I have a signed deed of surrender with my tenant. We have an agreed move out date - with a financial settlement on move out from me (the landlord).
They are saying that they will not move out on the date agreed but will stay a further 20 days, and wish to have all the money paid up now and not on departure. This is not acceptable to me and I have refused to change the contract (it took them weeks to sign the original deed of surrender so I could be opening myself up to further delays).
My solicitor has informed that I can apply for Possession order on grounds of trespassing if they do not vacate on the agreed date.
They have had legal representation throughout. I would assume their solicitor would be advising them against breeching the contract? or is there another angle to this that I am not aware of or not be advised on?
From what I have come to understand from this forum, a deed of surrender should be signed at the moment the tenant actually moves out and hands over the keys ?
I agree with @David79
I have completed deeds of surrender in hostile settings with legal counsel
They are signed on the pavement outside the house after the keys have been surrendered with witnesses for both parties or a neutral witness for both parties in order to avoid the situation you are now facing
However itâs signed so if they stay beyond that point itâs trespassing
So it will be a time to call the police as they donât have rights to the property
They cannot sign a deed and then back track and change it
I would speak to your solicitor or the landlord association
I had the same a few years back the woman was still flapping around packing a day later , in the end I called the police who said to her and agreed with me that she had 2hrs to move out and 2hrs later they came and escorted her out.
A deed is the easy document for the police to enact on
by âwrittenâ you mean signed? Iâm surprised that a solicitor would create a deed of surrender for a point in time âseveral months after signingâ.
If the Solicitor asked everyone to leave the dates blank, it may be that they were planning to execute the deed at the point of the tenants departure. I know that this is common practice amongst conveyancing solicitors when youâre selling a property, but I have no idea if its permissible with other types of deed.
exactly, a blank one would make sense to me, but if the OP really means a date âseveral months after signingâ that makes absolutely no sense at all.
I have always been of the understanding that the Police will not get involved claiming landlord / tenant issues are a civil matter not criminal, hence their refusal to be involved and the necessity of a Possession Order.
Did you have a Warrant of Possession / Bailiffs order for eviction? From my experience that is the only time the Police will get involved if the tenant is refusing to leave in accordance with the instructions of those orders.
I have called the police in abandonment settings.
I also called them in October as a tenant was very abusive and his s21 notice was to come in the next day.
I called the tenant at the policeâs behest as he thought it was ok to be verbally abusive and shout at me when I asked him to release the deposit .
I did have to provide evidence of s21 and the fact he was given 24 hours notice that I was attending.
They came out and helped me. They even got his housemate to release his deposit.
On one occasion a tenant sublet his room in an HMO . The âguest â was abusive and I had to call the police as he became threatening and chased me out of the property onto the street.
Under pressure he told the police he was a guest of the tenant!
He was told never to return to the property unless the tenant was present.
I accidentally fell upon an illegal sublet and they accidentally got me out of it.