Landlord request feels unfair

[Uberbeeboo]

Hi, I'm looking for some advice about our rights as tenants. We have lived in our rental property for coming up to 5 years and were made aware in March our landlord wanted to sell when our tenancy ended on 31st august 2024.

We therefore purchased a new build property which we believed would have been built by now, however we now have been given the completion date of 30th September 2024.

Today we asked the estate agent who manages our property if we can stay until our new property is ready to move into and they have responded with an ultimatum saying we can stay, but there will be a £400 increase of the rent per month starting next week when the rent is due.

The rental house is not sold and we've only done 2 viewings since April. We've been good tenants and were disappointed we had to move anyway. We really can't afford an extra £400 next week, so I was hoping if someone would kindly give me a little guidance with this please?

Have you managed to contact the landlord yet?

To be fair, now I'm becoming a tenancy pro after doing my research, there's a few things that aren't in order which may make the section 21 invalid. We've never received a gas safety certificate, an EPC or the How to rent guide. I'd never have known these were a thing until I started reading. The whole this is a mess and to make things worse we're living out of boxes, and the shine has been taken out of moving.

No response from landlord yet on the contact details we have. I've asked the agent to provide the information which I believe he has a duty to do, I think.

They are absolutely in breach of the law and a bunch of cowboys. Ignore literally everything they say but also make sure you double lock the door when you leave if possible after the 19th as I wouldn't put it past the agents to illegally enter the property.

We have a meeting with a solicitor today. The agents just been in touch and ignored our request of how much rent we owe on the 1st and details of the complaints process and said we've got until midday to give him a date to vacate or else! Or else what, I have no idea!

Or else? Tell him you'll report him to your local council.
What he's doing is illegal and can get his business shut down.

This is why I'm staggered he's putting it all in writing. I've never known anything like it. It's making me seriously doubt my position as he's so confident with his threats.

Don't do anything until you've spoken to your solicitor, they'll know best

But I think I would just repeat the request for the information, and add a request for proof that the deposit is in an appropriate scheme. If it isn't you can get up to 3x the deposit returned

Contact the council now. This is harassment.

What’s the council going to do?

What on earth makes him think he will get a court date within a month on the exact date that he wants?!

He will start eviction proceedings, surely that’s clear. At that point your toast, your credit score won’t recover for years,

this is all one going to cost you way more than 400

Likely not his first rodeo, and won’t be the agents, average is about 6 weeks

Op,do you have a mortgage? If he moves to evict they may rescind. You need to speak to the advisor urgently,

Hi, I have a mortgage lined up. The appointment with the solicitor is at 3 today so they'll hopefully clarify everything for us.

He can't really do anything until the 19th September. All I've asked for is the amount I have to pay up to that day. I'm unsure he'd want to prevent us moving to our new home as we'd be stuck here for months while we searched for elsewhere. Ultimately we have the same goal.

@Uberbeeboo you become liable
for home insurance on the house you are buying, from exchange of contracts. Just want to let you know with everything going on in case you were not aware. As it’s such a short chain - just you buying a property - you might be able to exchange and complete within a few days (it always used to be a fortnight from the days before fax and email). At a push can be same day though not ideal … make sure your mortgage provider has an idea of timescales as they may need a few days to release funds etc. Our last move we exchanged on the Friday and moved the following Wednesday, we’d set the completion but exchange kept moving back. Usually the landlord’s details are on your tenancy agreement … seems odd to only have the email, especially with your estate agent being so confrontational!

We only know our landlords details as he asked if he could come and meet us a couple of years ago. He came for a cup of tea with his wife and he was lovely. He bought this house as an investment and had never actually been inside so we showed him around.

We soon realised that he hadn't been made aware of any of the repairs needed and promptly sorted this out. I struggle to imagine him behind this, but you never know.

I'm afraid I haven't read the full thread but the law is clear.

Only a tenant or a court can end a tenancy. The end of your fixed term is not the same thing as the end of your tenancy although this is widely misunderstood as this thread demonstrates. Your LL does not have an automatic right to his property back at the end of the fixed term.

The agent is throwing around legalese to intimidate you but the idea that the LL would secure a court date to request a possession order in the next few weeks is hilarious. They're taking months at the moment.

Moreover if the prescribed information was not correctly served, the S21 may well be invalid and a court would quickly throw it out.

Pay your rent and go when you can.

Hi Ohnobackagain, this is why we asked to stay until the end of September. The house should be ready on 16th and we were told we could complete within 10 working days after this. So ultimately we only needed a few extra days in this house and I genuinely thought this would not have been a problem. The whole this has turned so nasty regardless of how reasonable or friendly I try to be in all correspondence.

less is more - this is the best course of action.

They cant do anything to you, you might be stressed by all this, but by 19th, you will know what's what.

Ask what 19 days rent would be and keep asking it and don't allow yourself to get sucked into anything else. Ask for deposit, ask for gas safety cert. just hit them back with what you know is required by law.

and yes, speak to solicitor

@Josephinesnapoleon why will eviction notice mean OP's credit score is ruined?

@Uberbeeboo Definitely talk to the housing developer - they usually have their own progress chaser and it's in their interests to get the money sooner. They may be helpful (ours were, many years ago when buying a new-build - gave us access to the garage at exchange so we could move some stuff. Very unusual of course).

I don’t think it will, considering a lot of what the agent is doing or has done is illegal.

OP, are the details of the landlord not on your tenancy agreement?

Not if he hasn't served the section 21 notice correctly!