Here is a question regarding the coronavirus emergency to the blog clinic from Marie (not her real name) who is a tenant:
We are renting from a letting agency. Our landlord served notice (section 21) early February 2020 (before the measures had taken place). Our lease ends on 15th April. Our household is affected by the Coronavirus and we are a family of 3, 2 adults (father and mother ) and a 4-year-old boy.
We contacted the letting agency and the landlord and explained the situation that we are unable to move out on 15th April as we are unwell. We told them we will pay the rent normally, as usual, every month.
The landlord told us we have 10 days and its more than enough for self-isolation and that he has new tenants lined up and he will want us out.
We feel extremely worried and we feel its extremely unsafe for us to move homes at this time and to be in contact with movers for at least 4 or 5 hours and still we will need to buy all furniture.
We know that the landlord or agency cannot evict us at the time being, but can they sue us for not moving out on time as they served us notice and we have an assured shorthold tenancy? Can they claim any compensations or ask for double rent?
We want to know if we are covered by these new measures, as our landlord served the notice before the measures as mentioned above.
We would appreciate your advice and guidance in these difficult times.
Answer
Short answer – you should stay in your home and not move if at all possible.
The reason why the government have introduced lockdown measures and arranged for a stay on all eviction proceedings is that any property moves at this time could help spread the virus which is what we are all trying to avoid.
A section 21 notice does not end the tenancy, it means that if the landlord goes to court, a Judge must (if the notice has been drafted correctly and if all the pre-conditions have been complied with) make a court order for possession.
However until that court order has been made, your tenancy remains in place and you are entitled to live in the property.
After a fixed term comes to an end, statute (ie s5 of the Housing Act 1988) brings into force a ‘periodic tenancy’ which will run from month to month – assuming your rent is paid monthly, which will be under the terms and conditions of your preceding fixed term tenancy agreement.
Your landlord cannot, therefore, require you to leave and if he persists in this, this will be deemed harassment which is a criminal offence. Residential tenants can ONLY be physically evicted by court bailiffs (or High Court Enforcement Officers) after a court order for possession has been obtained.
In short:
- You will still have a tenancy and a tenancy agreement after 15 April
- You cannot be required to leave without a court order
- Your landlord cannot obtain a court order at this time
To answer your specifical questions:
- Your landlord cannot sue you for not moving out
- Your landlord cannot claim compensation for the difficulty they are in with their incoming tenants – landlords should never sign a new tenancy agreement with new tenants until they have vacant possession – if they do they are taking a risk. You cannot be held responsible for this.
- You will not be liable for double rent – this is sometimes payable if a tenant has given a tenants notice to quit and then fails to vacate. This is not the case here, it is the landlord who has served notice, not you.
I would suggest you write to your landlord telling them that you are unable to move out on 15 April and that you do not know when you will be in a position to vacate. However, you have been advised that from 15 April your tenancy will continue as a periodic tenancy. You will continue to pay rent as normal.
If the landlord starts putting pressure on you, keep a record of everything which happens (eg a diary) so if necessary you will be in a position to prove harassment.
Government Guidance
You can also refer your landlord to the relevant sections of the government’s advice for landlords and tenants paragraphs, for example
Paragraph 1.11
Which says:
If you are a tenant, the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 means that you cannot be forced to leave your home without a court order and warrant for execution of that order. The 1977 Act also protects some people who occupy their home under a licence. Breaches of the Act can give rise to a civil action and be a criminal offence.
Paragraph 2.1
Which refers to the suspension of court proceedings for 90 days from 27 March 2020 and then says
For landlords, this will mean not expecting tenants to move even where you have already issued notice of your intention to regain possession of the property, or if you go on to issue notice for any reason during the next three months.
And finally
This is a difficult time for everyone and landlords and tenants are expected to be reasonable about things and not expect the impossible.
If you are paying rent, your landlord is fortunate as many tenants are (wrongly and unlawfully) failing to pay.
Stay in your home, pay your rent and wait until this dreadful time is over. Or at least until things become less difficult and property moves less dangerous.
Susan Brandl says
April 7, 2020 at 1:40 PMDon’t think that would be fair as how can they view to let properties during Coronovirus ?
Also I am landlady to one property only. Rent is only income. Have no mortgage, but cannot survive without help for long. There seem to be no provisions for people like me.
Tessa Shepperson says
April 7, 2020 at 1:58 PMThe law remains the same as it has always been with the exception that:
1. Possession notices must now give 3 months notice and
2. The courts have stayed all possession claims for 90 days from 27 March.
Tenants remain liable for rent. If you have to re-let agents are being quite creative with doing views remotely and maintaining social distancing.
People also need to understand that renting property is a business activity. All businesses carry risks and you cannot expect to make a profit at all times. This is in the nature of things. This is a hard time for everyone and landlords have to do the best that they can.
The tenants in this question are paying rent so this landlord is fortunate indeed.
Marie says
April 7, 2020 at 2:39 PMThank you so much for your answer. We appreciate your detailed explanations.
The agency has emailed us saying that because of us not moving out then the new tenants cannot move in and they were paying £500 per month more than us so he would expect us to pay the same increase. Obviously we cannot do that at this difficult time and that was the reason of them serving us notice in the first place , when they asked for an increase of 20% which is £500 , which is huge, and at that time in February we didn’t accept the increase as it was steep. So they served us the notice.
We feel it’s extortion at this stage to ask us to pay that much of a rent. We are happy to pay our usual rent every month. Can they increase our rent or ask to renegotiate the rent ?
Thank you
Tessa Shepperson says
April 7, 2020 at 2:53 PMOnce your fixed term tenancy has ended and you have a periodic tenancy instead, landlords are entitled to serve a notice of rent increase under s13 of the Housing Act 1988 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/part/I/chapter/I/crossheading/rent-and-other-terms. This new rent will normally take effect after the one month notice period.
However, iIf you consider that the rent increase is more than the market rent for the property you can refer it to the First-Tier Tribunal for review. Note though that the FTT can increase the rent as well as decrease it so tenants should only do this if you are really sure that the rent increase is excessive.
Under the current circumstances, it will probably take the FTT some considerable time to deal with the review. The new rent will normally be backdated to the date in the notice but the FTT can change this if they think it would cause ‘undue hardship’ to the tenant.
Marie says
April 10, 2020 at 11:14 AMThank you for your reply. What is the one month notice and when should it be served ? our fixed term will end on 15th April. Thank you
Tessa Shepperson says
April 10, 2020 at 11:24 AMIf your landlords decide to use the statutory notice procedure to increase your rent, they must use the proper prescribed form. This has notes which explain what you need to do if you want to refer the increase to the First-Tier Tribunal.
The notice is known as a section 13 notice or Form 4.
The statutory notice procedure for increasing rent can only be used if a tenancy is a periodic tenancy and can only be used once every 12 months.
Unless and until the proper form of notice is served on you by your landlord your rent remains the same. So you don’t need to do anything right now.
If the notice of rent increase is served on you though it is very important that you apply to the First-Tier tribunal within the one month period. The Shelter advice website has some guidance on this here: https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/how_to_challenge_a_rent_increase
But you don’t need to worry about this at the moment as no notice of rent increase has been served on you!
John says
April 14, 2020 at 1:37 PMIn the meantime it’s very important that you don’t pay ANY increase in rent no matter how it has been requested, otherwise this may be deemed an acceptance of the new rent. If only it also worked in reverse so that the tenant could give notice of a rent reduction and then have the new level deemed to be accepted if no objection was received within a month – wouldn’t that be nice?
As for tenants willing to pay £500 a month extra – let’s see if they are willing to pay even the current level in a decimated post-Corona market. You may well find your LL is very grateful to retain you at the current level once the dust settles. A lot of property is likely to appear on the market from hoards of broke landlords with out-of-work tenants and from mortally coronated boomers that were living alone in the former family home.
Marie says
April 17, 2020 at 11:15 AMDear Tessa, Thank you for your answer. The agency sent us an email on tuesday asking us to reply regarding the increase and for giving them a date to move out as the landlord wants to secure a tenant. ( basically they dont want to retain us as tenants). we didn’t reply to their email.
Today we got an email from the agency saying that they asked the landlord to contact us within 10 days regarding the deposit, as they want to release it to us but after we and the landlord agree on deductions. We don’t understand why they sent this email now, as we have paid the rent 2 days ago for the coming month. We feel harassed by both the landlord and the agency while all we need now is peace as we still feel unwell. They are becoming impatient and the funny thing is that they sent their newsletter saying that they are strictly following the government guidance and advising tenants to delay their moves. We just see the opposite, they are forcing us out in this time of crisis. we are not answering their emails, We dont know what is the best to be done.
P.s: Thanks to all the people who commented on our inquiry and felt with our situation.
Tessa Shepperson says
April 17, 2020 at 11:29 AMYou can either refuse to reply at all and just keep a dignified silence or you could send them an email along the following lines:
Ask them why they are continuing to contact you about vacating the property when you have already told them you are following government guidelines and will not be moving out.
You could go on to say that if they continue to press you about dates for departure this is harassment which is a criminal offence. That you reserve the right to contact the police about this if they continue and/or bring a claim for compensation for harassment against the landlord in due course, and/or bring a complaint about them to their Property Redress Scheme.
I suspect that the agents are being pushed to write to you in this way by the landlord – agents are often in a difficult position if their landlord clients insist on them taking action which they may personally consider inappropriate. If they think you are going to complain about them to their property redress scheme – this may make them take a firmer line with their landlord.
NB Find out more about property redress schemes here: https://landlordlawblog.co.uk/2018/04/10/property-redress-schemes/
Marie says
June 21, 2020 at 11:26 PMDear Tessa
Hope you’re keeping well.
We are still at the flat and we were bombarded with too many emails asking when do we intend to leave. We answered this question back in April saying that we don’t know and that we couldn’t give a date. Things are still not clear and we have already been looking for houses but the problem that tenants still don’t allow viewings, so how can we rent a house without viewing it? We can’t rely on Virtual viewing only. Are we obliged to give the landlord a certain date for moving out? As he is saying that along with the government advice we should answer his and the agents question (which we have already answered in April).
We ideally would like to move out before school starts again in September. The landlord has served us an amended notice For the section 21 for eviction by 23rd September. I don’t know if it’s their right to choose this date, what if we want to move out by mid august ? Do we have to pay until 23rd September ?
On another issue, our dishwasher stopped working Since 21st January, and we have notified the landlord back then , he gave us the contact details of someone to come and fix it, we contacted this person many times but he never showed up. I told the landlord many times that this person seems not serious and if he can send someone else. The landlord kept delaying the matter.
I have sent him an email a week ago about the dishwasher and that we are struggling without as I have a family and child. He said he has already purchased one and it’s ready for installation but he will not send it and will not send an engineer to a flat that suffered covid19 as he would be liable if this engineer caught it.
I told him that our situation with the Covid19 was early April and we are now late June. And he had over 2 months to fix or replace it before the measures took place in March and before our situation with covid19. But he is saying he will not send it. It’s obvious to us that he wanted to replace the dishwasher for the new tenants who we’re supposed to move in on 15 April, and because we stayed in the flat and we didn’t move out then he is punishing us.
My question is will the TDS compensate us for not being able to use the dishwasher for so many months now as we are paying full rent and it’s the landlord obligation to provide the dishwasher as per the contract.
He is clearly punishing us for not moving out and refusing the replacement or repair.
Please advise on what we should do. Thank you
Bob says
April 8, 2020 at 9:03 AMI think you need to stop listening to the letting agents / landlord as they have been talking nothing but hogwash throughout.
You cannot be forced out of the property without a court order, which the landlord cannot get at the moment and you cannot be forced to pay the higher rent unless either you agree to it or the landlord follows the section 13 procedure (which in reality, very few landlords seem to know about or actually use).
John-Paul Keates says
April 8, 2020 at 12:19 PMIf there are tenants prepared to pay £500 per month more than the current rent, I’d have thought that any appeal against the rent value would fail – although the post Covid 19 world may reset some expectations.
I would ask the agent to stop contacting you with legally incorrect and harassing messages.
gregory jones says
April 12, 2020 at 8:47 AMYou also fail to point out that even if they have a court order for eviction issued prior to the Government clampdown on our freedom., then the courts are not hearing any orders for bailiff or sheriffs orders until
3 months have elapsed, even then it could be extended.
Rent Rebel says
April 12, 2020 at 12:08 PM” If you are paying rent, your landlord is fortunate as many tenants are (wrongly and unlawfully) failing to pay. ”
You mean “some tenants” Tessa, not “many”.
“Many” is very loaded, and without proof.
“Some” is the word to use when you don’t have the evidence to justify “many”
John says
April 17, 2020 at 3:58 PMAs in splitting “some” versus “many” hairs?
Tessa Shepperson says
June 22, 2020 at 10:59 AM@Marie Re your reply of 21 June 2020
1. You are not obliged to give your landlord a date when you will be moving out. You are legally entitled to stay in the property until evicted through the courts.
2. You can move out at a date which suits you. When you are certain you should service notice (a tenants ‘notice to quit’) on the landlord notifying them of this – giving the proper notice period.
3. You are liable for rent until the expiry of your notice period. If you fail to move out you may be liable for double rent though https://landlordlawblog.co.uk/2009/12/01/ancient-law-may-help-landlords/ so be careful about doing this..
4. So far as your landlords liablity for the washing machine is concerned, you need to check your tenancy agreement.