I have signed a contract with 2 prospective tenants and agreed on move in date on 20.09 tomorrow Sunday.
I have not received any funds except the holding deposit and there is no option to cancel the agreement through openrent.
I do not want to proceed and the tenants don’t have keys yet and not moved in.
Is it possible to cancel it though openrent without servicing surrender?
Thank you
Katrina
Have you spoken with them and asked why?
Could they be acting cautiously?
What date is the rent due?
Do they have a copy of a APT signed by you?
Signed APTs arnt just cancelled.
Dont act too hastily, give them chance to explain.
By all means give them a chance to explain, but if it were me it would have to be a very good explanation (illness, death, that sort of thing.) They have already been bad mannered and uncommunicative before the tenancy has even begun, so I would be thinking that I don’t want to sign a contract with these people - breach of contract or no.
In the future be sure to add a clause to the contract saying that the deposit and first month’s rent will be paid 14 days before the start of the tenancy. It’s not good that OR don’t do that as standard (or do they and I missed it?)
Thank you for your reply.
The tenancy is about to start tomorrow but I was Advised by NLRA that I could just write then email and cancel as they didn’t pay, they in breach.
I spoke to Lead tenant and his explanations were not significant. he doesn’t want to sign a surrender but in facts the tenancy has not started yet.
I don’t understand why Openrent insist on surrender deed.
I haven’t collected any money and not giving them keys.
i think in my situation cancelling the contract should be simplier.
What are your thoughts ?
Thank you Howard.
You are right. I will add that clause in the future contracts.
You have a legal contract you can’t just “cancel” it. OR will be saying get a joint surrender so it’s signed and agreed by tenants too so properly legal
What do you mean by "the lead tenant’s explanations were not significant " ? Have they indicated they will have paid with funds cleared into the Openrent account by midnight Sunday 20 or not?
Unless they pay required funds (balance of initial months rent and security deposit ) to Openrent by midnight tomorrow, and you have evidence of that, they will be in breach of contract. As it’s the weekend, doubtful any payments will go through by midnight tomorrow but you can ask tenants for evidence paid from their end and if they can’t provide or give a reasonable explanation, say that you won’t handover keys
Under RRA I was told the govt position was you should nevertheless hand over keys and deal with it as rent arrears. However if you have advice from nrla in writing you might have some cover to follow that.
The risk is that they sue you for damages for being in breach of contract. As they never actually moved in, I ‘think’ they can’t claim it’s illegal eviction. But chances are it was a scam to get free accommodation for a year (thats how long takes to evict).
I would tell OR to end the tenancy due to a breach of terms and to return the holding deposit asap. You can do that on monday morning.
@David122 may have a view on your options. I think most LLs wouldn’t be handing over keys.
Good luck
No they don’t have any such clause it’s all very lax by OR, allowing tenants to play chicken with LL over 1st month rent for keys up till midnight on move in day
Best
If all parties have signed it’s a tenancy
The RRA favours the tenant
Even if they don’t pay rent on day one you are in trouble
The n r l a advice take a holding deposit and deposit of five weeks before signing the contract
Holding deposit with t and c ‘s
They sign the contract then you take a deposit
You also take the rent before the first day of tenancy but if they don’t pay you are stuck because the contract has to be signed by you before you can take rent
Thanks labour ….
With me .Meet up ,they pay all in cash, we both sign and I give keys . Bingo !
I think if it smells fishy at the begining, the best is to walk away asap.
I will take my chance, there are plenty of other tenants waiting. Just signing the contract doesn’t give Any party rights to breach it. no payment, no keys
I am still not convinced that they have to sign surrender deed but Openrent insist. The tenancy starts with signing contact, receiving money and tenants move in
If the moving day tomorrow and no funds received and there is no evidence that they will pay, what they have to surrender ?
If I am not satisfied with explanation about why payment was not made on time, why should I have them keys?
And even money paid on this occasion, there will be issues along the way.
I will ask Openrent to refund holding deposit of £200 and goodbye.
Let’s see how clever they will be to take me to court
I would just advise them that if they don’t want to have to bring cash with them tomorrow, which I would prefer they didn’t either, they should transfer the money online now.
OR APT says…
“The Initial Payment of Rent is payable upon signing this Agreement and must be paid in cleared funds no later than the Commencement Date. The Tenant shall also either pay a Cash Deposit to OpenRent, or take out a Deposit Replacement from Reposit. The Tenant shall have no right to occupy the Premises, until payment of the Initial Payment of Rent and the Cash Deposit or Deposit Replacement (as applicable) has been made in full.”
So, personally, I would not be allowing them to move in.
Thank you very much for your advice 
I would just add that my understanding is that the question of whether a landlord can prevent access if the tenant hasn’t paid the first month’s rent is still unclear and therefore not without risk.