Name changed for this as I'm posting it on behalf of my DP who is in this situation and it's outing if someone recognises the situation.
DP lives in a 4 bed house share, 2 rooms have been empty since Christmas and the 3rd is occupied until 31st March. Back in February someone from the lettings agent rang him and asked if they could pass his details to the landlord as he wanted a chat. A couple of days later he spoke to the landlord who said that he had decided to stop letting it out as a house share and was going to advertise with the view to getting a family to move in. This has come at the worst possible time for DP as he is desperately trying to find a new job where I live (we are in a LDR at the moment) so the last thing he wants to do is sign a 6/12month tenancy on a new place, we understand this isn't his landlords issue though.
His landlord asked if he could leave by 31st March (which would have been 5 weeks notice) but when my DP explained re the timing he said any time up until the end of April would be ok and to let him know, as he was going to market it through April with the hope for new tenants to move in in May. As soon as DP told me all this I did say that due to COVID the current notice period for evictions is 6 months but as his landlord was understanding and happy to be flexible DP didn't want to push for the 6 months even though it would be a big help. They ended their conversation by agreeing that DP would give him an update in mid March re when he was leaving and he followed this up in writing by email. As time went on and DP was still looking for a job he realised he probably could do with a bit longer in his current house but didn't want to go back on what he had said to his landlord (just to be clear, a firm date was never agreed).
Fast forward to last weekend and the landlords daughter turns up at the house and asks if she was ok to store some things in one of the downstairs bedrooms. DP agreed as he was put on the spot and she went on to essentially fill the bedroom with lots of her personal belongings (we only realised how much she had put in there once she had left). We thought this a bit odd (along with a couple of other things that had been happening which I won't go into) but at the end of the day there wasn't much DP could do, and in a text the day before his landlord had again mentioned he was looking for a family to move in in May.
That night DP gets a notification from SpareRoom (which he had registered on to see what was available in his area) saying he had a new 'match' he clicks on it and to our surprise there's his house! It was being listed by the landlords daughter saying she was moving in on the 31st March and was looking for a housemate from 9th April. Obviously this annoyed DP as not only was he not aware of any of this, if she is only letting out one room there is no rush for him to leave as there will be two spare bedrooms still, or he could be her house mate without her having to advertise in the first place?! We understand she may have her reasons for wanting to find a different house mate, not that she has ever met DP, but it was still a bit of a kick in the teeth.
So with there being no immediate reason to leave, DP emails his letting agent and asks them to serve him an official Section 21 eviction notice, he would still plan to leave in less than 6 months but it would take the pressure off a bit. This was 9 days ago now and despite 2 follow up emails and trying to call them 3 times he has not heard back from the letting agent. As DP had conversations with his landlord about leaving he wasn't sure if this would constitute him agreeing to leave by the end of April even though no date has been agreed.
Sorry I've tried to keep that as short as possible as there's been further issues I won't go into but my questions are a) does DP need to leave by the end of April even though he hasn't been served any sort of official notice and b) what do you think DPs next move should be? As he is getting no response from the lettings agent should he email his landlord directly? We think the landlord must be aware of his request to be evicted officially as within a few hours of emailing the lettings agent the SpareRoom advert had disappeared.
Thanks for getting this far, any thoughts are appreciated 