposit is [more or less] a simple way to be repaid for any damage you do.

But this situation is nothing to do with your vendor. Whenever renting there’s often an overlap between ending of your rental and starting your mortgage. It’s frequently a case that for a short period of time you may have to pay both. That’s just life unless you’re extremely lucky of getting all the dates to align.

Wow OP. CF award goes to you today!

Reverse?

I think you're putting emotions into what is a business transaction, which is never a good mindset to have.

Have you ever bought a house before OP? If you’ve only just agreed to buy somewhere, you might find it takes at least till October to complete. It can be a very slow and frustrating process…or is delaying buying till October an option. We are half way through august now, it’s only a matter of weeks really.