My 1 year contract comes to an end soon. I handed in my 1 months notice to be out mid Feb.
As I’m travelling abroad, I mentioned to the landlord that we’d possibly need to remain a few days (4) post tenancy end (paid for of course) until I know exact dates I’m flying (for work). He agreed.
Now I have clarity on when I am travelling and it’s back at the day I originally was meant to hand the keys back.
The landlord is now using openrent as a reason to say he can’t change the contract end dates back.
Legally, I submitted my notice to be done on the day of the next cycle. The 4 additional days are outside of the agreement entirely. Now they’re not needed.
How can I escalate this so that I’m out as normal and have nothing to pay?
It’s a shame as we’ve even gone above and beyond to fix things in the property that aren’t our responsibility and never made a fuss of things
ask @mod_harry but if LL implemented this on OR by extending the final date it may not now be possible to bring forward, and it’s not really separate as presumably the deal wasn’t to hand keys back on original date to end tenancy with the property totally empty then get them back again for a few days as a short term let.
In any case if you agreed an extra few days then that was a contract - you wanted extra days and agreed a price for them. Whether this was part if the original tenancy or not, why exactly do you think you should be able to break that contract with the LL? Did you agree at the time that if not needed it could be cancelled with no cost to you? It’s not LLs fault you no longer need the extra days.
Presumably the LL was reckoning on those extra days rent, has planned any end of and post tenancy activities (checkout, inventory, cleaning etc) as well as planning marketing etc based on new tenants moving after the later date.
You could try negotiating a discount on what you originally agreed for the extra days in return for not using them /not needing a key for the extra days but to pay nothing for messing the LL around doesnt seem terribly ethical or fair to them and has nothing to do with how you have taken care of the place and never made a fuss etc - that doesn’t allow you to cancel a contract unilaterally for free.
Consider if the reverse had happened. Suppose the landlord had found a tenant and wanted them to move in the day after your original move out date and unilaterally cancelled the agreement to allow you the extra days, and you had actually needed them. Would that have been fair?