Should we have been given notice?

Reply to the comment left by Romain Garcin at 20/09/2017 - 15:55As I understand it, only a lodger renting a room and sharing living accommodation in the landlord's home (as a licencee, not a common law tenant) or a licencee under a holiday let agreement are exempted from the requirement for a possession order enforced by bailiffs?

Reply to the comment left by Mandy Thomson at 18/09/2017 - 10:15
There is a statutory notice period required in the prevention from eviction act 1977.

Part 2 Section 5
5 Validity of notices to quit.

(1)[F26Subject to subsection (1B) below] no notice by a landlord or a tenant to quit any premises let (whether before or after the commencement of this Act) as a dwelling shall be valid unless—
(a)it is in writing and contains such information as may be prescribed, and
(b)it is given not less than 4 weeks before the date on which it is to take effect.

That is why the landlord is being picky.

Hi Diane, Whilst fixed term tenancies do not HAVE to have a notice period, in practice, I would have thought very few ASTs (especially ones offered through a letting agent) would not contain a standard requirement of one month's notice to end in conjunction with the end of the fixed term at the earliest. Then the rolling monthly periodic tenancy will have the same period dates as the fixed term, so I'm confused as to why you are saying there is a change in the required notice from your fixed term, without having any further details it sounds unusual to me...I'm afraid that as you've signed a legal contract with all the terms clearly laid out in it (and this is a fairly standard one) you are expected in law to be aware of what you've agreed to. It is unfortunate that the exact stipulations of the one month's notice weren't made clear to you by the agent when you mentioned you intended to give notice in the future as this would have saved you from making this mistake.

Reply to the comment left by Mandy Thomson at 20/09/2017 - 15:48
The landlord may accept mesne rent as 'damages' without creating a new tenancy. It would be advisable in this instance for a landlord to put it in writing to the 'former tenant/trespasser' that this is what they are accepting and NOT rent payments.

Reply to the comment left by Kate Mellor at 21/09/2017 - 14:57Agreed. However, few landlords would be aware they should acknowledge any payment as occupation charges only in a situation such as this. For example, they might send out a rent demand letter, or do something else that implies they have a tenancy agreement with the occupant, thus jeopardising their chances of getting double rent and unwittingly creating a new tenancy.

Reply to the comment left by Ray Davison at 18/09/2017 - 15:29
I discussed this with my manager on the advice line, and another colleague who is a barrister. They both said it is best to issue a section 21 where tenant gives valid notice but still won't move out, as although they agree it should be possible to evict on the strength of tenant's notice, they are not aware of any successful eviction being granted by this means.

I would be very interested if someone can cite a case where the landlord has successfully brought a claim on the strength of tenant's notice, which I'm assuming would be the standard eviction route and not trespasser route?

Many thanks

Reply to the comment left by Kate Mellor at 21/09/2017 - 14:50
Hi Kate, thanks for your helpful reply. The reason I felt there had been a change to the notice period was because for the fixed term, the tenancy agreement simply said one month notice but once it moved over to the periodic tenancy, the agreement specifically said one month from the rent payment date. Although it makes sense when I read some of the replies on here, prior to that I was under the impression it was just a one month notice period so if we wanted to leave on 10th of the next month, we give notice on 10th of this month. When the tenancy changed from fixed to periodic, if the letting agent had said ‘please note, clause so and so now applies in relation to your notice period’ then I would have been aware of it. It also didn’t help when I was initially told only a months notice was needed then weeks later, another person at the letting agent clarified it was a month from the rent payment date as that suddenly created an urgency for us to exchange contracts by the next rent payment date.

In any event, despite us being ready to exchange and proposing completion dates 3 weeks ago and me telephoning and e-mailing the significant dates to the sellers estate agent 11 days ago and my solicitor telling the sellers solicitor at the same time, because we haven’t exchanged contracts by close of play yesterday, we now can’t give effective notice until 29th October so we’re stuck here until at least 22nd November. And only now, when it’s too late, does the agent start pushing the sellers solicitor to exchange. We are so demoralised by the whole thing we are ready to pull out and look elsewhere and especially to make sure we don’t buy any property being sold by this particular estate agent

Reply to the comment left by Mandy Thomson at 29/09/2017 - 17:56
I came upon a more up to date article on tenant's notice ending the tenancy, again by Tessa Shepperson, in which she states that the standard possession claim (forms n5 and n119) must be made by the landlord: http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2014/09/11/this-tenant-has-served-a-notice-to-quit-but-now-wants-to-stay/

Reply to the comment left by Diane Lane at 30/09/2017 - 05:05
Buying a house (or selling) can be such a frustrating process! There are so many different intermediaries involved and so much money, stress and emotion tied up in it. I used to work as a sales negotiator for Reeds Rains many years ago and personally I found the best way to stop a sale falling through was to actively chase the process at each and every stage, but I know this is not the usual approach sadly. I would suggest if you still want this house you try and take a deep breath and look at the big picture. All this will soon be behind you and you can settle in to your new home free of agents, solicitors and landlords for some time to come. The only thing worse than having to wait until 22 November would be having to start all over again from scratch! Yuck! I've got my fingers crossed for you that all this now goes smoothly and you can exchange very soon, that way at least you know when you will be completing and both solicitors will be very motivated to get everything ready for that date. It'll be worth it, you'll see.

Reply to the comment left by Mandy Thomson at 01/10/2017 - 12:25
That's correct, CPR 55, the specific Possession Claim against trespassers can't be used for someone who has occupied as a tenant or subtenant, it's specifically excluded, although it can be used against a licensee who has remained following the lawful determination of their licence. So 'standard' procedural rules apply to a Possession Claim against a tenant who 'holds over'.