Here is a question to the blog clinic from Joni who is a tenant
If a house is due to be demolished in April for a tramline and the contract is till the end of June, providing the tennants have all paid their rent, then does the landlord have any laws or obligations to house the tennants until the end of the contract?
The answer is, I suppose, “probably”.
If the landlord took your money knowing that the house was due to be demolished before your term ran out, then almost certainly yes.
However if he had no idea (unlikely in my view) then he would just have to refund the money as he would have acted in good faith.
Two thoughts occur. One is that you should check that the demolition is actually going to take place. Delays are not unknown in building works. The other is that you might be able to get some help from your local authority.
There is absolutely no way on earth the landlord could just be finding out about this now. This would probably be somethig like a compulsory purchase order, or at least an agreed deal with the developer. The owner would have known about it ages ago.
There is an assumption that the landlord has taken on the responisibility to house the tenant/s for the duration of their tenancy. On the other hand landlords cannot be held responsible for an “Act of God”. Force Majeure is a legitimate reason for non-performance of a legal contract but in this case it’s a known and foreseeable occurrance not an act of god.
I would certainly think the Landlord has a duty to re-home the tenants. He has obviously tried to hedge his bets and keep tenants in there as long as possible whithout making them aware that they may be kicked out before the legal end of their tenancy.