When is a months notice not a months notice?

BigAl81

Hey,

Living in a shared house with a couple of friends, and the lease is up at the end of this month. On the 1st of this month, I made a point of saying to each house mate, "the lease is up in 1 month, so now is the time to give notice if anyone wants out".

We all decided that we were happy to stay on and made a verbal agreement to give 1 months notice if we decided to leave.

On the 16th, 17th and 19th of this month the tenant told each of the house mates individually that he is moving out in one months time ie in the middle of March.

Rent is paid on the last day of each month. This means the person moving out will only be paying half a months rent (March 1st to March 17th ish). As one person was only told on the 19th of Feb, that a tenant was moving out, she has about a weeks notice that we will be paying extra rent.

All house mates except the guy moving out were under the assumption that 1 months notice meant you pay your rent on rent day, then say this will be my last month, not a random mid month date, and a weeks notice to the people who will have to now cover extra rent.

So my question is, Are we correct in saying that notice should be given the day the final months rent is paid, ie: one full calandar month.

Is he correct in saying a month is a month, and only letting us know about 7 to 10 days in advance that we will have to pay part of his rent for March!

Sorry for the long post, was the shortest way I could describe it, looking forward to your responses,

Cheers,
Al.

Cookie_Monster

Yes IMO he should have to pay to the end of the month regardless of any decision made by yourselves, this is what would be in the lease.

J-blk

BigAl81 wrote: »

So my question is, Are we correct in saying that notice should be given the day the final months rent is paid, ie: one full calandar month.

You're correct IMO - I rent an apartment rather than share and my rent payment lands on the 24th of each month. If I wanted to move out, the landlord would expect a month's notice on the 24th of the month prior to the one I intend to leave on, not at some random date in the month (and if I did so, I probably would be liable to rent payment to the date my normal rent payments land on anyway)...

messrs

Your right - they should give 1 months notice when they pay you rent and pay for the full month. who looks after the deposit? maybe tell him/her that their deposit will have to cover the final 2 weeks of the months rent if you have not got someone by then to replace them.

BigAl81

Hey everyone, Thanks for the replies.

I would agree with all of the above an think you've confirmed what I believe most people understand as a 'months' notice, and apart from the guy moving out and the guy he's moving in with, that's how everyone else I've talked to understands it as well!

There is a slight technicality/complication where by the 1 year lease we signed up to is over at the end of the month.

I rang the landlord and got a 10% reduction in the rent (yay!) and made a verbal agreement to continue paying rent. He sent out a letter confirming this new rental rate saying it would be from March 2010 to March 2011. It was just a letter of confirmation, we didn't sign anything.

My friend argues that as the official lease is up, he is now a 'free agent' as such, despite the fact we spoke at the first of the month, all agreed that we were staying on, and all agreed to give a months notice when moving on.

Would this change anyone's opinion?
Cheers,
Al.

ps: The landlord holds the deposit for the house as a whole, so not sure how 1 person moving out will be able to get a portion of this! We are willing to be flexible and hopefully we find someone to move in mid month, but the rent is due in a week and it seems he only plans on paying half of it!

antoinolachtnai

He's not a free agent. Is his name on the lease? If he is, it appears to me that he's still bound by the lease. Obviously it depends on the details. If he decides to just run, there is not going to be much you will be able to do about it.

the_syco

BigAl81 wrote: »

ps: The landlord holds the deposit for the house as a whole, so not sure how 1 person moving out will be able to get a portion of this! We are willing to be flexible and hopefully we find someone to move in mid month, but the rent is due in a week and it seems he only plans on paying half of it!

How many months is the deposit, and does he expect to get it back in full?

edanto

Call your landlord straightaway, let him know the situation.

(I read the first post a bit quickly, and took up the wrong thing from the first post).

It's kind of a tricky situation since there was no agreement about what 'one months notice' meant when you had that conversation at the start of the month. You took it to mean one thing, he another, and there's a case for both.

Because of that, cookie's advice below that you should make a compromise with him seems fairest.

BigAl81

the_syco wrote: »

How many months is the deposit, and does he expect to get it back in full?

Hey, it's a one month deposit, we each paid the value of our rooms rent to make up one full months rent which the landlord holds. The room/house is in good nick, so given full notice I presume the landlord might refund him if we don't have a replacement tenant.

Only my name is on the lease, which was a 1 year lease started on Feb 28th 2009. We have a verbal agreement to continue it and written confirmation of this from the landlord.

Cheers,
Al.

Cookie_Monster

BigAl81 wrote: »

Hey, it's a one month deposit, we each paid the value of our rooms rent to make up one full months rent which the landlord holds. The room/house is in good nick, so given full notice I presume the landlord might refund him if we don't have a replacement tenant.

Only my name is on the lease, which was a 1 year lease started on Feb 28th 2009. We have a verbal agreement to continue it and written confirmation of this from the landlord.

Cheers,
Al.

I'd make sure you sign a new lease for the year again and get everyone staying in the house to sign it, you will be much better covered this way.

From your housemate who is moving out point of view, as the lease is up he is free to move BUT either he should move on or before the 28 Feb (when lease ends) or pay a partial amount to cover up to the date he is moving out.

From your point of view you obviously want him to cover up to the 28th March, ie next date the rent would be due.

As its outside the lease you best bet might be to make a compromise somewhere between his position and yours, or insist he pays up until the 28th but in this case he should really still have access to the house up until this date to continue to move etc. (this is what I did when I moved out of my last place; left early but paid up until end of month and kept key until then)

BigAl81

edanto wrote: »

Clearly it's not fair that the rest of us should pay for it, so what we propose is that you stump up, pay enough rent to cover your room for one month from the day you announced you were leaving (which is what one months notice means), and also help us find someone.

That's really the crux of the issue. To him, moving out, he told the last tenant on the 20th of Feb that he is intending to move out mid march, and will pay rent until then. He considers this a months notice. However the full rent for the month of March has to be paid on Feb 28th, therefore we only have a weeks notice that we are covering his rent.

Edanto, I would be interested to know if you would still consider this to be one months notice considering we have to start covering his rent 7 to 10 days after he told us he is moving out. This would seem to contradict most peoples view on this thread (not saying that's a bad thing, just trying to get a consensus on the issue )

Cheers for all the input,
Al.

murphym7

I think its a bit unfair that this chap is heading off mid month - he is doing nothing wrong though IMO - it is bad form though, why can't he just stay the last part fo the month and move then.

On the deposit question - with your name on the lease the landlord would not be inclined to give part of the deposit back - you will get this when you move out for good. What happened me in the past was when I moved into a house, similar experiece as yourself, I paid the portion of the deposit to the chap I was replacing in the house. Landlord was happy enough (didn't really care) When we finished the lease and moved out I got my deposit back when we all moved out.

edanto

I think 'one months notice' could be interpreted either way. Personally, I would have given more than a months notice, so that my housemates weren't stuck with this problem, but in this disagreement, clearly the other fella feels that it's OK to just pay one months rent from the date he announced.

And he can argue that pretty well, given that ye never agreed exactly how 'one months notice' was going to work.

At the end of the day, you're talking about a couple of hundred quid, so the friendship is ultimately far more important than that and should be protected.

Focus on getting someone in, get in touch with the landlord and see if they could accept less rent for March while you have this potential vacancy for 2 weeks.

Failing that, come to a compromise with him, maybe he pays for one of the weeks and the three of you pay for the other week. You all learn a housemate lesson and life goes on.

axer

If notice is supposed to be 30 days then the thirty days then day 1 of that thirty days is the day after notice has been served. I would think that is fair to assume considering that is how the "RESIDENTIAL TENANCIES ACT 2004" gives it.