Here is a question to the blog clinic from Martine,who is a tenant.
I have been renting my house for 2 years but now have found a new house but my landlady says I have to pay rent up until I leave even though I paid a month in advance and a deposite can she do this?
I did change my payment date by 2 weeks but surley a I am still 2 weeks in advance have never had any arrers either.
How much you have to pay when you leave, really depends on whether your fixed term has ended and how much notice you give.
If your fixed term has still some time to run your landlord can insist on being paid to the end of the term. In which case she is being kind to you.
If the fixed term has ended and your tenancy has rolled on, on a month by month basis, then strictly speaking you need to give one months notice ending at the end of the period.
So if your fixed term ended on 4 June your tenancy period (assuming you pay monthly) will run from the 5th day in the month to the 4th. So you need to give notice up to the next 4th day in the month after one month.
If you don’t give this notice and leave early, then the landlord is entitled to rent in lieu.
I’m not sure if your landlord has worked it out this way, it may be that strictly speaking you are liable for more than she is asking for. It is hard to say without more details.
So far as the deposit is concerned, this is held to deal with any damage to the property. Only after you have left and the property is found to be without damage can it be offset against any rent arrears.
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If YOU have a problem, why not put it to the blog clinic? However there are a lot of questions submitted, so if you need an answer quickly remember that members of my Landlord Law service can ask me questions in the members forum area, and will normally get an answer with 24 hours.
I agree (for what that is worth!!) with every comment in the response above except the very last one.
It may well be that the Scheme Rules of all three schemes make this provision, that it has to be damage first and rent second. If so then I haven’t seen it as sad life that I lead I needed to revisit all three scheme rules recently.
Pre TDP certainly a Landlord took for dilaps first because that is a subjective judgement, whereas arrears is black and white.
The point here is the deposit is held against non discharging of any tenant obligation in the tenancy agreement. So if the Landlord raises a dispute then he is able to raise it for any matter that is provided for in the tenancy agreement and confirmed in the PIN. So if rent is a claimable category then the Landlord can raise the dispute for arrears
The point I was trying to make Ian, was not so much the order of deduction, but the fact that the deposit is not offset against anything until after the tenancy has ended. Its not (or should not be) a fund the landlord can draw upon during the tenancy.
If the property is left in poor condition there may be none of it left to be taken against rent (if any is due at that time). So at this stage it does not enter the equation.