UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi, i'm hoping for some help with this one. I have a one bedroom house which was let out to my tenant for 18 months. He informed me that he would be moving on to a new place and therefore was giving me a months notice. During this notice period he informed me he was moving with in a couple of weeks and needed the deposit from my property to secure his new one. His rent was paid until 29th February however he arranged to meet me at the property 0n 20th February to hand the property over in order for the inspection to happen and his deposit  repaid from the DPS. The inspection was done and the DPS released on 22nd February. All keys and meter readings done. I thought that was all ok and the end of it. I found a new tenant and took their deposit and submitted it to the DPS with a contract starting from 1st March as this is when my old tenant would have been released. I met my new tenant to sign the paperwork on Friday 26th to go through all the bits and bobs and left him with the keys as I was going away the next day for a week.  I have received a letter from my previous tenant demanding 4 x days rent £59.14 repayment as they have photo evidence of the new guy in there before the 1st suggesting that I was taking rent from 2 people at the same time.  Where do I stand on this as they are threatening legal action. The new guy move a couple of bits in gradually but didn't officially move in until 1st as per our contract and DPS deposit?? I would really appreciate some help with this, thank you in advance.

I'd say your erstwhile tenant is trying it on. The inspection, the handover of keys, meter readings etc, plus the release of the deposit, are clear evidence that he surrendered the tenancy on the 20th.

Even if that were not the case, what has he lost by your new tenant moving in early? Nothing.

And even if we overlook those two colossal holes in his argument, the fact that the new tenancy didn't legally start until March 1st means that you could argue that his case should be against the new tenant, for trespass!

However, that's completely academic because, your former tenant surrendered the tenancy of the 20th and what happens to the property after that is no concern of his. I suspect he's hoping you'll just pay up to save an argument and/or legal costs.