Death of landlord and section 21 notice

[ilovecats]

Hi

I wonder if anyone can help.

We have been renting our current home for 3 years this June when our lease is due to end.

We have been informed that the owner of the house has died and have been served section 21 notice from their solicitor to leave the property at the end of our contract, this is what we expected anyway.

The confusing point is, our actual contract is with the step son of the owner of the house and not the actual owner (I believe he had power of attorney while she was in a home). He has since been in touch and asked if we could move out earlier so he could sell it, again understandable. We have agreed to with him to move out in March (prior to receiving the section 21 notice) and asked that he inspect the property so that we can come to an agreement about anything being held out of our deposit - I believe one favour deserves another : )

My question is, who are we legally supposed to receive our section 21 notice from and will he still have any rights to say we can move out earlier if this is now in the hands of a solicitor? He is still authorising any works which needs to be carried out on the house, but we are a bit confused as to who is now our landlord. As he is still alive and signed the documents and his name is on our contract I believe it should still be him, but am not 100% sure. Any help would be appreciated.

[mariner51]

IMO the stepson's Power of Attorney ceased when the property owner died. It should be dealt with by the Executor, poss solicitor, until the Will has been distributed to beneficiaries. If one person inherited your property, they would become the owner, if left in Trust it would be the appointed Trustees.

 

Don't deal with the stepson, only the Executor. If you are prepared to move earlier, let him know.

 

I am suprised you have a 3 year fixed-term residential AST, normally 6 or 12 months then it rolls over to a periodic term of 1 rental period.

[ilovecats]

Hi

Sorry I didn't make myself clear, the original contract was for 18 months and at the end of that term we signed up for another 18 months.

I believe that the step son is the sole inheritor, however I believe the will is being contested by another family member, hence there being solicitors involved.

I thought the same about the power of attorney ceasing on the death of the owner so just wondered why the step son thought he could negotiate an early release date with us, unless he feels positive that the outcome will be in his favour.

Thanks for the help.