I’m hoping someone can verify (or correct!) my understanding of the notice I have to provide to my landlord, as we are about to complete on a house purchase next month.
We had a 6-month AST agreement in 2014; when it expired the letting agent offered us another 6-month agreement but we declined because at the time we had been waiting several weeks for the landlady to repair the heating (winter, 2 kids and no heating, it was just a joy) and we told him that we didn’t want to commit to another fixed period until the heating was running. We verbally agreed with him that the tenancy would just run into a month-to-month tenancy whilst we looked for somewhere else to live, but that if the landlady fixed the heating immediately then we’d sign another tenancy agreement.
Landlady then did fix the heating within days – but the letting agent never came back to us with another agreement and so we just kept our heads down (during this period of discontent we had started to think about buying our own place instead and so still didn’t want to be tied into the rented house). We’ve now been here over 3 years, just running on a month-to-month tenancy. I should say that the letting agent certainly never forgot about us as he was quick to raise the rent every year….
So, we have now exchanged on our own house (hurrah!) and will be completing/moving at the beginning of December. Our rent date is the 27th of each month, so we will need to have some overlap and keep the rented house until 27th December, but I obviously don’t want any more overlap (and expense!) than necessary so I need to make sure I’ve understood the rules properly…..
Having Googled for a while, I think I am right in saying that we must give the letting agent one month’s notice in writing, with the notice period ending on a rent day. So, we must give notice no later than 26th November……is that correct?
Does he have to receive the letter on/before that date or must it just be dated then? (-I notice that every time he writes to give us one month’s notice of the rent going up, the processing and mailing time is always counted in the notice period!)
I actually wouldn’t object to giving them more notice, except for the fact that DH works nights and we need to avoid having to juggle viewings around him being asleep, for as long as possible!
As a second question: there was no inventory when we move in here…we passed the old tenants in the doorway, we gave the letting agent our rent in cash (we paid 6 months up front as we couldn’t provide references because we had previously owned our own house overseas) and he handed us the keys – took about 10 mins altogether. So how will any judgments be made about damage/wear and tear?
This is a 60+ year old house, always been owned by the same family, and they’ve done zero at it for decades (very old kitchen, original ancient toilet, 30-year old carpets, rotten windows etc). We’ve actually improved it significantly at our expense (with the landlady’s permission) and carried out basic repairs and maintenance, repainted most of the inside at least once and will be repainting ‘high traffic’ areas again before we leave etc - so I’m not looking to ‘get away’ with any damage as I truly don’t believe there is any, just wondering how this scenario would be managed in terms of return of deposit.
Phew! This was longer than I anticipated….. thanks for any help