Hi, I recently signed a contract for a room in a share house, paid deposit, advance rent etc via OpenRent. due to personal reasons, I decided not to move in which I informed landlord & we agreed to go for deed of surrender/ early termination. I signed the documents. The landlord said, I (tenant) have to pay £79 as Tenancy Creation service charge as that room is again going back to market via OoenRent & Open rent asks for £79 tenancy creation fees per room advertised. she paid the same when I signed in the contract assuming I will be moving in. Now if she pays it again (as I am not moving in), she will be the charged twice within small span of time. My first question is, in such situation am I legally bound to pay the tenancy creation fees, even if I never moved in to the property? Secondly am I entitled for any deed of surrender/ early termination fees? Thanks
It’s you who asked to end earlier. Why on earth would you be ‘entitled’ to anything? LL will be out of pocket having to pay to find new tenant, create new tenancy, lost rent in the meantime etc. So of course you can expect to have to pay. LL could have insisted you gave 2 months notice and paid 1st two months rent as per your contract. They have actually been very generous to you. And yet you feel you should be entitled to more.
Look at ‘tenancy fees act guidance for tenants’ which explains exactly what you can be expected to pay. Normally 50 quid for contract changes or reasonable costs if LL can evidence more. Try contacting any solicitors and ask how much a deed of surrender costs - doubt youll find one for under £79 and many solicitors will charge very much more.
Good luck
Hi David. Thanks for your reply. Sorry I am new in the UK housing market. I checked her messages & she meant tenancy creation fees £79. The landlord said, I (tenant) have to pay £79 as Tenancy Creation service charge as she paid the same when I signed in the contract assuming I will be moving in. Now if she pays it again (as I am not moving in), she will be the charged twice within small span of time. My question is, in such situation am I legally bound to pay the tenancy creation fees, even if I never moved in to the property? Thanks for your help
Legally the fees you can be charged for are set out in the guide i mentioned. They can charge for financial loss you have caused
Guidance says
" Payments when you end the tenancy without giving the correct amount of notice
If you give less than the minimum amount of notice to end the tenancy, your landlord can require a payment. This cannot be more than the amount of rent due until the minimum notice period ends (2 months starting on the day rent is due).
You can talk to your landlord and ask for a shorter notice period."
See also
"
Early termination charges
If you ask to leave your contract before your agreed notice period ends, the landlord does not have to agree. If they do agree to let you break the contract early, they can charge you an early termination fee. This fee covers the financial loss the landlord suffers because you are leaving early.
The landlord can legally ask you to cover the rent until a new tenant moves in, as well as the reasonable costs they incur to find that new tenant. However, the total early termination fee cannot be more than the total amount of rent you would have paid if you had stayed for your full notice period."
If all you have to pay is 79 quid not 2 months rent as per your contract commitments, you have got a very good deal tho havent you?
LL has allowed you to escape an obligation for 2 months rent at considerable cost and inconvenience which will be way more than £79. Why do you think you should pay nothing?
Best
Yes, the landlord is allowed to charge you their costs under these circumstances, but must refund you the rent and balance of the security deposit. They would also be entitled to claim the holding deposit if you paid one
Yes, the LL is entitled to the 79 quid.
You are lucky that he isn’t me. I would’ve made you pay your notice period.
To echo what someone else said- you signed a contract which will have had a termination fee of (most likely) 2 months rent. Your landlord is doing you a favour by not insisting that you pay that, instead of the £79.
I would suggest you accept their generous offer.
Tenants up to their usual tricks. Some of the stuff I read on here is crazy. Tenants really do think they can have their cake and eat it. Most of them are full of it. False promises I’ll do this and I promise I’ll do that. Once that contract is signed they will wipe fthe floor with you if you let them. LL make sure you get RGI and I wouldn’t trust and estate agent to get it right. If they do get it wrong it’s still up to us to fix it or have the hassle afterwards. Most estate agents don’t pay attention and aren’t worth their money. If she had have done that to me I’d have took her for 2 months rent. Very generous landlord!!
Hi @David240 @David122 @Per @Peter132 @John175 Thanks all of you for your insights. Just to clarify, I moved to that landlady’s another property (which is more expensive, with a deposit & a month rent in advance) but I needed to do it which the landlady also understood). The landlady was generous because she didn’t face any financial loss. Moreover the furniture are broken & the both rooms were not offered me in clean condition, not even hoovered. I basically cleaned that new room, fridge. Anyway fair enough, if you live in rented property, you have to tolerate lots of things. This is the first time I’m using OpenRent that’s why wondering is that whether that’s okay for landlords offer a dirty room in exchange of the previous one, then ask for tenancy creation fees.
@John175 Sad to see, you might have bad experiences with the tenants. However, if you keep responding like this, new tenants like us won’t interact in this platform, then the platform will be very imbalanced (landlord-dominant), which I am sure, not the original aim of this platform.
@Rehenuma but the landlady certainly will face financial loss - all of these
-cost of a new advert and new tenancy agreement for the place you left (that’s the £79)
-cost of a referencing report (Openrent charge £30 per person so at least 1 tenant plus maybe a guarantor )
-cost of a right to rent check
-cost of rent she wont get while the place you left is empty -she will have to advertise and find new tenants, they may have to give notice at their current place so a very good chance it will be empty for a while after the date you were due to move in so she wont be getting the rent for it you would have been paying
-cost of time doing viewings (either paying an agent or their own time - it’s not free is it?)
-cost of time discussing/agreeing a tenancy
-cost of time telling insurance company
-cost of time telling freeholder
Don’t think this is anything to do with it being advertised through Openrent. Landlords on or off Openrent would think you’ve been very lucky indeed - a landlady willing to let you off a contract commitment to paying 2 months rent because by coincidence she had somewhere else suitable she could offer you and expects you to be a good tenant. And she is willing to take a financial loss to accommodate you accordingly. You’ve landed on your feet there.
Unless it was agreed before you signed new contract that new place would be cleaned and furniture repaied or replaced, you have no reason to complain do you?
If shown to you with furniture and you didn’t cause the damage to it, it’s reasonable to expect it to be in useable condition tho’. You dont say if the damage is eg a stain, or whether it cant be used. If it really cant be used, ask for a repair or replacement- the landlady im sure will help out, she’s been helpful and generous so far. Remember your landlady probably wont have lived in your new place, and may not be aware of faults left behind and not reported by a previous tenant.
The lack of cleaning etc is actually in your favour. Hopefully you took photos of conditions etc before you clean. And told landlady by email after moving in that you had needed to clean
If wasnt cleaned and furniture condition documented in a signed inventory for conditions when you moved in, then at end of the tenancy the landlady wont be able to claim from the deposit either for cleaning or that you caused damage to furniture
You do seem to want to complain when landlady has been very generous and could have charged you 2 months rent and will be financially out of pocket by accomodating you.
Try counting your blessings instead- other landlords would have insisted on the 2 months rent and would have decided not to consider offering you anything else because they would consider you difficult to deal with, pulling out after signing a contract would be a red flag for many people.
Some people would describe your attitude as very “Karen”. I think you are either inexperienced dealing with agreeing contracts or maybe a little naive - the rental market in the uk is very competitive with lots of tenants interested per available property but equally lots of tenant rights and with recent legislation it has become much harder to evict bad tenants. So landlords do appreciate and try to keep good tenants. At the same time it’s like any other business contract- if you want something agreed (like cleaning) you do have to ask before signing not hope the landlord magically knows what you want by telepathy.
Good Luck
I dont think any of these are additional in this case as the landlady would presumably have otherwise incurred them when marketing the new property that Rehenuma moved into.
Erm @Rehenuma moving into the new property is entirely irrelevant. The financial loss is about what costs the landlady incurs on the original property rental business because @Rehenuma broke the tenancy contract on that.
FOR THE ORIGINAL PROPERTY the landlady
pays to advertises again and creates new contract for old property ( £79)
references at least one new tenant for old property (£30)
doesnt get rent for old property (up to 2 months rent)
Spends time on viewings for old property (OR charge 49+ vat per accompanied viewing, 30min)
Etc
all because @Rehenuma didnt stay the two months of original contract. Assuming the landlady tries to rent the old property as that is her business. What else is needed for these costs in relation to the original property to be additional?
The new property is irrelevant it’s an entirely different transaction. We have no idea what costs the landlady has incurred on the 2nd place. Might save by not having to reference @Rehenuma again but it’s irrelevant for the purpose of the Tenancy Fees Act as far as I know, which considers costs due to ending original contract early.
Best
The advertising fee is not additional because she would have incurred it anyway to advertise the new place @Rehenuma moved into. There is also no need to re-reference or do a right to rent check. Tenancy creation fees are warranted though.
Just to say again this is about the old property. Any savings on new place are entirely immaterial as that’s a different transaction and not a direct consequence that happened inevitably because of the contract cancelation. They wouldnt necessarily have happened following the contract cancelation.
A court would want evidence of what extra costs the landlady has faced. These are
A. - the landlady has to advertise the old property again and create a new tenancy for the new tenant in the old property. That costs 79 quid on Openrent as a combined package
B -The landlady has to do viewings for the new tenant and others in the old property. This costs time and £ if using others (whether OR or an agent)
C -The landlady has to reference the new tenant in the old property.
D-the landlady has to do right to rent checks for the new tenant in the old property
E -meanwhile the landlady doesnt get rent on the old property till a new tenant in place, so loses rent.
None of these costs A to E would have been incurred if @Rehenuma hadnt broken the 2 month contract. They are all financial losses the landlady has to bear. If you disagree for any of A to E please explain why the landlady doesn’t face these as extra costs due to @Rehenuma 's decision to break the tenancy agreement.
Best
This, of course is all speculation as we dont know the status of the new property at the time of moving, and many other things besides, but my point is that I believe a court would consider the bigger picture when looking at what costs could be passed to the tenant and what would be a breach of the tenant fees act. I dont believe they would limit themselves to considering the direct costs, but would also consider any savings made by not having to advertise the new property, conduct viewings etc (if that applied). As for re-referencing and re-checking right to rent on a “recent” tenant, I cant see any requirement to do that, so I’m not convinced those costs need to be incurred.
I havent said that at all. I have explicitly said this is referencing and right to rent for the new tenant that will take @Rehenuma 's place in the old property. The landlady has to advertise and do a new tenancy contract for the new tenant ( Person B lets call them) in the old property that @Rehenuma has moved from. They have to reference
What part of the following didn’t you understand?
"C -The landlady has to reference the new tenant (Person B) in the old property.
D-the landlady has to do right to rent checks for the new tenant (Person B) in the old property"
And why wouldnt the landlady incur those costs?
Best
She will incur those costs, but she would also have incurred them on the new rental property if the tenant hadnt moved into it, (assuming she was planning to let it). The position on those fees is therefore cost neutral as she is simply spending it on the old property rather than the new.
er… a right to rent check is free
Er maybe if you diy and its simply checking a share code on HO website tho even that takes a little time. If it involves taking copies of docs checking them against a list of suitable ones etc it does take longer and will cost if you pay an agent to do.it… just like viewings. Lots of things are ‘free’ if you diy ..
If you’ve got two properties to advertise to let and one person applies for one but eventually moves into another, the LL would have to incur costs to let the other property irrespective of the person changing their mind.