What rights do we have, if any? Please help!

[trustfall]

Hi everyone. I will try to keep this short but I want to make sure every details is in here to make it as factual as possible to see if we have a leg to stand on legally.

We live in a private rented property and have done for just over a year. We are good clean tenants and have never had any complaints. In January we renewed our tenancy. The landlord increased our rent. Not by masses, but by enough to make things tight, but we accepted it as we were happy here.
A week later we are told the house was going on the market and that the estate agents will be in touch to take photos and arrange viewings etc. This all happened very quickly, and the house was on the market in just over a week after renewing our tenancy.

I have cancer and have been undergoing treatment and multiple surgeries, which the EA and landlord are aware of. When we were told the house was going on the market, the email specifically says 'the landlord is happy for you to stay in situ until a sale has been agreed. If an exchange has not been made by then, your tenancy will roll onto a periodic.
Due to this, we, rightly or wrongly, started to look for somewhere to live straight away as we didn't want to live on a knife edge here not knowing when we'd have to move, and have people traipsing in whilst my health is vulnerable. So we thought we'd get out and find somewhere. Which we have now done.

We served our 2 months notice and it has been declined, saying as the house hasn't been sold yet, we are liable to pay the rent until the end of tenancy in June. I thought this was desperately unfair, as in the email (which has now been admitted was poorly worded by the EA) that the landlord is happy for us to stay in situ until the point of sale, which we read, as if that happened before the tenancy was up, they'd serve us notice of 2 months and we would leave. So it would be only fair we could do the same.

I feel like I have totally been mislead here, as not only has the rent increased, but they renewed our tenancy, asking for more money a month, knowing they were selling. But tied us into the contract so we had to carry on paying rent until they reach a sale. The viewings that have happened so far are families and and no investors. I have been incredibly fair with viewings. I have to shield for a week during my treatment and when viewings are being done, I go and sit in my car, DH does a quick clean and if they've opened doors and touched things he wipes them down, and I come back in.

I know we don't have to accept viewings, but if we don't, and we don't get a sale agreed, we'll have to pay rent here. As well as our new place which we move into this weekend.

I feel like we have been totally mislead. Had we have known the house was going on the market days after renewing our tenancy, we of course wouldn't have renewed.

Do we have any leg to stand on legally? We are still moving. The whole thing is causing us so much stress. But I'm trying to work out if we could get any legal advice to not pay the rent here too until June or to break the clause early. And the real kicker is the landlord has done the reference for us to move out, and is now saying we have to stay until June! We just feel like it's such a misrepresentation and have been totally mislead here. We signed the tenancy to live here peacefully, not waiting for a house to sell at any point and for us to deliberately not be told this until we have renewed the tenancy.

Please help! Thank you!

What a horrible situation! What does your new tenancy agreement say? I'm confused because you said that the tenancy was till June, but that you renewed in January, but as I understand it, tenancy agreements are for a year at a time. I yours for a year but with a break clause?Check the wording really carefully.

Yes sorry I missed that.

12 month tenancy but the break clause is in June.
We are so stuck and the feel the landlord has been so unfair.

They have multiple rental properties and they are all currently on the market.

I'd contact Shelter for advice.
I think they can't just put you onto a periodic tenancy from June, the whole thing sounds quite odd.
I think if challenged in court you could reasonably argue that you misunderstood"point of sale" . The letter refers to you being able to stay until a sale has been agreed and it is phrased as doing you a favour. I think your interpretation, although legally wrong, is reasonable, and it reads as if the landlord intended to give you notice. That notice is not in the required form, and so could not be used by the landlord to get you out, but it would be unreasonable for the landlord to rely on not having given notice effectively as a means to force you to pay the rent to the end of the term. You relied on their letter, to your detriment and therefore arranged to vacate.
I think you need proper legal advice. I'd be quite surprised if they pursued it through the courts.

What bastards. Agree with contacting shelter and apologies I dont have any knowledge on this but wanted to send support. If they are going ro insist on June then make it clear you will have full private enjoyment of the place and wont permit a single viewing until youve vacated.

That's not acceptable. Basically they want their cake and to eat it too. You were tricked into signing a new tenancy so they could ensure they get rent right up to the point of sale!
Legally you can change the locks and refuse all viewings. This is what you should do. Just make sure you keep the original lock/keys and replace when you eventually leave the property.
It's an appalling way to treat you. Don't let them get away with it.
As I say, changing locks and refusing viewings is perfectly legal.

Let it go to court, I doubt the court would side with them but obviously get advice first. Considering how difficult it is to get a rented property you’d think they’d be happy you’ve done it so quick.

Yep it’s a cake/eat scenario where the parasitic fucker wanted you to keep on paying rent and then move out in 6 hours when they exchanged.

I hope you can get it resolved (admit nothing, sign nothing and attend court and tell your aide if necessary) and that you can enjoy your new home and remove stress.

I don't think this Ahole is going to play fair, he's laughing.
This is why situations like this need to be sorted outside of court, can you arrange for just his knee caps to be smashed at first? sometimes a bit of persuasion this way is all it takes.

Landlord is a fucking idiot - NO family is going to buy a house with tenants in situ.

You’ve served notice. You have a “poorly worded” email - to YOUR advantage. I’d let the fucker swivel.

what utter bastards your landlord and co-conspirator estate agent are.

if you have decided to leave anyway then no there is unlikely to be anything you can do to get out of paying rent until June. The tenancy signed in June will be watertight on that. You'd have to argue that telling you that they are selling and imposing photographers and viewings on you amounted to a breach of their side of the contract as not allowing you the quiet enjoyment of your home. I don't think that is likely to succeed.

The right to quiet enjoyment that you do have means that you have zero obligation to facilitate any further viewings or access to the property connected with the sale, so this is your only bargaining chip.

Legally they can't make you cooperate with their desire to sell at all. so let them know that there will be no further viewings whatsoever, until a compromise is agreed.

A reasonable compromise would be that if they agree an early release which is the half way point between when you wanted to leave and the legal end of your 6 month term, then you will re-start cooperating with their sales and marketing efforts.

I am sorry to read your situation. That is despicable behaviour from the letting agent / landlord. Please contact shelter, they are very knowledgeable in tenancy laws. I do feel your letting agent has mislead you into signing a new tenancy. All letting agents now have to be signed up to a redress scheme for complaints. Have you made an official complaint to the letting agent? if you have and their response is unsatisfactory you can find the redress scheme they belong to online and take the complaint to them.

The letting agent / landlord should be happy that you have been paying the rent, taking care of the property and have already found somewhere to move to! Some landlords have to wait over a year and spend £££££s to regain possession through the courts and then refurbish trashed properties before they can sell.

If they make you liable for rent until the June break clause, I would absolutely make use of your tenants right to quiet enjoyment, change the lock barrels (and keep the originals and replace them back as they where, when the tenancy ends) and refuse all future viewings. To gain access they would need an expensive injunction for access to the property which would take ages to obtain from the court, which, just to facilitate a viewing to sell a property, a judge would take a very dim view of.

Just because the landlord wants to sell doesn’t mean your rights change in any way. Your landlord thinks they can have their cake and eat it, doesn’t want a void period between a tenant leaving and the sale completion and wants to sell their property on your time and money. They want to inconvenience you with all the viewings and you covering their bills during the selling period rather than inconvenience themselves. The landlords house sale is not your business to worry about, no matter how much the letting agent will make you think it is.

A conveyancer will never allow an exchange on a property where tenants are still in situ (unless the new purchaser is a BTL investor). Your landlord should be waiting for vacant possession of the property before marketing. Do you have a current gas check certificate and was your deposit protected within 30 days in a government approved scheme? Best of luck, your situation sounds so frustrating x

Thank you so much everybody, this is all so helpful

What an awful way to treat you

Did you actually sing a new AST contract?
What are the dates on it, and what exactly does the break clause say?

And as another poster has asked

did you get all the exact correct paperwork, in the right order, before your first tenancy agreement and the latest one?

gas safety?
electric safety?
how to rent guide?
deposit protection certificate?

just off the top of my head, it’s early ;)

If you can’t get through to Shelter, try asking on Landlordzone forum. Despite the name, there are some very lovely knowledgable landlords on there that would go through the agreement you signed & try to help.

If all else fails, I agree, change the locks and let the landlord and agent reconsider if they want to be more accommodating. You are completely within your rights to insist on quiet enjoyment and no viewings whatsoever for the remainder of your tenancy until your break clause.

*sign not sing a new AST

@trustfall - as mentioned by PPs, try asking LandlordZone and Shelter for advice as your situation is quite unusual.

I’d you want to dm me your redacted AST I’m happy to have a look. Used to do them.

What does your contract say about allowing viewings or access to the property? I seem to remember my old one said viewings in last month of tenancy were alllowed but not before. Also ask Shelter if you can register an interest in the property on the property register.

This is absolutely awful op. So much about nightmare tenants but there are also nightmare landlords. Ours tried to put our rent up from £450 pm (many years ago) to £950 on a Friday afternoon, faxing my place of work telling me to leave immediately if I did not agree the rise. My colleague picked it up read it and tried to hide it from me! I took legal advice and I was entitled to stay for the duration of the tenancy without the rise. He was about to go bankrupt.

I think you need legal advice asap. You have been so accommodating, particularly given your current state of health. Your landlord and his EA are shameful, greedy horrors. Taking legal advice saved our sanity with a fast rebuttal from our solicitor. Please do the same.

I've read the contract and it clearly states they are not allowed to erect any for sale signs until the last 2 months of the tenancy. Well that's been broken already! Put one up a week after renewing our tenancy!

That's so shitty of them. I would have read the email how the landlord and agent intended it though. I'm not sure it's badly worded. Does your agreement say anything about viewings?

Have you signed for the other house

Absolute scumbag behaviour from the landlord, I hope karma bites them in the arse.

I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this whilst you're unwell OP.

A little update.

I've looked through our tenancy agreement and it says the landlord cannot advertise / erect ANY for sale signs until the last 2 months of the tenancy.

Our last 2 months are May & June. The advertisement / signage went up in January. Could I use this to our advantage that he's broken the agreement here? Or am I clutching at straws.
Thank you!

Well they have broken the tenancy but and you could try to use that to your advantage by saying you won't insist on your strict legal rights by requiring them to remove if they let you leave the tenancy early.

I would also ask for a reasonable adjustment in view of your disability (cancer = automatically disabled under the Equality Act 2010).

Ask them to release you from your tenancy early, as per your notice, or you'll have to insist on viewings once a week only to reduce health risks.

Not saying it will work but it's worth a go. Again I advice speaking to shelter

Well if you move out and they insist on making you pay rent then technically the house is still yours. I would just refuse all requests for viewing from that point. If they know you have moved and enter anyway then they are entering illegally.

Have you actually asked at LandlordZone and spoken to Shelter, as has been suggested previously? Those would be my first ports of call, prior to consulting a solicitor.