Hello. Grateful for any advice on the below as it is causing my family and I huge worries.
Due to our house being uninhabitable due to a fire, (which caused huge emotional turmoil for my husband, me and our two toddlers), our insurers asked us to find suitable alternative emergency accommodation for 6 months. (We ultimately entered into the AST on 1 March 2024 until March 2025).
As no short term let was available, we found a small flat under a 12 month tenancy via a letting agency. There is no break clause in the AST, and we need to give landlord at least 2 months’ notice to terminate the AST, which we can only do contractually with landlord’s agreement. Prior to entering into the tenancy, we queried with the insurers and letting agents what we should do when we needed to vacate the flat and move back into our house. The insurers agreed to pay the entire yearly rent to landlord directly up front in March 2024 (which they have done). The insurer told us not to concern ourselves with what would happen when we moved out of the flat, and that they (insurer) and letting agent would deal with all bills, obligations under the lease thereafter, and they would liaise with landlord to find new tenants when we vacated. The letting agent said the same thing and they sent us a written letter confirming this. Upon this basis, we entered into the tenancy.
Fast forward 6 months, we are vacating the flat and moving abroad this weekend indefinitely. We gave landlord 2 months’ notice as per the AST, at which point he told us that he refused to accept surrender of the lease. We met and spoke with him about the situation and showed him the letter from the letting agent stating we wouldn’t be liable for the clauses under the AST after we vacated the property after 6 months. He was gobsmacked. He said he never agreed to this with the letting agents. He said he engaged them on a find tenant service only. He said the letting agents had told him that we (as tenants) wanted to stay in the flat for at least 2 years (never that we would likely move out within a few months). He said he does not and will not rent the flat out to anyone else as it is too much hassle for him. He refuses to let us vacate the flat, stop paying the bills and/or cease to comply with the obligations under the AST (which, among other things, requires us to flush the loos/drains every 7 days, and not leave the flat unoccupied for longer than 30 days, a condition which I imagine if breached will vitiate landlord’s liability insurance).
In any case, as we are moving abroad this weekend, it will not be possible to observe those conditions. We are happy to continue paying the bills (as we can seek reimbursement of the same from the insurers).
We have informed the letting agent and insurers of all of this. They have been unresponsive. Landlord is insisting we cannot vacate and he will hold us legally liable (as we signed up to the AST) for any breaches/damage.
Given that we relied on, primarily, the representations given to us by the letting agent prior to entering into the tenancy, what rights does landlord have against us? Can he take legal action? What sort of information should we give to him in our final email where we plan to inform him we have vacated the flat and left the keys with the letting agent? What other risks/issues do we have to consider?
Another issue is that, realistically, we don’t think the landlord will suffer any damage by us vacating early, especially as he was paid the whole year’s rent up front by insurers, we can continue paying the bills if necessary. The only potential damage is because the flat will be unoccupied over the Winter months, if the drains, water, heating is not used, the condition of the flat may deteriorate significantly. However, having given notice to the landlord that the flat will be left unoccupied, surely he won’t be able to knowingly leave it unoccupied over Winter, let it deteriorate, and then claim against us for those damages?
The other concern is that, as we will be abroad indefinitely, it is not clear whether we will even receive any legal claim/notice if the landlord does pursue that route (as our last known UK address, to which the landlord will presumably service notice) will not forward any mail on to us abroad).
Grateful for any and all guidance! Thank you.
)and extend cover on insurance policy