early termination of tenancy

[dharam]

I have a short-term 3 month tenancy that expires at the end of April. However my boiler was condemned on February 22nd and has still not been repaired. So we've had no hot water and heating since then.

The lettings agent did re-house us in a smaller flat for which I have been signing weekly agreements and the current one expires today. Now they haven't made any efforts to either repair the boiler or renew the agreement for the alternative accomodation.

I'd like to know if we are within our rights to vacate the flat before the tenancy runs out i.e. leave on March 31 on the grounds that the flat is inhabitable.

Please advise.

[MrShed]

Ordinarily I would say no, however I am confused with this situation regarding the weekly agreements for the alternative accomodation.

What I would say is that you could be entering a legal quagmire on this one, so the first step would be to simply approach the agent and ask them if they would be prepared to release you early - it is the kind of situation where they may well be happy to do so. If not, then cross the "legal" aspect.

On the legal note, it reads to me(just my opinion) that the agreement on the original flat has in fact been mutually terminated, and a new weekly rolling tenancy has been created, potentially opening the door to leave. However, I would not want to rely on this as there are many different interpretations of this, and my interpretation is almost certainly wrong.

[dharam]

Thanks for your reply.

The weekly agreement for the alternative accomodation is in accordance with the main tenancy agreement, at least so it says. It has been renewed on a weekly basis as they thought the boiler would be repaired soon.

Given that we have exchanged a couple of unpleasant e-mails with the letting manager, I'm not sure if I could walk into their office and request them to release us early. I was thinking of sending a letter saying that since the landlord hasn't fulfilled his obligations to carry out the necessary repair work, I will vacate the property earlier.

[MrShed]

However, they have supplied you with alternative accomodation, which is their legal requirement in order to fulfil the agreement if the original property becomes uninhabitable.

If you want an answer, I would say that no you cant leave on this basis, as you have been supplied a property as an alternative. However as I say there are various legal quandries here - I just wouldnt trust any of them enough to totally justify walking away.

[dharam]

Yes they have but the last weekly agreement expired today and they have made no efforts to renew it for another week so technically we can't use that alternative accomodation anymore and our flat continues to remain inhabitable. So does that mean that now I'm within my rights to walk away?

[MrShed]

No, as the lack of weekly agreement doesnt actually mean that much at this stage - have they made any motion to kick you out of the alternative accomodation yet?

[dharam]

No they haven't. We still have two sets of keys to that alternative accomodation. So are you saying that we could carry on using that flat and living there even though the weekly agreement hasn't been renewed? Would that not backfire on us?

[MrShed]

Yes that is what I am saying, as the accomodation has, IN MY OPINION, been issued in lieu of the accomodation you signed the tenancy agreement on originally, NOT as a weekly tenancy. However, again this is open to other interpretation.

[MrShed]

Also, even if you consider it otherwise, you have security of tenure for 6 months regardless - I am assuming that the weekly agreement you are signing is an AST?

[dharam]

No, the weekly agreement is not titled as AST. However the original agreement (of 3 months) is an AST agreement.