Our tenancy agreement was for 6 months running from 19th November 2022 to 18th May 2023.
We received the Section 28 notice on 28th April by email. This stated that we would need to leave the property on 28th June (two months notice). It was signed electronically by the landlords agent.
We then emailed the Estate Agent the following:
If we find a suitable property between now and 19 May then the notice period we have to give is 2 months and we can not move out any sooner? …But after 19 May the notice period we have to give is 1 month?
They replied with:
The notice will be 2 months from today’s date, so your last day of tenancy would be the 28th June 2023.
If you find a suitable property between now and 19th May, then technically your notice is 2 months and after 19th May it is 1 month. However, your landlord is prepared to release you from the tenancy earlier than the notice requirements if required.
My partner then emailed the following to the Estate Agent on 5th May:
We have just heard this afternoon that an offer we had pending on another rental property has been accepted.
In light of our new rental property being agreed please can we advise that we will be moving out of XXX Road on 19 June 2023. Please do kindly start the process for this. I think our last rent payment will be due 19 May 2023 and I will stop the standing order thereafter. Thank you very much for your efforts in trying to help us with our next move and for handling our tenancy at XXX Road.
Agent replied on 9th May:
I am really pleased to hear that you have found a property that you are happy with and I have forwarded your email to the landlord for her information. We will be in touch again shortly with regard to end of tenancy procedure etc, but if you have any questions in the meantime, please do let me know.
Further email from the agent on the 9th May:
I am just doing some admin for your end of tenancy. You have put your last day of tenancy as 19th June, however, your rent period runs from the 19th of the month to the 18th, so if you wanted to give your notice in line with your rent period with your last rent payment due on 19th May, then your last day would need to be the 18th June. It is no problem for you to end your tenancy on the 19th, but this would mean an extra day’s rent would be due. Please can you confirm whether you wish to end your tenancy on the 18th? If so, this is a Sunday, so your check out would be first thing on the 19th, or whether you wish to extend by one day to the 19th, in which case I will issue a request for the additional day’s rent?
On the 10th May we then went back and asked if we could stay until 20th June in order to have one day of crossover with the new property as we thought it might be easier to do the move over two days especially with a baby, this was the email:
Having discussed we wondered if we could actually make 20th June 2023 our last day of tenancy. This would give us a useful one day overlap with the new property which we take over on 19th June 2023. If this is ok then please let me know how best to pay for the 2 extra days of rent? Our notice was served to us on 28 April taking us to 28 June so hopefully the 20 June should be agreeable
The agent then replied with:
I am really sorry, but unfortunately it will not be possible for your end of tenancy date to be moved to the 20th as you counter served notice and the end date therefore changed.
We then received the news on 18th May that the other Estate agent had mixed up the available from date and we emailed the following including the correspondence from the agent stating the mix up:
We have just found out this afternoon that we have a serious problem. The agency for the property we are moving to has informed us that the advertised and agreed tenancy start date of 19 June 2023 was incorrect and that we can not move into the property until 28 June 2023.
We are therefore going to be homeless for 10 days which with a newborn baby and unfortunately no family or friends we can stay with. All we can do is ask if you would kindly ask her again on the basis of our situation and/or ask whether the buyer would allow us to rent it from him if the dates would fall after exchange. We would really appreciate any other advice or suggestions you might be able to offer us in this situation.
The agent replied with the following on the 19th May:
We have spoken with your landlord and she has advised as follows:
‘Unfortunately, we cannot exchange on the property until you have vacated and so we are unable to come up with an arrangement where you rent the property from XXX until you can move into the other one, but this also means that the sale is in limbo until you have vacated, which puts XXX in an incredibly uncomfortable and risky position.’ With this in mind, it is unfortunately not an option for your tenancy to be extended beyond the 19th June and it is also not possible for you to rent the property from the new owner, I am so sorry.
That is where we are now, we have not replied to this email.