Apologies if this has been asked before but I can’t find an answer anywhere, neither here OR nor on LL Zone…
My tenant has emailed me with a 30 day notice to end their tenancy. They’ve been great tenants, so everything is amicable. They were originally on a 6 month AST but that switched over to periodic several months ago.
I’ve not replied to their email yet. I’d very much appreciate it if someone could advise me on next steps before I do. i.e.
Do I need to email them back accepting their notice?
Do I need to explain the terms of acceptance?
Does the date for the checkout inventory ideally need to be as close to their move out day as possible?
what happens with the deposit that is being held?
what do I need to do as far as the Openrent dashboard is concerned?
should I relist the property onto the market asap?
anything else I should do or say?
Just one other potential complication… The rent has always been due (and paid) on the 20th of each month. This continued to be the case even after it went periodic. The tenant, however served their 30 day notice on the 8th of this month (January) and said their move out day would be the 9th of Feb. I read somewhere that “the 30 day notice must expire on the last date of the payment period”, which I believe means the 30th day of their notice must fall on the 20th…
So given that they gave notice on the 8th of Jan, a full 30 days from now wouldn’t fall on the 20th of Jan. So
does it mean that their 30 day notice actually should have been given on the 20th of Jan? Therefore their earliest move-out date would be the 20th of Feb?
That’s a lot of very basic questions and it makes me wonder why you are operating a legally complex business without the requisite knowledge. Join NRLA and do some training before you make a very costly mistake.
Does the tenancy agreement state that the notice period is a plain 30 days? If not then its invalid as the notice should expire at the end of a tenancy period. What you do about that is up to you. If you want to accept it, you should write back stating that its invalid but that you accept it and it is now binding on both parties.
Obviously the checkout should happen shortly after they move out or you leave yourself open to claims that any dirt/damage was done by others.
You retain the deposit until the inspection is complete and you have calculated any deductions. You then propose these deductions to the tenant and if they agree you do it through the deposit scheme.
I have no idea what you do through the openrent dashboard since I’ve never used that service
Why are you asking whether you should re-list when only you can answer that question
Do I need to email them back accepting their notice? Yes
Do I need to explain the terms of acceptance? See above from David
Does the date for the checkout inventory ideally need to be as close to their move out day as possible? Yes, ideally you want to check them out and check in the new tenants on the same day, no voids.
what happens with the deposit that is being held? You get it repaid (Via DPS etc) less any deductions.
what do I need to do as far as the Openrent dashboard is concerned? (No idea)
should I relist the property onto the market asap? Yes, of course.
anything else I should do or say? One thing I’ve found helpful is to send my “Tenant standard checkout checklist” detailing exactly the cleaning I expect. Another is to visit the property and check if there are any repairs I, the landlord, need to do, that I was unaware of.
Just to add to Richard’s reply, although no void period is certainly best for income- that would allow you no time to repair anything that requires fixing, redecorate anything before the new tenants move in, or tidy any mess or abandoned items left by the departing tenant or clean a dirty oven or fridge (I have had at least some of this to tackle every time so far)
I would allow at least a week, sometimes more, but its your choice.
Check that gas, EPC and electrical certificates are all up to date, as they will be needed at the start of the new rental.