Old house sale failed; can we cancel tenancy of new house?

[donnabailey]

hi we need help asap.

we recently sold our house and was going into rented for unforseen circumstances and was assured everything was where it was ment to be with our buyers they had deposit and a mortgage in principle. the letting agency wanted us to go in to sign contracts so i got assurance from solicitors and estate agents which they said there was no reason not to go ahead so we went and signed the contracts.
1 week later we got a call to say buyers mortgage has been declined .
we straight away got in touch with the letting agency to explaine the situation to them as they new we was selling our property.
they have said it basically it is tuff,
so now they are expecting us to pay £700 pounds a month for 6 months to them,unless they can find another tennent which has cost us another £235 for them to re advertise the property.
im also wanting to know when the contracts would be legally binding from as the date we are expected to move in is the 3-07-2001 and we signed this about 3 weeks ago.also they will not provide us with a copy of the contract until the manager has signed them which they say will be after that date.
please please help as we are needing advice urgently

[Snorkerz]

The contract is valid from the date you signed it, even if the tenancy it creates is beyond that.

The agent/landlord are (sadly) correct, in fact they have no obligation to find anyone to replace you - your liability extends for the full 6 months. As you have discovered, if the property IS let before the end of your contract term, at that point your liability extends no further.

If you were to look for any kind of get-out on this, you should look at the people who told you that it was okay to sign the contract.

[fsl]

As stated above, speak to the agents and solicitors who advised to sign about the situation and see if you can get any compensation from them, although I would doubt you can. I would also then consider trying to help let the property yourself, use the free portals and then direct any interest to the LA to deal with.

As far as the date, would it not depend on the date of the actual contract, so if the contract was post dated (not the tenancy start date) would it still stand, this was mentioned in a post recently? Though I suspect the contract would have been dated on the day they signed...

[Snorkerz]

On 3rd of July you should obtain a set of keys off the agency (they have agreed you can have occupation from 3/7 and you are, after all, paying rent).

If they decline, get a name and then politely walk away.

I believe (although, as I said before, IANAL) that you could then claim that the agency has surrendered the tenancy by operation of law. http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums...26&postcount=2

[GillsMan]

The T clearly has responsibility for the rent for the duration of the AST. But I thought I'd read on here in the past that there is some onus on the LL/LA (not just morally) to attempt to fill the property in the event that the T can't live there.

Did I imagine it? It's quite possible that I did.

[westminster]

As stated above, speak to the agents and solicitors who advised to sign about the situation and see if you can get any compensation from them, although I would doubt you can.

It would appear that OP entered into the rental contract before exchange of contracts (for the sale) with the non-buyer. So I also doubt the non-buyer is liable to pay any compensation.

As far as the date, would it not depend on the date of the actual contract, so if the contract was post dated (not the tenancy start date) would it still stand, this was mentioned in a post recently?

I remember this being mentioned too, and I think it was one of our legally qualified members who said it - that you could pull out of a post-dated contract, because the contract hasn't actually started yet.

[Snorkerz]

The T clearly has responsibility for the rent for the duration of the AST. But I thought I'd read on here in the past that there is some onus on the LL/LA (not just morally) to attempt to fill the property in the event that the T can't live there.

Did I imagine it? It's quite possible that I did.

No, no obligation to mitigate loss.

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2006/1659.html
https://www.timesonline.co.uk/articl...530902,00.html

[donnabailey]

tennency agreement

hi please can you help me with a few questions

can the guarantor withdrawl if they have not recived a copy of the agreement /or read the tennency agreement?

we signed 2 copies of the tennency agreement should we recive any copies as they wont give us a copy ?

should letting agencys only take cash deposits and holding bonds as they said the dont take cheque or card payments ?

we have had to pay £235 for the letting agency to re advertise the property and them do a surrender notice so where do we stand with this if we sold our house on time and decided we wanted to move into the property ??

please help as the letting agents are not been very help full to us and we could face reposession of our own home due to our sale falling through.wouldnt mind if it was just me and husband but we have 2 children to think about

[PaulF]

hi please can you help me with a few questions

can the guarantor withdrawl if they have not recived a copy of the agreement /or read the tennency agreement? Definitely

we signed 2 copies of the tennency agreement should we recive any copies as they wont give us a copy ? Yes, the one signed by the landlord or agent if you are the tenants

should letting agencys only take cash deposits and holding bonds as they said the dont take cheque or card payments ? Mmmmm........seems suspicious

we have had to pay £235 for the letting agency to re advertise the property and them do a surrender notice so where do we stand with this if we sold our house on time and decided we wanted to move into the property ?? Are you the landlord/owner as this seems a bit confusing. What are you trying to say?

please help as the letting agents are not been very help full to us and we could face reposession of our own home due to our sale falling through.wouldnt mind if it was just me and husband but we have 2 children to think about

I see, your lender is likely to reposess? Are you in fact trying to rent another property and sell your own?
By the way I bet the letting agent is unregulated and doesn't know half of what they need to know. Tread carefully here!

P.S. Just realised this is a second post on the same subject which has attracted other answers too.

[donnabailey]

they have got us to fill in a surrend form and made us pay for it where does this actually leave us this ???
either way we are in a no win situation with them and will probbly be reposessed or taken to court for the rented as they want £700 and our mortgage is £700 not good oh yeah and if we went in to rented coz the house sold then they would serve us notice because of this surrender notice as this is all the letting agency would do ??? so we will prob end up homeless whatever the result

[PaulF]

See my reply to your other post. Try and keep things down to one thread as two just confuses the matter.

[donnabailey]

no we currently own our own property and had sold it so we was going to rent privatley,
the letting agents wanted us in early to sign contracts knowing we had not exchanged with our buyers,
i feel they took advantage of our situation as we had never rented before.
buyers got declined a mortgage 1 week after we signed tennency agreement eplained the situation to the letting agency and was told tuff basicaly so now as from next week they want us to start paying £700 rent to them and our mortgage is also £700
so we need help quick as it could result in us and my 2 children potentaily homeless as we cant afford this.my husband actualy went to eplaine the situation to the landlord but he was not very understanding and the letting agents told us they have the last say on the matter so we need help quick

[Moderator1]

Two threads by the same member have been merged here. Please do not start a new thread if you merely wish to continue a previous discussion or report on subsequent developments. It can cause unnecessary confusion (quite apart from losing the connection with facts previously established or legal points previously explained).

[jeffrey]

no we currently own our own property and had sold it so we was going to rent privatley,
the letting agents wanted us in early to sign contracts knowing we had not exchanged with our buyers,
i feel they took advantage of our situation as we had never rented before.
buyers got declined a mortgage 1 week after we signed tennency agreement eplained the situation to the letting agency and was told tuff basicaly so now as from next week they want us to start paying £700 rent to them and our mortgage is also £700
so we need help quick as it could result in us and my 2 children potentaily homeless as we cant afford this.my husband actualy went to eplaine the situation to the landlord but he was not very understanding and the letting agents told us they have the last say on the matter so we need help quick

Signing-up to a new tenancy early on house2 is like exchanging contracts to buy house2 before exchanging contracts to sell house1.

[donnabailey]

yes im fully aware that we have signed the argreement.
what im now asking is we signed 2 agreements in the letting agents should we have recived a copy ??? and we signed this 4 weeks ago and we are waiting for a copy after asking several times.
also should the garentor have signed the agreement as they signed on a seperate document before we signed the tennency agreement
and should they have recived a copy of the tennency agreement ?
non of us seem to have recived any photo copies or original copies.
im currently seeking legall advice but obviously have nothing to show