tenancy contracts

arknor

arknor

arknor

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Joined
22 Nov 2005
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My son and 3 friends signed a contract to move into some student house months ago, paid the deposit etc then decided they didn't want to...

Apparently if they don't move in then they are liable for a years rent anyway because apparently it's in the contract?

is that even enforceable ? it sounds utterly ridiculous they would already be losing £1000+ with the deposits

Yea they are idiots but seriously a years rent if they don't move in?
 
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Iirc, the LL/letting agent are supposed to try and find a new tenant as soon as possible, but I believe that essentially yes, they are liable for any money lost by the landlord until that happens.

I hope you didn't agree to be a guarantor?
 
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Most likely enforceable. My student housing contracts said they were for "a term certain of 12 months". If they've signed the contract they are liable for the rent. Sometimes landlords will look for new tenants and when found let you out of the contract, others require you to find the new tenants to take over the contract.

It's like any other other fixed term contract like a 24 month mobile phone contract, if you want to cancel you have to pay off the remainder of the monthly payments.
 
Yes it's reasonable! they obviously signed up for a 12 month term, they are gonna get screwed and quite rightly just can't pull out of a contract and expect to walk away
 
Unfortunately they will be liable. Why wouldn't they be? They signed a contract and the landlord reserved the property for them. It's reasonable for them to be bound by the legal contract they signed unless there is something the landlord has done to breach the contract?
 
Unless they can find replacements they will be liable and as others have said it's totally legal, it's the whole point of a contract.
Why should the LL lose out because they changed their minds?
 
Ugh.

OK. So how does remedy for breach of contract work in your experience? ^^^

The Landlord can probably easily re-let the property. As such, the Landlord /his agents could not sit on his arse and legitimately claim rent for the whole year following the breach of contract set out in the OP (on the assumption this is a standard tenancy agreement). Yes, the OPs son will be responsible for the Landlord's losses that flow from the breach but that is to put the Landlord back into the position it was in had the breach not occurred. The Landlord would not be able to effectively take double rent by claiming against the OPs son whilst letting the property to someone else. In other words, unless there are express terms that provide the rent for the whole period of the contract is liable in any event, which would arguably be unenforceable anyway, I suspect the Landlord would have difficulty in claiming rent for the whole period because of its obligation to mitigate its losses.

That said, the Landlord probably could issue a successful claim for some amount if things do not work out peachy, so for peace of mind (do not underestimate the importance of this), £££ and time, probably best for OPs son to take the tenancy agreement.

An alternative option would be for your son to present alternative tenants.
 
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presumably it was an assured shorthold tenancy for 12 months, and after the 12 months it becomes a monthly rolling contract
 
arknor said:
My son and 3 friends signed a contract to move into some student house months ago, paid the deposit etc then decided they didn't want to...

Apparently if they don't move in then they are liable for a years rent anyway because apparently it's in the contract?
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I've highlighted the important word for you. It might be worth looking it up to find out what it means.
 
Also had friends experience this but rather than not moving in at all it was the 2nd years lease they signed because they couldn't find anywhere better.

They had stayed for 1 month out of the year before deciding to move.

Same thing was said to them but they just found other tenants. They put the advert up themselves (with the owners/agencies permission) and even did the viewings.

Obviously was in their best interests to get the place clean and tidy for viewings to get someone in as soon as possible and even got their deposit back.

Be aware that the landlord cannot simply hold your deposit without cause.

However reasonable cause for holding a deposit (which should be in a tenancy deposit scheme) includes "leaves unpaid bills for which he/she is responsible" or "leaves unpaid rent".

Unfortunately council tax will have become a bill they're responsible for (depending how much notice they've given) and obviously any unpaid rent, even if they're not in the property.

So if your son and his friends were to find someone that could move in sharpish either before rent is due for the first month, or if more than one months rent was taken, they could still get money back.
 
Friend had tenants pull out like this just shy of the uni term starting a couple of years ago, they only needed to cover about two weeks in the end as he had no problems replacing them. Approach the landlord if you can, be reasonable and they'll likely also be reasonable. Chances are they're just making your son aware that they could be liable rather than demanding it up front.
 
Nitefly said:
Ugh.

OK. So how does remedy for breach of contract work in your experience? ^^^

The Landlord can probably easily re-let the property. As such, the Landlord /his agents could not sit on his arse and legitimately claim rent for the whole year following the breach of contract set out in the OP (on the assumption this is a standard tenancy agreement). Yes, the OPs son will be responsible for the Landlord's losses that flow from the breach but that is to put the Landlord back into the position it was in had the breach not occurred. The Landlord would not be able to effectively take double rent by claiming against the OPs son whilst letting the property to someone else. In other words, unless there are express terms that provide the rent for the whole period of the contract is liable in any event, which would arguably be unenforceable anyway, I suspect the Landlord would have difficulty in claiming rent for the whole period because of its obligation to mitigate its losses.

That said, the Landlord probably could issue a successful claim for some amount if things do not work out peachy, so for peace of mind (do not underestimate the importance of this), £££ and time, probably best for OPs son to take the tenancy agreement.

An alternative option would be for your son to present alternative tenants.
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This basically.

Say the landlord has to pay £500 to the agency to re-market the property, and no suitable tenants are found for 2 months, then your son would be liable to reimburse the landlord for the £500 agency fees and the 2 months worth of missing rent.

If your son manages to find suitable alternative tenants before the start of the tenancy, meaning the LL doesn't need to pay further agency fees, and doesn't lose out on rent, then they won't be liable for anything.
 
Moses said:
What happens if it's expensive/a dive/in a terrible location/etc? Essentially that the OP's kid and his friends overpaid. Would the landlord have to slash the price and claim the rest of the money from the OP's kid and his friends? At what point would he expected to do that? It's not inconceivable it's a bit rubbish and no student would want it, or there's something about it which would make it difficult to let (eg. I once lived in a twelve bed house - finding twelve people who'd want to live somewhere obviously isn't the easiest).

I get what you're saying, and agree with that... I just mean that you're making it sound like there's not a big issue, when there still might be if the place is awful, or whatever.
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They should have taken that into account before they signed the contract.

It's not the landlord's fault they've "changed their minds" - they signed a legally binding contract - the only way out of it is to come to an arrangement with the landlord (or not pay and file for bankruptcy :p).
 
okay thanks all I guess he will learn the hard way.

His younger brother will be happy since he wanted the older brothers larger bedroom when he moves out and we thought he would never move out lol.

I don't know why he wanted to do a house share for uni anyway when we live in the same city hes going to uni and so do the 3 friends he's going to have to move in with....

His GF can stay over whenever he wants, his friends can come back home with him when he leaves work and gets in at stupid hours like 2-3am as long as they keep the noise down.
I don't think he realises how good he has it living at home.

If it were me I'd just move in and have house parties every night, **** the landlord they would soon want rid

LL made is sound like they have to pay 12 months rent and she could still rent it out though which is why I posted here because to me that is ridiculous
 
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