Terminating of a Tenancy

MummyAsh

Hi

I am a Landlord and have a tenant living in my grannyflat. He is there less than six months and is on a Fixed Term Tenancy Agreement for 12 months. However I have to terminate the Tenancy as grannyflat is a converted garage and council issued planning warning letter to cease human habitation. I have served the tenant with 28 notice but he is refusing as the Tenancy Agreement is Fixed

Is the tenant right?

I have looked up the PTRB website, but its confusing about Section 34?

Any help would be much appreciated

Esoteric_

MummyAsh wrote: »

Hi

I am a Landlord and have a tenant living in my grannyflat. He is there less than six months and is on a Fixed Term Tenancy Agreement for 12 months. However I have to terminate the Tenancy as grannyflat is a converted garage and council issued planning warning letter to cease human habitation. I have served the tenant with 28 notice but he is refusing as the Tenancy Agreement is Fixed

Is the tenant right?

I have looked up the PTRB website, but its confusing about Section 34?

Any help would be much appreciated

AFAIK, if it's a fixed term lease, you cannot break it. Your best bet would be to offer him a cash incentive to leave, such as two months rent and deposit back.

Milk & Honey

the lease is frustrated. the residential tenancies Act does not apply. Your tenant does not have a separate dwelling and therefore lives in the same dwelling as you. Show the tenant a copy of the enforcement notice.

MummyAsh

grannyflat is seperate and behind my house

krd

MummyAsh wrote: »

grannyflat is seperate and behind my house

It's probably too late now. But you could tell him a family member needs to move in. As far as I am aware, the lease is void under that circumstance.

Farcear

krd wrote: »

It's probably too late now. But you could tell him a family member needs to move in. As far as I am aware, the lease is void under that circumstance.

That doesn't "void" the lease.

It allows termination of Part IV tenancies but that is not applicable here as there is a contract.

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Milk & Honey: The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 does apply. Only Part IV of the Act is excluded when it's the one dwelling converted into two exception.

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Steps:

(1) Check the lease to see if it deals with this situation.

(2) Otherwise, argue that the contract is frustrated - as Milk & Honey suggested.

(3) Failing that, come to some sort of financial arrangement - as LyndaMcL suggested, i.e. If your tenant has to pay a higher rent for temporary accommodation, offer to pay the difference. Maybe 50 a month for the next 6 months?


There is absolutely no possibility of the tenant remaining on the premises. Really, the only issue is whether you need to pay a contribution towards the rent of alternative accommodation or not.

aimeeloulilou

hi, iv been living in a house for over 12months now and my tenancy agreement was up after the 1st 6months which was not renewed, i have recently come into severe financial difficulty and have to move to a small flat but when i gave in my notice yesterday my landlady told me i have to give them a months notice or il lose my deposit of €625. i pay weekly rent of 145 and to my knowledge i thought you are liable to give a weeks notice if you pay weekly so could someone tell me if they have grounds to hold the deposit because hes asking his solicitor on monday?
cheers hope to hear back soon from someone :-)

CIARAN_BOYLE

It all depends on the agreement you signed

Its possible to renew a contact without specifically doing so so I'd say you are bound to the terms in the original tennancy agreement

Milk & Honey

aimeeloulilou wrote: »

hi, iv been living in a house for over 12months now and my tenancy agreement was up after the 1st 6months which was not renewed, i have recently come into severe financial difficulty and have to move to a small flat but when i gave in my notice yesterday my landlady told me i have to give them a months notice or il lose my deposit of €625. i pay weekly rent of 145 and to my knowledge i thought you are liable to give a weeks notice if you pay weekly so could someone tell me if they have grounds to hold the deposit because hes asking his solicitor on monday?
cheers hope to hear back soon from someone :-)

The minimum notice period is 4 weeks even for a tenant on weekly rent.

aimeeloulilou

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

It all depends on the agreement you signed

Its possible to renew a contact without specifically doing so so I'd say you are bound to the terms in the original tennancy agreement

they didnt want to renew a contract cause the house is up fir sale so there has been no agreement for 8months will that go in my favour?

Esoteric_

aimeeloulilou wrote: »

they didnt want to renew a contract cause the house is up fir sale so there has been no agreement for 8months will that go in my favour?

After 6 months, you're in a part 4 tenancy, even without a lease renewal, so no, it wouldn't go in your favour. You have to give the correct notice period required.

Milk & Honey

Farcear wrote: »

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Milk & Honey: The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 does apply. Only Part IV of the Act is excluded when it's the one dwelling converted into two exception.

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.

There is no planning permission for 2 dwellings. The local authority want the two dwellings integrated into one. The result is that the tenant lives in the same dwelling as the landlord.

Marcusm

Milk & Honey wrote: »

There is no planning permission for 2 dwellings. The local authority want the two dwellings integrated into one. The result is that the tenant lives in the same dwelling as the landlord.

In order for that exclusion to apply, both dwellings must be part of the same building which I think is implied not to be the case by the OP's comments re the garage being behind the house.

I would have thought that the landlord could terminate on any of the following grounds

(1). The number of bed spaces (sounds like none) is unsuitable for the tenant. (ground 2)

(2). The landlord wishes to reoccupy the property (as a garage as that is what it is, or as extended accommodation for its own family as it as no other permission). (ground 4)

Each of these requires a purposive interpretation of the statute in order to apply it to circumstances where it was never intended to apply - ie a letting of a property unsuitable for accommodation.

Milk & Honey

Marcusm wrote: »

In order for that exclusion to apply, both dwellings must be part of the same building which I think is implied not to be the case by the OP's comments re the garage being behind the house.

I would have thought that the landlord could terminate on any of the following grounds

(1). The number of bed spaces (sounds like none) is unsuitable for the tenant. (ground 2)

(2). The landlord wishes to reoccupy the property (as a garage as that is what it is, or as extended accommodation for its own family as it as no other permission). (ground 4)

Each of these requires a purposive interpretation of the statute in order to apply it to circumstances where it was never intended to apply - ie a letting of a property unsuitable for accommodation.

There is a fixed term lease, so the grounds for termination of a part 4 tenancy do not apply. From a planning point of view there is one dwelling spread across two buildings. The tenant is therefore resident in the o/ps dwelling and is a licencee and not a tenant.

Marcusm

Milk & Honey wrote: »

There is a fixed term lease, so the grounds for termination of a part 4 tenancy do not apply. From a planning point of view there is one dwelling spread across two buildings. The tenant is therefore resident in the o/ps dwelling and is a licencee and not a tenant.

I missed the fixed term tenancy part. In that c`se, I'm sure the landlord would have to try and buy the tenant out. They cannot afford to allow the position to subsist in the light of the enforcement notice.

Dwelling can mean more than one building of both are being used byt he same household - such as when the landlord takes back possession in this case. More usually when a building or part of a building is being let on a self contained basis, it would be regarded as a separate dwelling as it is not appurtenant to the "main" dwelling being that having been let it no longer forms part of the main.

Milk & Honey

Marcusm wrote: »

I missed the fixed term tenancy part. In that c`se, I'm sure the landlord would have to try and buy the tenant out. They cannot afford to allow the position to subsist in the light of the enforcement notice.

Dwelling can mean more than one building of both are being used byt he same household - such as when the landlord takes back possession in this case. More usually when a building or part of a building is being let on a self contained basis, it would be regarded as a separate dwelling as it is not appurtenant to the "main" dwelling being that having been let it no longer forms part of the main.

The planners deem it to be appurtenant to the main dwelling. The o/p will have to terminate the tenancy on the basis that the lease is frustrated due to the enforcement notice. The tenant will be guilty of an offence under the planning acts if he continues to reside as he has been doing.