Misled by agent on notice period. Furious!!!

[5tu]

Hi all

 

I have been on a periodic tenancy since our last contract expired on 11th September last year, but I have decided to move out because the landlord wasn't doing anything to maintain the property.

 

Not fully understanding how the notice period works in this situation, I called my letting agent to ask them to clarify.

 

They explained to me that I could give one month's notice at any time, and if the move out date didn't co-incide with a rental period date, they would ask me to pay whatever proportion of a month's rent was due. I gave one month's notice on 17th March asking for the tenancy to end on 18th April. I called back to confirm this date with the agent, who agreed and told me that they had instructed the landlord and he had also agreed this was fine. At least three subsequent phone calls made specific reference to this date and I was assured as recently as 23rd March that this date is still ok.

 

On this basis I have cancelled all utilities and agreed an exchange date and mortgage payment dates for my new house.

 

They have subsequently realised that this original advice was in error and that they can legally hold me to pay rent right up until 10th May and will do so, this being the date when my next rental payment would have been due. This leaves me considerably out of pocket and absolutely furious!! I would never have made the substantial arrangements to move house on the date I have done, had I been told this in the first place.

 

Can anyone advise me of what I can or should do to get this extra rental money back? It would be hugely appreciated!

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome, 5tu.

 

I've unapproved your duplicate Thread, hopefully you'll get some help shortly.

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[BankFodder]

your first mistake is to have these kind of conversations on the telephone without recording your calls. I think that I must have posted this advice to more than a dozen people this week – and hundreds over the past years. If you deal with any company, any bank, any lender, any creditor, any DCA, any estate agent, anyone, anyone, anyone on the telephone without recording your calls – then you will regret it.

 

If they will agree formally that they made a mistake in their advice – and if you can show that you acted on their mistaken advice to your disadvantage, then they will not be able to claim the money from you. If they try to sue you for the money then you would have to say that they are estopped.

 

Search this forum for posts containing the word "estoppel" to find out all about this defence.

 

If you find that you have no evidence of their mistaken advice and so that it is your word against theirs, then your only other hope is to say that your landlord's failure to maintain the property so seriously breached the tenancy contract, that it effectively brought it to an end and you were entitled to move out early.

[MrShed]

If you find that you have no evidence of their mistaken advice and so that it is your word against theirs, then your only other hope is to say that your landlord's failure to maintain the property so seriously breached the tenancy contract, that it effectively brought it to an end and you were entitled to move out early.

 

Agreed with BF in everything else above bar this - this action would not in any way (unless property was legally uninhabitable) render the contract breached or cancelled.

[raydetinu]

Is your deposit protected and have you been notified where and who with, if not they are in breach of contract and any date problem will be in dispute and you could leave without paying extra and could sue for 3x deposit, a good bargaining chip.

[5tu]

Thanks guys, this seems to confirm my fear that not having anything in writing is going to make this impossible. The only reason I called to ask is that they hadn't bothered to reply to my emails asking them in the first place!

 

I have no idea how to record my phone conversations, but will certainly look into how this is done for the future.

 

The agent in question won't formally agree that she made a mistake with this advice. She told me that 'she couldn't remember any previous phone conversations' that she'd had with me when she realised her mistake. I know for a fact that this was when her legal team called her to tell her that she had told me the wrong thing. They told me as much themselves. This seems pretty unbelievable as I had been speaking to her about it regularly up to 24 hours beforehand. Which is what irks me the most!!!

 

I can show that I took considerable action, i.e. cancelling my utilities and pressing for an early completion date on my house move because I had to be out by 18th. Can I do anything with this evidence?

[Ed999]

My advice is applicable only if the rented premises are entirely within England and Wales, and only if you were granted a shorthold tenancy (under which you [and your spouse/partner/children if any] had exclusive use of at least a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom, none of which were shared with another tenant nor with the landlord) and you were over 18 years of age when the tenancy was granted.

 

 

Under the 1988 Housing Act, unless a different type of tenancy is specifically agreed on, an agreement to create a tenancy creates a shorthold tenancy.

 

It is typically an open-ended weekly or monthly periodic tenancy, depending on whether the rent is due weekly or monthly.

 

 

There are two ways for you to end a shorthold tenancy. Where it is a periodic tenancy, you can give not less than one period's notice in writing [for example, one calendar month's notice if the rent is payable monthly, one quarter's notice if rent is payable quarterly], expiring on a rent day; or, alternatively, you and the landlord can agree an immediate surrender, by a document signed by you both.

 

The rent ends when the notice runs out, or on the date the surrender document specifies, respectively.

 

 

If you paid a deposit, please read the FAQs about the tenancy deposit scheme, under which you might be entitled to sue for compensation if you had a shorthold tenancy -

 

- Tenancy Deposit Scheme

 

- Tenancy Deposit Protection - First High Court Decision

 

- TDS eligibility, implication of breach and legal questions answered

 

 

Also read the FAQ about what deductions the landlord can lawfully make from the deposit -

 

- Unfair deposit deductions

 

 

Given that the letting agent is the landlord's agent, not yours, they probably have no contractual duty towards you.

 

They might be liable to you in tort, e.g. in negligence, for negligent misstatement; but you would have to satisfy a court that they owed you a legal duty of care - which might be difficult since they are not holding themselves out as lawyers; so, given that they are not solicitors, the court might feel there is no reasonable expectation that they could give you legal advice.

 

You would also have to prove that they actually gave you any advice at all, not merely that it was incorrect, if it was.

Edited April 21, 2011 by Ed999

[Ed999]

I have decided to move out because the landlord wasn't doing anything to maintain the property.

 

 

My advice is applicable only if the rented premises are entirely within England and Wales, and only if you were granted a shorthold tenancy (under which you [and your spouse/partner/children if any] had exclusive use of at least a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom, none of which were shared with another tenant nor with the landlord) and you were over 18 years of age when the tenancy was granted.

 

 

Read this FAQ - Disrepairs in privately rented accommodation

 

If there was disrepair, the tenant might be entitled in law to sue the landlord for damages - i.e. compensation.

 

Also, beware of agreeing to pay for any item which is the landlord's responsibility to pay for. It never makes sense to pay for improvements to the premises.