UK Landlord Forum / Life

My son left the property he was renting one month early.  In accordance with the tenancy agreement he gave notice and paid the rent for the last month.  The landlord then rented the property 2 weeks later.  Does anyone know if the Landlord is legally required to reimburse two weeks rent or are they entitled to keep it?

Very naughty.  If your son had paid up the last month then the house was still his and he was illegally evicted!

Thank you for your reply.  I am sorry I didn't fully explain. My son left on his own accord but didn't give a full months notice so paid for the month but didn't stay in the flat.  The Landlord then rented the flat out two weeks into the month my son had vacated but paid for.  What I am interested to know is if the landlord is legally entitled to keep the two weeks rent that overlapped.

Yes and no.

As riptide says, if your son paid the rent, then he "owns" that time.

However if he "vacated" the property, gave the keys back, got his deposit etc, then the property is back with the landlord and he can keep the additional rent quite rightly if you ask me!

The additional months rent can be seen as a payment to break the lease, interesting to see what date he told the council he wasn't liable to council tax, if that was the earlier date, it's rather directional as to what his intentions were, i.e. Don't pay the council tax as well for the last month, cant expect to get some compo for additional rent received.

After your son left, all arranged, the Tenancy ended and the Landlord shouldn't be expected to sit on his asset until some end date. He might lose interested Tenants in that time and at some point, depending on where the property is, he would become liable for bills like Council Tax. All I'm saying is that it is the Landlord's responsibility to himself to let the property out again as soon as possible. Now, if an arrangement had been made whereby 3 months of rent had been paid to the Landlord for the ability to terminate the Tenancy early, and they re-let after 2 weeks, then that would be double-bubble time for them and it'd be really dubious - easily able to challenge that kind of deal in any court of law. However, 2 weeks, not so much... that's pretty fair and I don't believe the Landlord is liable.

Many thanks for your replies-very helpful.