Here is a question to the blog clinic rom Hayley who is a tenant:
Ending a Tenancy – Currently in a fixed term tenancy agreement payable monthly ending this month. The property was put up for sale with another agency but the managing agency for the tenancy was not informed.
We queried our position with the managing agents for the property and were advised we would move to a periodic contract at the end of our fixed term and would need to give 1 months notice.
The landlord has not yet given us notice and has been evasive all the way through as to the selling of the property initially advising he only wanted to test the market etc etc any information we received was via the selling agents and they were very helpful .
The new owners want to move as soon as possible and the selling agency are supporting this – no chain either side and luckily we have been able to find a new property fairly quickly which fits happily with this timetable.
We have just given notice with effect from the end of our tenancy agreement as per the managing agents advice (these agents are not the selling agents), with the support of the agents selling the property for the landlord but our landlord is enforcing a 60 day term for the notice period, which unfortunately upon checking is listed in the original rental agreement.
Can this be enforced? we are happy to negotiate and pay for the 1 months notice but 2 months is not financially viable and our new property will not wait. Are there any options we can pursue?
It feels very much as though we have been left in limbo as trying to find acceptable accomodation for adults, children and cats is not quite so easy and we dont wish to lose the one we have found.
If the property has indeed just been sold, then the new owners, if they want to move in and use the property themselves, should be grateful that you are willing to move out. You have the right to stay there – the fact that the landlord has sold the property to another person does not affect your legal position as tenants at all.
To force you to move out they would need to :
- Serve a s21 notice which would have a notice period of between two and three months
- Bring proceedings for possession through the courts which could take another three to four months
- Instruct the court bailiffs, which could take a further two to eight weeks, depending on how long the bailiffs take to arrange appointments at your court.
So far as your notice period is concerned, if the tenancy is periodic and you are paying monthly it is one month – if the tenancy says two months then this clause will be unenforceable. However, if you want to leave at or before the end of the fixed term, you don’t need to give notice at all (but will do if you stay even one day after the end of the fixed term).
However you could say to them that if they are going to be difficult about the terms of your departure, you will not be able to move at all and will simply wait until you are evicted. It may change their attitude when they realise what they would have to do to get you out.
In effect you are saving them up to 6 month hassle and up to £1,000 legal costs.
If they are really keen to move in, you could suggest that as you are helping them, they should help you by waiving any notice period and maybe contributing towards your removal costs.
I get several cases like this every month. Landlord puts the property up for sale, serves a section 21 and stops there.
The tenants cant find/afford anywhere else to live but the sale is progressing and dates are being bandied about.
Then I contact the landlord and they lose their temper because I am blocking the sale by pointing out a little inconvenient truth about possession orders.
Mostly this happens when the tenants approach the homelessness unit for re-housing who advise them that as they still have a contractual right to remain they arent homeless under Section 175 of the Housing Act 1996.
When training landlords I always stress in situations like sale or new tenants moving in and the tenant says they will leave, check how they intend to find new accommodation, if they say through the council, get a possession order first or it will come back and bite you on the bum
It never ceases to amaze me that landlords in this position should be so greedy as to want rent in lieu of notice when tenants are doing them an enormous favour by moving out.
What annoys me is the anger they aim at the homelessness unit for not re-housing the tenant. I repeatedly have to say that it isnt the role of the council to solve the landlord’s problem for them
An unfortunate side effect of carrying out the actions above is that the tenants will face difficulties in renting from the private rented sector in the future.
Very unfair for the (blameless) tenant.
There’s no need for the tenants actually to stay and be evicted. But they can use the implied threat of this to negotiate a better exit deal.
Hayley,
I’d just like to back up what Tessa has already said.
First, regardless of what it says in your agreement, you are not legally required to give any notice at all to end the tenancy at the end of the fixed term, although it is usually best to do so to avoid any misunderstanding. There is no specified period of notice that you would have to give in this scenario and you could just hand back the keys on the last day and walk away.
If I have misunderstood and you are serving notice to end the tenancy after the the fixed term, then in this case you would tecnically have to give the required minimum of one month’s notice under a periodic tenancy and it must expire on the last day of a rental period.
The bottom line is that you cannot be held to two months notice in either of these scenarios.
Assuming the landlord has not already served notice on you, it is now too late for them to end the tenancy at the end of the fixed term. If they now serve notice before the end of the fixed term they would have to serve a section 21(1)(b) giving you two months notice. But as Tessa pointed out, they would technically still need a court order to get you out if you decided to outstay your welcome.
As Tessa has said, your agent is simply wrong and you are definitely the one with the upper hand. You should let the agent know that you are aware of this, then you can basically dictate whatever terms you like.