Eviction from our rental

[Fly90]

Hello all, I’m after some advice regarding a property myself and my partner currently rent. I will tell the story from the beginning.

Myself and my partner have only been renting for a couple of years, we ended up leaving our last property due to noisy neighbours. Our landlords/letting agents at the time were all fantastic and did their best to help us, but unfortunately nothing with the neighbours changed and we felt the best thing to do would be to move out, which we did. 
 

When moving into our new property, we informed the letting agents that we wanted a long term let and they said that this is what the landlords wanted too. We moved in and decorated the house and transformed the garden (the landlords were aware of this and happy with what we did). We both treat rentals as if they are our own, and are both incredibly house proud. Our last landlords gave us excellent references because of this.
 

We moved into our current property in early December and received a phone call from the letting agents about two weeks ago now, informing us that sadly the landlords have made the decision to sell the house for their own personal reasons. Our landlords have given us more than enough notice as our contract doesn’t end until early December. 
 

During the beginning of Covid, my partner who is self employed was unable to work, but luckily, I am a registered nurse and was able to continue working throughout the covid pandemic. Therefore, we were able to pay the majority of the rent bar £250. This was only for three months until my partner went back to work. We agreed a repayment plan of rent arrears with our landlords which would have taken us up to December, but we have already paid all of the arrears back to the landlords and are no longer in arrears.

We had the letting agents come over last weekend to take photos and record a video of the property and it went up online earlier this week. Myself and my partner have been looking for a new home since we had the call. Our letting agents said they would help us find somewhere but they have not bothered. Because there is currently a lot of competition, as many are selling up and many others are in the same shoes as us, we asked our landlords if they would release us early from our tenancy should we find somewhere. Our landlords agreed this and I asked for this in writing and not just verbally, which I have in my emails.
 

My partner received a call from the letting agents a few days ago asking if they could do a viewing on Saturday morning. My partner explained to the letting agent that I work as a nurse working with vulnerable/elderly patients and am due to work a night shift tonight (Friday) and wouldn’t be due home until 9am Saturday morning and would need to sleep as I work 12 hour shifts and am due to work over the whole weekend. The letting agent then said could they come at 11 instead of 9, again my partner explained that I would need to sleep after my shift.

 

After a discussion between myself and partner, we emailed the letting agents saying that we did not feel comfortable in having viewings for the house because of Covid and the risk of me catching something and transferring it to a vulnerable patient. The reason I say this is because from personal experience, when looking at properties, a lot (not all) of letting agents allow people to look around by themselves and ask to meet outside the front or back once they have had a look.

 

Because we are still living there and both working 5/6 days a week, we do not want to risk getting Covid, because if we did, we would both have to isolate which would mean we would be unable to pay our rent. Bearing in mind, the letting agent we are with are allowing people to have virtual tours instead of physically going into properties as we were turned away for a viewing with a property last week with the same letting agent but they sent us the video of the house instead.
 

On Thursday morning, we received an email from the letting agent to say that the landlord has now decided to take the property off of the market as they feel that it would lose interest due to not being able to conduct viewings, and as the property is on for a duration of time, may appear to prospective purchasers that there is an issue with the property. The landlords also retracted their statement and will no longer allow us to have an early release from our tenancy. Therefore myself and my partner felt backed into a corner and replied saying that as long as we were present and people wore PPE, they could do viewings, so long as they fitted them in with our work. Bearing in mind we only get one day off a week each and are now using this day to do our packing. 
 

I should also mention that wen we moved into the property, the roof was leaking and our bedroom was extremely mouldy\damp, which our landlords were aware of. My partner fixed this out of his own pocket and redecorated. This was back in December and the roof was only repaired in august. My partner also had a fall in our conservatory last month as there was a leak from that roof, it left a puddle on the floor which my partner didn’t see as there are white tiles on the floor and he hurt his back. We informed the letting agents and because they had fixed the main roof, my partner fixed the conservatory roof as we are both decent human beings but it seems to have gotten us nowhere.

 

can anyone off any advice regarding our situation.

Our landlords are aware of our predicament and have retracted their statement of release us early.

If me and my partner do not find anywhere to move into by December, we have nowhere else to go and are at a loss.

Please help and thank you for reading.

 

[London1971]

Is it not in your interest to have 3 months to find a place right now?  It sounds like a good time frame to find something else and arrange everything.

 

All that stuff about people thinking there might be an issue with the property sounds like BS by the way. 

[Fly90]

Hello, thank you for your reply. We aren’t worried about the notice they have given us, as you are right and three months is sufficient time. The trouble is that we have booked viewings to see properties over the next few weeks and if we decide to apply and are accepted, it is likely that we will be turned away, as we are unable to move in until early December. Understandably any future landlords would want people to move in ASAP so they can get their money. So now that our landlords have retracted their statement saying they would release us early has just put on more pressure. Finding somewhere later on in the year is difficult as it is without covid and all of the competition in the area, that was my main concern. Of course we might not get a place until December and if we don’t that’s great, but if we are turned away because we can’t move until a certain time then it will be pretty annoying.

 

I also agree with the latter of your comment, it is rubbish and it feels like they’re just trying to blackmail us in a sense.

[London1971]

Just do it anyway, and deal with the fallout afterwards. 

 

Once you have secured a new place, you can inform your current agent that you've found somewhere new. See what they say, you might be pleasantly surprised. It's not like you are horrifically far from the end of contract anyway.

[slick132]

Hi Fly,

 

I thought you said above in your 1st post that the LL agreed by email that they would release you early if you needed to leave before the end of the lease.

 

Having said that, they cannot later simply change their mind, so keep the email safe.

[Fly90]

Hello slick132, that’s right they agreed to release us early on Monday 7th September which was sent in an email from the letting agents. They then took their statement back on Thursday 10th September l, which was again in writing from the letting agents confirming what they had said. Thank you very much for your help! We didn’t know this information until now so thank you.

[Fly90]

Hello London1971, thanks very much for your reply. I think we will end up doing that, because even if we start looking now, by the time everything goes through it will almost be December anyway.