Moving day - tenants leaving and new tenants moving in

Blizzard

For the landlords out there - I've a question regarding moving day. Our tenants of 2+ years just gave notice that they'd be leaving in a month, according to PRTB we were due 56 days notice which I advised them of. We then agreed to end of August as their rent is paid by social services and will be paid at the end of the month for each month - so I would assume August 30 is their last day in the house - yes / no? We will be returning their deposit in full as they've kept the house in very good condition. We've been showing the house and are confident we should have a new tenant in place to move in September 1.

Issue is old tenants said they are moving on Sept 1 as I assume they can't move into their new place til that date. What should we do/say to ensure that things go smoothly, ie, tell old tenants they must vacate the premises no later than 12pm on Sept 1, so that the new tenants will have the place in the afternoon? It's a furnished house so I can't see how it would take longer than a few hours in the morning for them to move out as they only have a few pieces of their own furniture and personal belongings. Before I say anything to the current tenants, I wanted to see if we were going about things the right way as we want to be fair and keep everyone happy. If this is acceptable, I'll give the current tenants a note advising of this request this week so they can be prepared on the day. Thanks for any advice/comments.

D3PO

yeah i think our proposal is reasonable.

technically they should be gone by midnight on the 30th so asking them to vacate by midday the next day seems reasonabl enough to allow the new tennants time to move in properly

happymondays

Blizzard wrote: »

For the landlords out there - I've a question regarding moving day. Our tenants of 2+ years just gave notice that they'd be leaving in a month, according to PRTB we were due 56 days notice which I advised them of. We then agreed to end of August as their rent is paid by social services and will be paid at the end of the month for each month - so I would assume August 30 is their last day in the house - yes / no? We will be returning their deposit in full as they've kept the house in very good condition. We've been showing the house and are confident we should have a new tenant in place to move in September 1.

Issue is old tenants said they are moving on Sept 1 as I assume they can't move into their new place til that date. What should we do/say to ensure that things go smoothly, ie, tell old tenants they must vacate the premises no later than 12pm on Sept 1, so that the new tenants will have the place in the afternoon? It's a furnished house so I can't see how it would take longer than a few hours in the morning for them to move out as they only have a few pieces of their own furniture and personal belongings. Before I say anything to the current tenants, I wanted to see if we were going about things the right way as we want to be fair and keep everyone happy. If this is acceptable, I'll give the current tenants a note advising of this request this week so they can be prepared on the day. Thanks for any advice/comments.

If it was me i wouldnt tell the new tentants they could move in on the same day the old ones leave. I would give it a day or two if possible.
The reason being a) give yourself some breathing room in case anything goes wrong with the tenants moving out b) to have a look over the house
yourself before the new tenants move in to fix, repair or do any small jobs that needs doing.

Also the old tenants will need to give a place a quick clean after all thier stuff is gone as there will be dust, dirt etc hanging around.

bugler

As happymondays says, the obvious solution to me is to put a start date of at least Sept 2 on the new tenancy.

Cathmandooo

+1 to leaving a little gap of a couple of days, packing up a house can be messy work, if you're asking them to vacate by noon it's more likely that they won't have the place spotless enough for the new tenants to move in.

It's a great place to be as a landlord though, you're lucky not to have the place left vacant while you search for tenants, it's unusual in these times.

Blizzard

Thanks all. I agree we are lucky, as we were planning to sell and advertised the property for rent and got a good few calls as a result so we're now planning to keep it into the future. Have to say most of the calls we're getting are for social welfare situations so it appears govt is still handing out money. Regarding leaving a day or two in between which is good but for the few interested in it, they want to be in in on the 1st as they are moving from other accommodation that they need to be out of by that day as well. In an ideal situation I would hope that I could put them off a day or two but if not I can't turn down a potential tenant for this reason alone. I'm going to see if there is any leeway with the old tenants moving into their new place earlier.

mathie

I was told by a solicitor that you only need to give one months notice as a tenant and that any signed lease wouldn't hold up in court!

Blizzard

mathie wrote: »

I was told by a solicitor that you only need to give one months notice as a tenant and that any signed lease wouldn't hold up in court!

Are you or your solicitor aware of the PRTB? Check out their website for info on notice periods which I'm sure would be held up in court.

Victor

You all do realise that there are 31 days in August? It may be useful to use that day to give the property a once over, checking for damage and giving it a deep clean.

A tenent is a llowed the full 24 hours of hte last day to move out.

mathie wrote: »

I was told by a solicitor that you only need to give one months notice as a tenant and that any signed lease wouldn't hold up in court!

When was this said? Can you forward his details and his professional indemnity insurance details?

The_Conductor

mathie wrote: »

I was told by a solicitor that you only need to give one months notice as a tenant and that any signed lease wouldn't hold up in court!

Your solicitor is very obviously wholly oblivious to the 2004 Residential Tenancies Act (updated twice since, most recently in Feb 2009). The information you are giving is simply totally inaccurate.