SMF - Just Installed!

Student Tenancy - unclear agreement

Started by kevalicat, July 14, 2020, 04:03:30 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

kevalicat

Hello all, I would like advice/ opinion on a situation I am in as a guarantor. My daughter left Uni at Christmas thru various reasons, and the house contract ran until June 30th. From early January I presented the agent with numerous candidates to take over the rest of the term, but they were turned away as they were non students. I kept getting email saying the landlord insurance would be void, that was the reason given. I paid up until the end of March but then re read a copy of the contract I had signed as guarantor, there is nothing in this that stipulates the tenant has to be a student. It covers if anyones situation changes, the house will become liable for Council Tax, a very small price to pay. The contract is now ended, the landlord is contacting me direct as the agent is no longer involved, and I am starting the discussion with the landlord again as the agent never mentioned it while the contract was running. Not sure if this is the forum for this kind of thing, but be interested if anyone has a view.       

Simon Pambin

Well, I'm not a lawyer but ...

The landlord isn't legally obliged to accept any tenant you offer: rightly or wrongly, there's no obligation to mitigate loss on a tenancy, as the law stands at the moment. Unless the contract stipulates that the landlord must accept whoever you offer (and who would write a contract like that?) Then I reckon you're on the hook for the last three months.

Hippogriff

Quote from: kevalicat on July 14, 2020, 04:03:30 PMMy daughter left Uni at Christmas thru various reasons...

None of the reasons matter, only that this Tenant decided to remove themselves from a signed contract that gave both sides security of tenure. It's not supposed to be great for one side and terrible for the other. The contract, as stated, ran until a certain time... if not the legal thing to do, consider it the moral thing to do. If a Tenant comes to me and says - "I'm off, but I'm got this bloke to take on the tenancy for me" I'd be like "er, no" whoever it was! That's just the truth.

Quote from: kevalicat on July 14, 2020, 04:03:30 PM...the house will become liable for Council Tax, a very small price to pay.

Amazing perspective you have there. You're imposing your strife onto others so easily and with such casual disdain that I am quietly confident you'll not listen to reason here and just fulfill your obligations calmly and rationally. It feels like you've got the bit between your teeth and you're convinced you're right... even though it was you[r side] that has attempted to break the legally binding agreement. In my view you are in rent arrears... no acceptable substitute Tenant was ever found and the contract is ended... just because your party wasn't there doesn't mean you don't pay.

I would be at least offering an olive branch... maybe 75% or even 50% to see if the Landlord goes away quietly - no-one will be happy, but at least both sides will think they got something out of it all.

kevalicat

I was looking for a view, not an uninformed rant. Facts are, others in the house left earlier and put forward other people to take over the term.
My point is I did the same but couldn't find a student, they were all self funded professionals. There is nowhere in the contract that stipulates they have to be students, how hard is it to then register the house for council tax until the term ends? Too hard for you clearly. I would not have taken this contract had I known the limitations, these limitations are not in the contract and looks like I will have to defend legally to prove it is not worth the paper it's written on.

Just to close your rant, the offers were made, not rejected but just ignored which leaves me little choice in what I think comes next.   

Hippogriff

#4
People these days avoid morals like the plague... you had signed a fixed term contract. That gave you the security you obviously wanted - otherwise you'd be in a hotel. Why on earth do you think that security is one-sided? My view is you're trying to escape your financial obligations... because it doesn't suit you to pay... that much is clear-cut. The fact you entitled this thread "student tenancy" gives you all the clues you'd need. Why should someone pay for Council Tax just because you failed to find an appropriate - student - replacement Tenant... you obviously didn't try hard enough if others, somehow, managed to do it. My mind boggles at the Teflon-shouldered nature of this... it's a sign of the times.

kevalicat

It's a simple case of a Tenancy Agreement not containing basic key information. You should check yours. I feel there may be a lot of this coming, and there should be if landlords think it's ok to issue contracts that are not fit for purpose. 

heavykarma

Common sense tells me that putting a professional person into a student house will not be successful.The landlord rightly wants to avoid conflict and a void room.I have never taken students,but I have had young tenants wanting to leave early.I don't take guarantors (your attitude is yet another reminder of why I am wise to refuse them) but such tenants accepted (probably grudgingly) that they were obliged to pay rent, either until the lease ended or another suitable tenant had been found.I also expected them to pay some proportion of the reletting fee .You are not legally or morally in the right here,so grin and bear it.Don't be a guarantor for your daughter or anyone else again,it is not something to be taken so lightly.

kevalicat

My point exactly. I have asked the agent, and landlord, many times now where the contract stipulates 'Student Only' . That's all I want. The fact they claim it is student only has closed every option of me getting another to take the remainder of the term. I put forward 4 very viable candidates, 3 where student age if that makes a difference, but why it should is worrying. I will find out if I am legally in the right through legal channels, not through a bitter, disgruntled landlord on here.   

heavykarma


Simon Pambin

So what does the contract actually say about finding a replacement tenant? Does it just say "anybody warm and breathing and able to stump up a month's rent will automatically be accepted" or does it use words like suitable/acceptable? If a landlord gets to say yea or nay to a prospective tenant at the beginning of a tenancy, why would he abdicate that right part way through? Unless the contract is very clumsily worded, he wouldn't.

You can, of course, pursue the legal route, but beware of losing perspective. Three month's rent on a room in a student house doesn't buy you a lot of legal time. It certainly won't get you to the Supreme Court!

kevalicat

Thanks Simon. I am expecting a money claim from the landlord, all I have said is I will defend any claim on the grounds mentioned. Interestingly, the other tenant that moved out found another student and I know for a fact the landlord was never contacted over the change. The document is 6 pages and nowhere is there a clause that covers finding a replacement tenant. 

Simon Pambin

Quote from: kevalicat on July 15, 2020, 02:04:48 PM
The document is 6 pages and nowhere is there a clause that covers finding a replacement tenant.

Given that the law doesn't oblige a landlord to find a replacement tenant, and the contract doesn't oblige the landlord to find a replacement tenant, what is the basis for your defence? Your best bet is if the landlord decides it's not worth pursuing.

kevalicat

Thanks, you may be right. I have been disappointed to learn recently that an offer I made some weeks ago was never passed on to the landlord by the agent.  I have tried all I can, I have a small monthly payment set up also.
Thanks for your views Simon

Hippogriff

You haven't done "all you can" - you haven't paid what you owe.

You don't even appear to have chased up the offer you made, to the Agent, directly with the Landlord, even though you're in direct contact. That would be the first thing I'd hit - again and again - what about my offer? Why are you not responding to the offer I made? You don't just make an offer to party A, start talking to Party B (the decision maker) and never reference it... that's crackers. What you do when you're really trying is keep re-iterating your offer, and get something back... don't just chuck it into a black hole.

So, basically, you've done very little apart from look for a get-out.

kevalicat

Every assumption you have made so far has been wrong. I have found suitable tenants, I was covering the CT if needed. I have made an offer. I have a payment plan in place, that has not been refused or refunded. It is based on the most I can pay on, as I am doing all I can.  If the landlord cannot see I am doing all I can, then they will take the next steps I am sure. As for an agent withholding the offer, and ignoring many chases, it will be something the landlord will have to tackle with their agent. I have done all I can.