Singing Pig

"" he will be leaving"" -   means its him who has to give you notice - he has to give you one months notice in writing ending on a rent day.....

but he is legally bound to pay you till the end of your AST  - up to September, or until such time as you find another tenant to replace him

methinks with such a misunderstood question - that you need to do a wee  bit more reading, and   - maybe you should join National Landlords association to get the benefit of their legal help line  - did you put his deposit in a Scheme ?

bw

clottie

the deposit is in a scheme,

its about seizing the initiative. i want to start looking for a replacement tenant. I dont want the tenant to later turn around and he say he wants to stay as he only needs to give 1-month notice and I need to serve 2-months. is it a section 21 or 8 notice?

 
NB he rents a room in the house and there are 2 other tenants on different ASTs
 

darkstar:

My tenant has recently told me that he will be leaving to move in with his girlfriend and I will be shortly starting the search for a new tenant.

Your post isn't that clear, but I presume you mean that the tenant is leaving at the end of his tenancy. Also, I guess he told you this verbally. You need to get him to do this in writing, the reason is below.

First you need to issue a s21 notice. This has to be served before 13 July. It should state that you require possession after 13 September. Get the dates wrong and the notice is invalid.

In your last post you mention that you worry that he might change his mind and not leave. If he has given written notice then you can invoke s18 of the Distress for Rent Act 1737 (Yes despite being enacted over 200 years ago, it still is valid). This says that if the tenant has given valid notice and "holds over" i.e. stays on, then double rent is chargeable for the date that he should have left. Here is the section, and I have highlighted the key phrase:

And whereas great inconveniences have happened and may happen to landlords whose tenants have power to determine their leases, by giving notice to quit the premisses by them holden, and yet refusing to deliver up the possession when the landlord hath agreed with another tenant for the same: from and after the said twenty fourth day of June one thousand seven hundred and thirty eight, in case any tenant or tenants shall give notice of his, her, or their intention to quit the premisses by him, her, or them holden, at a time mentioned in such notice, and shall not accordingly deliver up the possession thereof at the time in such notice contained, that then the said tenant or tenants, his, her, or their executors or administrators, shall from thenceforward pay to the landlord or landlords, lessor or lessors, double the rent or sum which he, she, or they should otherwise have paid, to be levied, sued for, and recovered at the same times and in the same manner as the single rent or sum, before the giving such notice, could be levied, sued for, or recovered; and such double rent or sum shall continue to be paid during all the time such tenant or tenants shall continue in possession as aforesaid

We quoted this on a tenant who was reluctant to abide by their notice to quit. They took advice, and presumably being told it was correct, concentrated their minds on leaving without delay.  

Right, lets look at basics here. Assume the rent is paid monthly in this example. The tenancy started on 8th, thus each period ends at 23.59 on 7th (It is highly unusual in property contracts for it to expire at a set time during a day).

Keys are a key factor here (no pun intended). The act of parting with keys is a physical act recognised in law as parting with possession. If keys are held, possession is retained. Thus in your example they still had possession on the 8th. If they had given written notice that they were leaving on 7th and didn't, their notice would have expired as it was not adhered to. They would again need to give written notice of a new date.

As they have possession after the start of a new period in their tenancy, the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 comes into play. This states (clarified by case law) that a tenant has to give written notice at least four weeks before the end of a period of their tenancy. It follows that rent is due for the whole of that period, and thus they are liable for a whole month's rent, not just one day. It gets worse for a tenant though if they don't give written notice. In Laine -v- Cadwallader (2000) 33 HLR 397 written notice was not given so the landlord was successful in obtaining rent to the end of the period and four weeks beyond.

I see no reason why Cadwallader and the Distress Act can't be combined, making double rent payable for the whole period the tenant is liable for.

Of course, we, like most landlords I hope, would use commonsense. Particularly for the majority of decent tenants. In your example above, I do play with the tenants a bit and tell them the law, but I would only charge a daily rate. However, if the tenants had been snotty and a pain in the 4rse then I do use the law as written.

""its about seizing the initiative.""

sorry to be blunt - its nothing of the sort - its about you not knowing what you are doing !!!!

Read the BTL section of SP  from front to back and learn this business -  you can do a lot worse than copy and paste every post of DavidA  and file them sensibly - then start buying some books and reading about your business, and join NLA as i said  -  its  no good having "snippets"  of knowledge   ....  you need a full understanding of the law on eviction not just how to issue the odd Notice here and there

good luck
 

""The act of parting with keys is a physical act recognised in law as parting with possession."

David - i hope you are well -  as usual this has been fascinating   - yet another little  nugget squirreled away in Clotties Database !!!!

do you perhaps  have a legal Act, case law, whatever to justify this as it would be MOST useful for a client at the moment if we could quote chapter and verse for "keys" being the final act of  handing back to the LL.

many thanks