UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi there. I was wondering if someone could advise on a situation that has come up with a tenant.

I have found a tenant and have done my own agreement and inventory. The tenant has signed the agreement for a year and the inventory is done and complete.
Obviously these documents are mine and have had no solicitors involved.

The tenant was advised when shown the property that the phone reception was pretty poor. he did comment about this at the time and said it would be ok.

Now a few weeks in to the tenancy he wants out of the property because his office cannot contact him on call outs and he has had a disciplinary because of this.

Now can anyone tell me where I stand on this one and how to go about dealing with it.
What rights do I as a landlord have.
He has paid the deposit which is with the DPS.

He has also paid me 6 months rent upfront.

He wants to get out in August and wants three months rent back. Even though he has signed my agreement for a year?

Please any advice would be great.

Thanks in advance.

Genuinely seems to be a problem the Tenant knew about. You aren't under any obligation to end the tenancy early or repay any rent. However, you might elect to do this... with appropriate compensation... as there's never any point in forcing someone to stay in your property if they're not happy.

I'm assuming you mean mobile signal? All providers?

Why does the Tenant think they are due rent back? Is it simply that they're moving out and feel that's OK? If so, they aren't very savvy with how things work, contracts and such. Why do people seem to think signing stuff doesn't really matter these days?

Yes he knew about it and I even told him where the hot spots were for my phone to get it working. I never had that much of a problem with it all. I managed for 12 years in that property.
I will suggest him getting a mobile phone booster which you can obtain these days but I think he just wants out now as its all too much hassle.

The thing is I don't really know how much he will try and fight this. I haven't answered him yet as I wanted to see what you all thought about this situation.

yes mobile phone signal. Vodafone with the worst. I was with T mobile (EE) and they were ok, just.
And only in parts of the house.
The thing is as it was pointed out to him and its not actually my fault. My hands are tied with that sort of thing.
I just don't know what to tell him.

If I said yeah you can move out but i am keeping the 6 months rent. Is that really viable?
Ill let you break the contract then?

Oh I know it does all seem like people don't understand the concept of signing something.

Thanks Hippogriff.

Think through the options... (not exhaustive or segregated properly, just writing as I think)...

1) Enforce the tenancy for 1 year. He's paid 6 months. What chance do you think there would be of him paying fully and on-time beyond that? Quite low I'd surmise. He'd probably just up-and-leave and say - "do your worst".

2) Enforce the tenancy for the period the Tenant has paid for. 6 months. You're agreeing to earlier surrender and he is free to leave earlier to get another place, but he doesn't get a refund on the amount already paid and you have an ongoing tenancy for those 6 months. You should ideally ask the Tenant for the costs of re-marketing the property and if you got someone earlier and it's vacant, you could give him money back as you don't get double-bubble.

3) Allow the Tenant to leave in August (which I'm assuming would be 3 months)... agree an early surrender. You can either choose to give some rent back, or not. Or use the rent paid, or a portion thereof, towards re-marketing. This is more in the realm of negotiation now... you're trying to bend over backwards to facilitate their desires, but you should not lose out financially... it is your responsibility and should be your desire to mitigate your losses by getting a new Tenant in.

4) Allow the Tenant to leave whenever they want... and assure them that you'll give them any pro-rated rent back, but also obtain their agreement that they must cover your re-marketing costs. This is the bare minimum position you should be accepting... also, if the Tenant is a reasonable person, they should see this kind of offer as you being exceptionally helpful to their predicament.

5) Have the Tenant get a land-line installed?

What would I do? Somewhere between 2 and 3 I think... I'd try for allowing them to leave early, whenever, but keeping the rent that's been paid, 6 months - if I then found another Tenant to take their place then I'd deduct the costs associated with marketing and then give them the remainder back. I'd hope they'd be very happy with that. I would make genuine attempts to find another Tenant to take their place.

Even option 1 is viable... I'd just not want to do it.

The phone isn't the issue.

My wife is on call as a nurse, we live in a valley with zero coverage.

She has a pager... old school. It works perfectly.

He can get a redirect on his mobile to his land line.

The fact he paid so much upfront smacks of a poor tenant.

Something has changed and he wants out.

I would politely say that if he finds another tenant you find acceptable, then he can move out as soon as they move in, otherwise you expect him to deal with his phone issue, and stay for the duration of the legal agreement.

Thats all.

Boboff's point is the way I have seen this done a few times.  The responsibility to honour the contract is with the tenant.

As a generous compromise you could allow them to find a suitable replacement to take on the contract, but obviously they would still need to pass all your check.  Then the tenant can move on.  If not they remain liable.


The tenant sounds like a spolied brat who is not used to taking responsibility for his commitments.  I also agree that I find it odd that they have paid so much upfront. There has to be a story behind that because that is not normal.

In my opinion, and i would agree ther are more experienced people.

why keep somebody who doesnt want to live there.

what if they become awkward etc and cause problems.

i would compromise, ask tenant to forfeit a month or two rent, and find another tenant.

Hi.
Thanks everyone for your help and advice on this issue.
I have mailed the tenant to say to get a mobile phone signal booster from there provider and to get a divert to the landline which i am hoping he will get as I am sure he wants the internet.
He hasn't replied to me yet with regards to this issue so I am hoping he is trying to sort it out.

But your all right I don't want to make the guy stay if he is unhappy so I have said if he is still having issues then we can talk about him being released from the agreement once he has tried other things to try and sort it out.

I lived in the property for 12 years and although it was a problem I made it all work ok.

thanks again everyone.

Hi guys. Heard back from the tenant and he has a pda that doesnt seem to be able to get the jobs sent to it on.
I don't know anything about these though. But I do know that you can get wifi and make some of them work through this. Or its gps and again having satellite reception in the house is out of my control.
Anyone know anything about pdas and how to get them to work in a poor signal area.
I know its a long shot but hey someone might know.

I know it's his issue and he should be looking for help on the internet himself.  A PDA is an old school smartphone.  There are any many solutions.