I am new to this Forum and I hope that somebody could help me.
Here is the situation. On August 19th my landlord asked me to move out, the notice is 30 days as per the written agreement. I pay my rent one month in advance on the 7th of each month, the last being paid in full on August 7th, so to cover one month until September 7th (note that I have moved out on Sep 7th).
My landlord is now refusing to pay the security deposit in full. She is in fact deducting the rent between Sep 7th and Sep 19th (Sep 19th is the last day of the notice period). Note that I fully moved out on Sep 7th and I have no reason to stay in the house.
I have read the tenancy agreement in full and there is no reason that she should charge me for this.
My questions to the Forum are:
how best should I approach the landlord to get a full refund?
is it normal practice to charge for full rent until the end of the notice period?
It is normal to charge until the end of the tenancy so you are liable for it unless you agreed a different arrangement.
The notice given though wasn’t valid as the 3 months requirement at that time due to covid supercedes whatever was in your contract. You could ask LL to let you off the 12 days in exchange for not taking the incorrect notice period further.
Thanks Richard19, this is very helpful!
What are my options to take the matter further (incorrect notice period during covid)? Consider that I moved out to a new place already.
You could threaten to report it to council. Not sure if they’d do anything about it, probably not but LL may not want to take that chance, particularly if he needs to be licensed.
If you like bluffing and you know LL definitely needs the property back then you could say the notice is invalid and you don’t recognise it if he insists on those 12 days. If he needs it back he would almost certainly just let you off it but clearly there is a risk if he doesn’t need it back…
Who is the deposit held with? It should be a recognised scheme. Write to them and explain the situation and illegal notice given. If your landlord is holding the deposit in their own account, they have already broken the law and you came make a compensation claim. Fines are heavy. Certainly worth spelling this out to your landlord to see if they come to their senses and pay up without further fuss. Ultimately, your landlord is completely in the wrong and has no right to retain any of your deposit against rent in this situation.