UK Landlord Forum / Life

Thank you for accepting me to the forum.   I have a tenant on a 6 Month Short Term Lease Agreement i.e Feb 18 2016 - Aug 18 2016.  Up until this month, he has paid his rent on time without a problem.  This month he has failed to pay and when I asked his reasons why, I was given an excuse that he had to pay for something else and left himself short.  After some conversations, he has told me that he will not be paying his rent this month and I should use his deposit as he is leaving on the 18th August.  I have explained that as in the signed agreement, he should have given me 2 months notice (i.e 18th June) in writing otherwise, he needs to do this now, resulting in a total of 3 months rent.  He is telling me that he can leave and there is nothing I can do about it.  As he has been in the property for over 4 months, I have today served him with a section 21 notice.  I would very much welcome some advice please.  Thank you in advance.

Hi, as i understand the rules a tenant only needs to give one months notice when the tenancy becomes a perionic tenancy, In your case on the 19th of August. A Tenant can vacate the property on the final day of the tenancy without giving notice. I would say that asking for 2 months notice is a contradiction of the 1988 housing act. Although it would be reasonable for the Tenant to let the landlord know their intentions. 

If the Tenant is getting dificult i think it would be best to just let them go without any fuss and find a better tenant.

Hi Allybobs and thank you for you response.  In the agreement, it states 2 months notice of which we have both agreed too.  I was unaware that a tenant can leave on the last day of the tenancy without any notice which really does surprise me to say the least.

Good morning all.

The below paragraph is in the 6 month FSTA not once but twice.  Is it worth me persuing?  The position I am in is that the tenant is refusing to pay the rent, is telling me he is leaving on 19th August and is telling me. that I am in the wrong about any notice in writing. Yet again he is telling me to use the deposit for the months rent..... so this would leave me without any deposit for any possible damages.   This also leaves me hardly anytime to find a new tenant.

Your thoughts allybob or anyone on this please would be very much appreciated.

The Tenant is asked to keep the Landlord informed of whether they intend to leave at the end of the fixed term or renew the tenancy.

"7.4.   The Tenant may end this Agreement by giving the Landlord at least one months' notice in writing that he will give up possession of the Property on a date specified in the notice. The notice cannot expire before the end of the Expiry of this Agreement and must expire on the last day of a rental period and must be sent by first class recorded delivery or handed to the Landlord. "

The Tenant can depart before or on the last day of a fixed term (this is 18 Aug 2016 for you) without giving you any notice whatsoever.

Whatever you might have had written into your agreement simply does not have the power to overrule statute.

On this occasion you are wrong and the Tenant is right, sorry.

However, the Tenant should not be able to unilaterally decide to use the deposit to pay for the last month of rent... what if there are any deductions?

Likewise, similar to a Section 21, you can ask for reasons why all you want - the Tenant is under no obligation to provide a [truthful] response, or any.

Your tenancy should not run from the 18th of a month to the 18th of another month - the Tenant is getting an extra day.

Quote from: Celia on July 27, 2016, 06:49:23 AMThis also leaves me hardly anytime to find a new tenant.

This is no different to any other Landlord's position out there - sometimes you get idiots as Tenants who think it's fun to play the game like this. Suck it up and forget about this Tenant. No point pursuing anything. Although I would have been very angry at the last month rent trick that's been pulled on you. All this tells me is that you're better off without this Tenant, truly.

Hi Hippogriff, thank you for taking the time to respond, very much appreciated and will take you comments on board.  What is the point of having an agreement (done professionally I might add), if it is not legally binding???  I am going to suck up and see as you say and going by some peoples issues on here, this is small fry.   The answer to why he was unable to pay his rent this month was due to the fact (in his words), that he had to pay for his nan's funeral which to me his reasons are not important or relevant.

Just a quick statement I have taken from SHELTER - I would have posted the link but I wasn't sure this was allowed.

Leaving at the End of your fixed term
You can normally leave on the last day of your fixed-term without giving your landlord notice.
Check to see if your tenancy agreement says you must give notice and how much must you must give.   You must give notice if it says something like:
- you must tell your landlord if you plan to leave on the last day.
- when the fixed term expires the tenancy will continue as a periodic tenancy

You should let the landlord know what you plan to do to avoid disputed.

Time to move onward and upward.

Regards

"7.4.   The Tenant may end this Agreement by giving the Landlord at least one months' notice in writing that he will give up possession of the Property on a date specified in the notice. The notice cannot expire before the end of the Expiry of this Agreement and must expire on the last day of a rental period and must be sent by first class recorded delivery or handed to the Landlord. "


The truth is that we can put whatever we like in our tenancy agreements. However , it has to be fair subjectively, if it contradicts statute law in your case the 1988 housing act the rules in the housing act overrule everything.
The Tenant usualy wins

HI Allybops .... is my 7.4 unfair?  and sorry to be questionable but is my 7.4  in contradiction of the statute law 1988 housing act.   

I am learning by the minute here so thank you

What matters more is perspective. 

Firstly, you don't want to enforce a Tenant staying in your property if they don't wish to be there - that's a recipe for disaster if I ever heard of one. Secondly, the idea of opening-up some kind of legalistic dispute over this isn't going to get you anywhere - the Tenant seems pretty assured in their actions and it is unlikely the threat of any action will yield results. They hold the cards, sadly... you don't even have their deposit as leverage as it's been re-purposed (that is the naughty bit - and that is the bit I specifically cover in my ASTs).

So, if you take a bigger perspective into account... let the Tenant go, hope there's no damage deductions you need to make and it's a clean break. Yes, a void is unavoidable - but don't worry too much about that, I always like a short void anyway, I don't like it when one Tenant is leaving and the other is there, bringing in boxes, done it once, will never do it again. Plan for 11 months rent income per year. If you get more - bonus.

Quote from: Celia on July 27, 2016, 08:00:43 AMI would have posted the link but I wasn't sure this was allowed.

Post what you want on here - we're generally not happy with advertising and self-promotion only.

Thank you both your help and advice is very much appreciated and I will make sure I take all of this into consideration when letting in future

now at the next stage....... I have written 2 polite letters to the tenant asking to do viewings and unfortunately for me, I have been refused.  It has also come to light that he has been smoking in the property and not just cigarettes breaching the lease agreement at all levels, including the non-payment of this months rent.

Is my lease that we both signed really useless?

In reasonable situations, with reasonable people, the AST terms are adhered to. Then, every so often, you get a Tenant who is not unreasonable. The Tenant is likely refusing because of shame (or bare-faced cheek). Most tenancies, to be fair, carry on without troubles.

It's always better to do viewings on a property when it is empty. I am not bothered what anyone might think regarding this, I've tried both ways and doing viewings when someone is in residence is awkward and not especially fruitful. Landlords need to accept that time is required between tenancies to bring properties back up to the standard they should be. Those Landlords (not implying anyone in this thread is of this type) that wants no void period whatsoever are unrealistic in their expectations - focus on one problem at once - removing this Tenant, then move onto the next problem (we all do enough juggling in our lives).

Update. Tenant now moved  out, deposit  received by me as lost rent and also to my amazement, I have also received 1 months rent i.e. 1 months notice on the day keys handed over and a clean flat   Maybe a prick on conscience of awkward tenant.   I think I had a lucky escape but a real reminder that 'the agreement' was useless.

Flat passed over to agent for next 6 months and then I am hanging up my coat on this business.

Once again, thank you all for your advice it was really useful.

Quote from: Celia on August 21, 2016, 08:47:40 PMI think I had a lucky escape but a real reminder that 'the agreement' was useless.

A piece of paper with some signatures on it is never going to stop a really bad Tenant from doing anything. It's not magic. The situation that you describe seems quite good, to be fair. Tenant wasn't actually as bad as may have been envisaged.

The tenancy agreement only generally restates the existing legislation, which really defines the rules of renting. If you can have a perfectly legal tenancy only with a verbal agreement, then I reckon a written document is only so powerful. In any case, as Hippogriff said, you should only try to keep tenants who really want to be kept living in your property. Anything else is you risking a pile of trouble when the unhappy tenant is letting loose steam in your investment.

Resolved 18.08