Hi, I am a landlord and my ex-tenant moved out (his own decision not evicted) several months ago. He had moved onto a Statutory Periodic Tenancy following on from 12 month AST which expired 2nd March 2020. On 3rd April (so first month of SPT) he paid his month’s rent in advance as usual and then on 16th April gave notice that he would be moving out on 12th May. Trying to be reasonable and helpful, I accepted his notice (even though he should have issued 4 weeks notice to end on 2nd June in line with the date of his tenancy agreement) and let him know £xxx (pro-rata daily amount) would become payable on 2nd May for the extra 10 days. He did not pay. He then announced that he would be leaving the property a week earlier than we had agreed. He left on 7th May still without paying the rent owed. I have raised a dispute with TDS for the outstanding 10 days rent to be deducted from his deposit. However the tenant refuses to engage with TDS and will not accept the dispute. He claims I am unreasonably holding the disputed amount (I have also asked for deductions for cleaning and missing items). He has engaged student lawyers from a local university free law clinic and has made it clear with a couple of very aggressive letters that he will be taking me to court to get his full deposit PLUS compensation for his other grievances (that are too many and too complicated to go into right now but which basically amount to him accusing me of breaching my landlord obligations).
Without going into further detail, I just need to find out:
a) am I correct that he owes me the extra rent for the privately agreed notice period even though he actually chose to move out a week earlier? This is the amount I had requested in the TDS dispute.
b) given that he broke our agreement regarding the privately negotiated notice period by not paying the rent, could I now chase him for the full “official” notice period/termination date that would have meant his tenancy terminated on 2nd June (and he would therefore owe me a full month’s rent and not just the 10 days we had privately agreed).
If I am going to court, which it looks like I
am, as the tenant has refused all efforts to negotiate and rejected my offer to split the difference, I really need to know exactly where I stand, especially as he is also claiming compensation.
Without going into further detail, I just need to find out:
a) am I correct that he owes me the extra rent for the privately agreed notice period even though he actually chose to move out a week earlier? This is the amount I had requested in the TDS dispute.
b) given that he broke our agreement regarding the privately negotiated notice period by not paying the rent, could I now chase him for the full “official” notice period/termination date that would have meant his tenancy terminated on 2nd June (and he would therefore owe me a full month’s rent and not just the 10 days we had privately agreed).
If I am going to court, which it looks like I
am, as the tenant has refused all efforts to negotiate and rejected my offer to split the difference, I really need to know exactly where I stand, especially as he is also claiming compensation.
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