Landlady wants the house back

[GuinnessBird]

Our landlady knocked on our door this morning, she's split up with her partner and wants her house back but we signed a contract in February this year for a twelve month lease.

We've never missed a rent payment and the house is immaculate so there’s no reason she can give other than that she wants the house back.

Where do we stand? Can she ask us to leave before February next year?

Its not kicking anyone when they are down. When is the last time you moved? The stress/money involved is a lot! I wouldn't go any less than a year before moving again if I could help it. And if I were to, I'd want to be compensated for it. This is their home, not just a money making venture as the landlord might see it. If its not much of an issue why can't the landlord find somewhere else for a year?

I'm still on the phone to Shelter but I've gone through the contract again with the lovely lady on the telephone and basically there's nothing that the landlady can do.

I believe that we are the third tenants in succession since the landlady moved out.

I'm going to think carefully about whether we want the inconvenience of looking for properties eight months in advance but either way we have no plans to move immediately and the landlady can make her own arrangements that do not involve moving back in here.

What you posted (after OPO had confirmed no prior notice had been given) was:

Are you saying op can’t be evicted with 2 months notice? Looks to me as if she can.

There is noting about this situation that should lead OP to worry that a proper and valid notice could be served that could be actioned by the landlord prior to February.

I have been a landlord for over 25 years.
You cannot be removed from the property.
Stop asking for advice from people who don't know THE LAW.
Suggest you post on Landlordzone.com.
They answer questions from landlods and tenants.
They will confirm what I am saying is correct.
Meg.

2 months notice for section 21 which she can only serve to commence on month 10. After that she’d need to apply for a possession order and then court baliff.

You have time. Can you join local housing register too?

A friend in a similar situation to your LL negotiated with the tenants that if they began looking before the end of the tenancy, and found somewhere they could move to before that date, then the final month of their tenancy would be free. The tenants were evidently happy with that and she stayed with family until she was able to move in.

the LL owns the house but the tenant owns an agreement which gives her the right to live there for 12 months

Oh the irony of @ItsBritneyBitchhhh and @Collaborate criticising people for giving terrible advice then giving incorrect advice themselves.

Anyway, I'm glad it has worked out for you, OP. It's lucky for you that the landlord (or letting agent) messed up big time by not including the statutory grounds for possession in the AST. All she had to do was download the model agreement AST from the gov.uk site. Maybe she got her legal advice on MN instead😂

Check your contract, when I was renting (admitidly about 4yrs ago now) they always included a break clause should the landlord or member of their immediate family become homeless.

Shelter have advised me to put it in writing to the landlady that she has no grounds to end the tenancy agreement early and that we will not be ending the tenancy until our 12 months are up therefore she needs to make other arrangements.

I think it will go down like a lead balloon.

Yes and when it's pointed out they're spouting rubbish you get told you're rude . . . it's awful.

I think it will go down like a lead balloon
Well that's just too bad for her, another amateur LL disrupting peoples lives because she doesnt know how to run her own business

I do feel a bit sorry for your landlord too, OP. I hope she did actually use a letting agent or lawyer to provide the AST and they messed up by not advising her to include the clause asserting her right to be able to return to her (former) home if she is homeless. At least then she might have grounds for compensation from them.

Exactly this. You are quite safe where you are and she needs to find elsewhere to stay until next February.

Not with a fixed tenancy agreement. They can issue yes, but it can only proceed if the tenant agrees.

Not a chance.

DH typed up an email whilst I was on the phone to Shelter which basically said what I posted above, he's just popped into the garden and there's three missed calls from the landlady, he'll call her shortly.

PP are right to say you do not have to move until Feb 2024 and that she needs to give you two months' notice before Feb 2024 if she wants you to leave.

FGS, don't change the locks, though!!

The LAW (as @meg54 puts it) for those who are still arguing that a landlord doesn't have the right to end a fixed term contact early to return to live in their former home. A landlord does have the right to do that. Standard ASTs will usually have a clause asserting that right. Unfortunately for OP's landlord, she either got poor advice or downloaded a shonky free online AST that didn't have that clause.

From the Housing Act 1988:

SCHEDULE 2
Grounds for Possession of Dwelling-houses let on Assured Tenancies

Part I
Grounds on which Court must order possession

Ground 1

Not later than the beginning of the tenancy the landlord gave notice in writing to the tenant that possession might be recovered on this ground or the court is of the opinion that it is just and equitable to dispense with the requirement of notice and (in either case)—

(a)at some time before the beginning of the tenancy, the landlord who is seeking possession or, in the case of joint landlords seeking possession, at least one of them occupied the dwelling-house as his only or principal home; or
(b)the landlord who is seeking possession or, in the case of joint landlords seeking possession, at least one of them requires the dwelling-house as [F1his, his spouse’s or his civil partner's] only or principal home and neither the landlord (or, in the case of joint landlords, any one of them) nor any other person who, as landlord, derived title under the landlord who gave the notice mentioned above acquired the reversion on the tenancy for money or money’s worth.

Or, as meg likes landlord zone so much:

www.landlordzone.co.uk/information/ground-one-repossession-of-own-residence/

You have a FT assured short hold tenancy until February so have the right to stay until Feb.

In your shoes however i'd be making this work for you. Id be clear with her that you have the right to stay until Feb but that you will commence looking for somewhere else suitable in the next few months on the proviso that should you find somewhere, you may leave without the required notice and before the end of the fixed term with no further obligation your part. Means you can take your time to find the right place and leave anytime you like up to Feb with no fuss or drama. Get it in writing too.

Also potential is that she'll realise she can't just remove you and will have to find somewhere else so it's in her best interests to keep you there while she has a FTC of her own somewhere else!

And yes some of the advice provided on here is shocking. Who the hell comes on a legal thread to post their view which is based on absolutely no fact, knowledge or substance?! "Yeah it's her house so you have to leave in two months time" i mean seriously!!

In your shoes however i'd be making this work for you. Id be clear with her that you have the right to stay until Feb but that you will commence looking for somewhere else suitable in the next few months on the proviso that should you find somewhere, you may leave without the required notice and before the end of the fixed term with no further obligation your part. Means you can take your time to find the right place and leave anytime you like up to Feb with no fuss or drama. Get it in writing too.
This is the most sensible piece of advice on this thread, OP.

It is in your best interests to leave ASAP given the obvious shit attitude of your landlord. Commence the search and leave on your own terms.

Definitely change the locks (in a way where you can change them back when you leave), it is your home for the duration of the fixed term x

My son was in an almost identical position and choose to move. He felt sorry for landlady - she sent a heart-rending email about her relationship breakdown and homelessness- and he didn't want the eventual move hanging over him.

He found a house in same street but move was a pain (no compensation from landlady).

Four weeks later he walked past old house and noticelandlady's partners car). Neighbour was in garden so he asked when the partner had returned to be told the day my son moved out. My son suspects the landlady lied to him as they'd had a better rental deal on partners house.

With hindsight he would have stayed put until the end of 12 month term as he was legally entitled to.

There is no chance a judge will grant a possession order on non mandatory grounds on the basis the landlord wants to move in when they last resided in the property 5 years ago. It's the difference between practicing the law and googling it.

I think based on what I can hear from DH''s phone we will be changing the locks.

From what I can gather the contract we have all signed is not the contract that the landlady thought we were signing.

She thought there was a break clause and a repossession clause in it, there isn't and I think I'm hearing a breakdown occur over the phone.

She's just screamed you need to get out of my fucking house and DH calmly said it might be your fucking house but we have a contract to fucking live here until February.

Bloody hell.