Advice with regards to tenants breaking contract

[Wineandshine]

I just wondered if anyone had advice! I rent my house out and the tenants signed for a year. They are now moving out due to not being able to afford the house. I have not agreed to a date or to this but I have started looking for new tenants. I have explained that they are liable for rent and bills until this. They now say the house is unliveable, it’s not but to placate them I have organised for someone to look at these imaginary issues. They will however not commit to a date or time for these repairs. They say the CAB have advised them to leave. Again I cannot get through to CAB to check the advice. They have also been showing the house to prospective tenants, people I have not agreed to let to, I explained this was not appropriate and that they should not be marketing a house they deem unliveable. Please can someone advise before I go crazy?

Do you have legal advice included in your Landlord insurance?

You need proper legal advice and quickly!
Serve notice and get the ball rolling, it takes months to evict and hod knows what ‘game’ they are playing in the meantime 😒

They plan to leave in the next few weeks so I can’t evict them. I’m just concerned that I can’t organise the repairs (if any) that need doing. I don’t think they will pay the months rent so if they don’t can I legally use the deposit money? I have tried to get legal advice but it would appear everywhere is swamped at the moment.

I do have legal advice but the advice turnaround is not quick enough.

You can't make them stay so just wait until they are out then take them to court for what you are owed.
Write to them saying under no circumstances should they attempt to pass on or sub let or you will seek to recover the costs of evicting as well as whatever other costs you may be entitled to eg rent

Does your landlords insurance come with legal advice?

What scheme is the deposit with? Wouldn't their website or documents set out what you can and cannot deduct?

CAB won't have advised them to "leave" per se. CAB will have probably said something along the lines of "if you can't afford your property you should discuss with your Landlord about leaving the property before your contract ends".

They are saying disrepair to try and off-set against rent. They are also probably showing people round hoping they can get someone in so they won't be liable.

You need to be above reproach as a Landlord though. I would be going to a solicitor.

The reality is your best bet is probably to get these people out asap. To be honest if they will leave. I would say you would call it quits and won't enforce contract. Presumably you have a deposit in a tenancy deposit scheme that will cover some unpaid rent?

The problem is if you insist on chasing rent etc is they can make your life difficult and expensive.

So on rent arrears, you can apply to TDS for this. They sometimes insist on a court order (although courts actually can''t order this), but what they would do is give you judgment and then "indicate" that any sums in TDS can be released to pay this.

I expect they will try to avoid paying. Just let them leave and relet as soon as possible.

Your LL insurance should have some sort of hotline for advice. You could contact a local Letting Agency and ask them for advice and then use them to find the new tenant.

If they signed a 12 month tenancy they are liable for the rent for the entire period, and then after that they have to give 1 months notice to vacate. (Assuming England).

You can keep their deposit if there are rent arrears.

If they don't pay the rent then you can go to the small claims court and claim for the unpaid rent. If they don't pay then they could get a CCJ which could make it difficult for them to rent elsewhere (and do this to another LL).

You can't find another tenant really until they leave as you have no idea what date they will actually go.

The above information is incomplete. If you accept the surrender by your tenants, you are not entitled to claim anything from the deposit. This is because once you accept the surrender and the tenants move from the property the tenancy is at an end.

Should you refuse to accept the surrender you cannot take possession of the property until the tenancy comes to an end, which would be at the end of the fixed term (providing no tenant is in occupation at that time).

The law says you can choose one or the other.

In these circumstances in order to minimise your loss you would be best to accept the surrender and find new tenants. Unfortunately you cannot pass those costs on to your former tenants, because you would have incurred those costs in any case, albeit at a later date.

You can leave the property empty and try to recover the missing rent and you are under no duty to mitigate your losses, which means the tenant will be responsible for the losses in full until the end of the fixed period. However trying to get money out of people who have little can be an uphill struggle. Hence my advice that financially you would be better off to cut your losses and accept the surrender.

Check your tenancy agreement for what it says about subletting.

CAB won't share details of the conversation with you. Are you part of a ll association, use an agency, do you have insurance against non payment ? Agree let them leave and relet afterwards. I don't think the Deposit schemes allow you to reuse towards unpaid rent , just damage.

Thank you for all the advice. I honestly can’t believe the law protects these kinds of people. It’s so frustrating as if they are issues with the house I want to fix them. I’m only renting the house out due to a work move. I fully intend to move back!

They have your house worth how much?
And can't afford to pay you a small fraction of the value.
Focus on getting your house back rather than one or two months rent.

Get them to list what they are claiming is wrong, and aim to get them fixed once its vacant.
Nothing you do or fix will make them able to afford the rent.

It’s just very frustrating as none of these issues have been raised before now. I will do the repairs when they vacate. I have been very reasonable to their situation and yet still received a barrage of abuse. It’s just I would never not pay what I owe to people and the deposit apparently cannot be used for this.

Did you do an inventory and take pictures when they moved on?

You can claim from the deposit for damages caused by the tenant providing you have evidence of the condition at the beginning I.e. an inventory or photos. What I was saying you can't claim is rent owed after you have accepted a surrender because once you take possession you have accepted the surrender so no further rent would be due.

You should know this stuff as a landlord. NRLA do good online basic courses you should do. Getting things wrong can be expensive and unless you are familiar with the laws surrounding the PRS you can get into trouble very quickly. You cannot rely on agents getting stuff right because many of them don't. I agree tenants should not get away with poor behaviour but it's part of the hostile environment for LL this government seems to want. Many are packing up which puts even more pressure on the housing market. On a plus side rents have increased to pay for the additional expenses which is a marginal help.

I just wondered if anyone had advice! I rent my house out and the tenants signed for a year. They are now moving out due to not being able to afford the house.

' That's the problem

Something changed since to lease was signed.
Be thankful they are looking to move asap not dragging it out saying they will pay you next week

@Tethersend01 there are no grounds on which to start possession proceedings which would result in a possession order at this time. Please don't give advice on legal which is misleading.

Just let them go! It’s better than them staying for months and not paying rent! Or arguing all the time. If the property doesn’t need repair, you will let it again! I would also let via an agent if you find it all rather difficult. I’m with you in that. Some tenants seem great and others you want to go asap. Don’t rock the boat - let them go. Also you have few rights! Tenants have the rights. Agents are better placed to deal with these issues.