Landlord Serving Notice Less Than 6 Weeks into 12 Month Lease

[SandyIrvine]

Looking for advice for son so he can avoid this happening again.

DS needed to relocate quickly for work. Found a place he liked and got it by agreeing to 12 month lease and paying 6 months upfront (he asked letting agent what he needed to do to persuade landlord to choose him over others). Less than 6 weeks later landlord served him 2 months notice (needs house back because of relationship breakdown). He's not unsympathetic but needs to concentrate on job so can't be moving every 3 months. Buying not an option as he is likely to move again in 2 years.

He did ask letting agent about landlord and checked her out online. No issues but was clearly first time landlord.

Is this common? How can you assess your landlords circumstances/likelihood they will break contract? Should he only accept fixed term contacts with no breaks?

It's impossible to be certain without seeing the tenancy agreement and any associated documents, but the starting point would be that a fixed term tenancy cannot be terminated by the Landlord unless there is specific power in the tenancy agreement or the Tenant is failing to pay the rent, damaging the property etc.

If the Landlord persists, he needs to take legal advice from a solicitor, CAB or Shelter etc on the basis of all the documentation.

I’ve had some crappy landlords too.

Please tell your son that NO MATTER WHAT, he needs to insist everything is done by the book and through the agent.

I say this based on personal experience.

He should email her back and copy the managing agents. They will, hopefully, explain why what she has done is very unreasonable and ensure that all future issues are dealt with professionally.

___
Further to your email of xxx, I am very sorry to here of the difficult position you are in. Having moved in 6 weeks ago, and paid six months in advance, I am not in a position to accommodate your request to move at this time (optional - unless I receive a full refund of 6 months rents, deposit and moving cost of £££).

I have copied this to the managing agents so they are aware of the situation and to maintain professional boundaries, I would be grateful if you would address all further communication to me through them.

Kind regards…..

My last landlord was a cheeky fucker. I could rant for days about him. We let boundaries slip because the agent was rubbish and dealt with him direct,y. Huge mistake! No matter how bad the agent is, keep them involved but it creates distance. DH and I ended up leaving before the end of our contract because we knew he would serve notice but, even though we were doing him a huge fucking favor, he made life very difficult until I threatened (possibly unreasonably) to report him to his workplace (they had a behavior clause related to work relocation that may or may not have been relevant) and to go to the newspapers with the story (which would definitely have caused him problems at work).

I’d quite cheerfully the murder the arsehole now (two years later) as he caused us so many problems for so many months and then even when we agreed to leave and again on moving day. The agent was there and hadn’t realized the extent of it. I’m quite certain that my threats to go public were the reason that our deposit was refund in the full the following day which is absolutely unheard of here (supposed to be 2 weeks, but usually works out at 6 after negotiated deductions).

Your son should speak to the letting agent and ensure everything goes through them. They will be aware if the legalities even if the LL isn’t.

Being served notice isn’t something that is a nasty threat to hold over someone. Serving notice is simply a legal process for reclaiming property. The LL can serve notice in the legal way. This is likely to be once 4 months have passed and for the 6 month point. Your DS can either be gone by then or remain and wait for formal eviction proceedings.

So he doesn’t need to vacate immediately. He shouldn’t feel bad for remaining perfectly legally, or that the sob story means she should be allowed back in early. Contracts and legal agreements still hold even when someone has a difficult personal circumstance arise.

If something happened to him which means he wanted to vacate, he wouldn’t expect the all to waive the contractual obligations. Neither can this LL. this is the real world with legal obligations and people entering into them need to understand they are binding. The LLs personal circumstances are if zero interest and concern to your DS.

He should reply to the LL asking them to deliver all communication via the agent and that he expects standard legal processes to be followed and he will be abiding by them too.

Then wait. At the 4 month point notice might be served….or not. He can have in mind that he might be required to vacate, but it won’t be for another 4.5 months minimum. So there no panic.

@SandyIrvine

She has left and is in friends spare room with her dog. Son feels bad but doesn't want to grab at anything. Six months would give some time.

That isn't your son's problem. She assumed the risk when she vacated and rented her home. He shouldn't budge.

I'm a landlord and sadly we had to ask our tentant to leave, we needed to sell it due to unforeseen circumstances (to answer your question it's really hard to predict if the landlord will need their property back anytime soon).

However, there absolutely rules about how much notice they need to give - can't do it within the first four months of the tenancy and in this case he has a contract for 6 months so can't be asked to leave before then.

@RealRaymondReddington

Really difficult, I think unfortunately that if it is a landlords only owned or rented property and they can prove intention to live in it then they can give a much shorter notice than normal and end tenancies earlier. It's one of those odd exemptions. This was certainly the case a few years ago, but may have bee updated.

We wanted to do this in 2019 as we were moving back after time abroad and our flat, which had been rented, was our only home. We still couldn't break the lease of our tenants and had to suck it up and move into rented ourselves.

PS the official document to give notice is called Section 21 - the landlord needs to issue this rather than a random email asking them to leave.

This is illegal. Whatever her personal circumstances, she needs to adhere to her legal obligations. If there is a minimum 6 month term she cannot serve notice before 4 months. If he has a 12 month term, 10 months. He needs to read and understand his contract, with help if necessary. If the contract is being managed by an agent, she should not be contacting him directly but should be going through the agents.
He should concentrate on his job and not worry about having to leave immediately.

Thanks everyone. Going to show him this thread. He felt a bit pressured yesterday . So good to know he more time on his side.

Legalities aside, there is always room for an agreement between the two of them about when he goes. She could offer compensation for example.

@BuanoKubiamVej

She's recieved his 6 months rent in advance and so she can just rent somewhere else until his legal right to live there for 6 monthe expires. She is welcome to start proceedings to evict him but that will take way more than 6 months. He should stay put but look for something else and move once the 6 months is up.

The only circumstance under which he might reasonably consider moving out earlier than 6 months is if she makes it worth his while financially and takes on some of the workload of finding an alternative place to rent, she pays for the cost of moving and stumps up the deposit for the new place, and sweetens the deal to make him at least £500 better off than if he just stayed put as he is legally entitled to.

This is the tack he needs to take.

Legally he can’t get out of this agreement without her support/agreement

For him to do that she needs to pay him enough to make it worth his while leaving, ON TOP OF RETURNING HIS UPFRONT RENT and fund all the check out processing of everything with the flat he’s in

She can say to him she can serve notice all she likes, but she won’t have a leg to stand on legally and even if she did, enforcement would take MONTHS

He does need to contact shelter first thing tomorrow and get advice, and help to respond. CAB may be an approach too.

He is protected from her atm, he needs to understand this and relax a little. On no account should be engage with her on email without legal advice.

He's going to have to move sooner or later, in his position I would ask for the upfront rent to be returned and compensation for his time and the hassle of moving.
It happens and your son is better off moving now I would have thought.

Otherwise she can serve a section 21 and take him to court to have him removed, but it seems shitty to force the landlord to be this, really stressful for everyone involved so not how I feel this should be resolved.

@theschitt

He's going to have to move sooner or later, in his position I would ask for the upfront rent to be returned and compensation for his time and the hassle of moving. It happens and your son is better off moving now I would have thought.

Otherwise she can serve a section 21 and take him to court to have him removed, but it seems shitty to force the landlord to be this, really stressful for everyone involved so not how I feel this should be resolved.

It is not shitty to expect a landlord to follow the laws involved with evicting a tenant! Especially a good tenant that has paid upfront for 6 months. It is very shitty that people become landlords without really knowing what it truly is to be a landlord, without knowing (or caring about) the laws they must follow and thinking they can just do what they want because they own the house. It's also shitty that the OP's son has now been contacted by the landlady directly with a sob story and a threat of 'serving him'.

OP I hope he knows if his deposit is in a proper protection scheme. I imagine the 6 months of upfront rent is probably not.

I think it is shitty.
That's my personal opinion.

Finding a way forward through compromise is a way better course than waiting to go to court.

I doubt very much the LL has done this on purpose and if I was the son I would prefer to find somewhere more permanent, better to move now before getting too settled.
He's a single guy with no pets or children, if this was going to happen (and I agree is a crap thing to have to move) then it's better now rather than later (in my opinion).

You have to have grounds to serve someone notice without the fixed term. And it will take way more than 6 months to evict through the courts. She’s trying it on. Tell her to jog on.

@theschitt

He's going to have to move sooner or later, in his position I would ask for the upfront rent to be returned and compensation for his time and the hassle of moving. It happens and your son is better off moving now I would have thought.

Otherwise she can serve a section 21 and take him to court to have him removed, but it seems shitty to force the landlord to be this, really stressful for everyone involved so not how I feel this should be resolved.

She can’t serve a section 21 within the fixed term. It would have to be a section 8 with grounds. Which unless the OP is leaving out something huge, she won’t have.

Definitely no grounds for eviction. She hasn't actually served him notice. "Just" emailed him to say that she is going to do so and he needs to be out by June.

DS just wants to be settled so he can concentrate on his new job so will move as soon as possible. He isn't interested in challenging or even compensation. Just wants to draw a line under this one and avoid similar with the next rental. He's a nice boy and doesn't want the LLs mental health crisis on his conscience.

He has replied saying he is sympathetic to her predicament and will begin to look for new accommodation .

He has replied saying he is sympathetic to her predicament and will begin to look for new accommodation

Yes, I did similar and my landlord became a major pain in the ass.

May I please suggest to your son that, while I completely understand his wish to move on now, he also involve the agent. I would suggest he inform the agent of the landlord’s email and ask them how long they anticipate it taking to return his prepaid rent so that he could a pay a deposit on a new place. That is in no way unreasonable. I would also ask for a contribution to moving costs. My landlord refused that but I still think it was worth asking.

It should go without saying but he must keep a copy of everything in writing.

In my case, the landlord had bought the property as an investment and then returned to the area unexpectedly for a work posting. He and wife did an inspection and told me they had no plans to move back. One month later…they asked if we would be willing to end the contract early. The answer was we weren’t in a financial position to do so at the time but might consider it again I the future. One month later they said that we were fine to stay and one month after that they asked again if we would reconsider moving. The chopping and changing was very unsettling for me and I could see we would have to move at the end of the lease anyway so we decided to look for a new place in a difficult market thinking that we would be able to negotiate a convenient end date. Nope. Landlord wanted us out either one week before we could move into the new place or two and a half weeks later (he specifically said they didn’t want to be paying rent and a mortgage for that period). I hit the roof and sent an email, very politely (!) outlining the number of times he had changed his mind and pointed out we were really doing him a favour. He then agreed to my choice of moving date.

On the moving day he arrived with the agent for the inspection. The agent agreed with me it was I better condition than when we moved in and he some sarcastic comment about us not having to rent the place if hadn’t wanted to. He then asked something about pre existing water damage and insinuated it was our fault. I went ballistic and threatened to go to his employer (he was moving because of work and they behaviour clauses in their contracts) and to the newspapers (which would have a loved a nasty landlord, poor tenant story in Covid times) and magically he started to behave.

That is a ridiculously long winded way of telling your son that he is doing a nice thing but no good deed goes unpunished. Get things agreed in writing NOW, and don’t forget that he is doing her a favour,

What if she decides to get back with her ex (many people do) and holds him to the contract after he has paid a deposit or signed a contract for a new place? He could be on the hook for two lots of rent.

Get it all in writing NOW and hold her to it.

I’m pretty sure that with a 12 month lease the landlord normally has a break clause at 6 months but no earlier than that. He should tell her he will be leaving at 6 months as per the lease he signed and no sooner. It’s very unfortunate for her but she can’t turf him our earlier for her personal reasons, that’s why there is a contract

Plus I think when your son tells the agent they will want to insist he keeps to the minimum 6months. They’ve done the work this lady employed them to do in getting a good tenant for her so will rightly want to see 6 months worth of payments- a % of which will go to them.

I don’t think you son should make her problem his problem. I’d say to the landlord and agent that he is willing to move out before the 12 months, once the agent has found something else suitable and the landlord has covered the associated costs (eg cost of referencing and moving costs like transferring the internet and all the other little things).

Let the agent find him something else. It saves him the stress of bidding etc.

@123walrus

I don’t think you son should make her problem his problem. I’d say to the landlord and agent that he is willing to move out before the 12 months, once the agent has found something else suitable and the landlord has covered the associated costs (eg cost of referencing and moving costs like transferring the internet and all the other little things).

Let the agent find him something else. It saves him the stress of bidding etc.

100% agree with this. I don't know what the rental market is like elsewhere in England but here in Cornwall it is desperate - when I got this place I was one of 60, yes 60, people who applied, and if I was put in your son's position I would absolutely push back and say "if you want me out, you need to find me equivalent accommodation for the same price and pay all fees". And it must be equivalent. Not a room in a shared house when he's currently in self-contained, for example.

@DifficultBloodyWoman. What a horrendous experience. Told son to be on top of admin. Saving messages and emails.

He called agency but they were only employed for viewings and tenant checks so said he needs to deal solely with LL. Agency then tried to interest him in some viewings of some other properties.

@SandyIrvine in which case push it back to the landlady and let her take it up with the letting agent or other letting agents. Your son shouldn’t be having to take on all the work and stress and expense of this.

He signed a year long contract. There may be a 6 month break clause but there’s not always.

He needs to check his contract before doing anything else.