Paying rent during notice period

fasttalkerchat

If a tenant had a 1 year fixed contract which then went to part 4, 4 months into the part 4 arrangement they wish to leave. They moved in on the 1st of the month and give notice on the 5th... 28 days notice is required and they have moved out within 15 days of giving notice.

Rent would technically be due on the 1st of the following month but as they no longer live there and the contract ends in 4 days should they pay anything?
Should they pay 4/31 of the monthly rent?

This is assuming a new tenant hasn't moved in and that notice was given and accepted correctly.

StillWaters

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

If a tenant had a 1 year fixed contract which then went to part 4, 4 months into the part 4 arrangement they wish to leave. They moved in on the 1st of the month and give notice on the 5th... 28 days notice is required and they have moved out within 15 days of giving notice.

Rent would technically be due on the 1st of the following month but as they no longer live there and the contract ends in 4 days should they pay anything?
Should they pay 4/31 of the monthly rent?

This is assuming a new tenant hasn't moved in and that notice was given and accepted correctly.

Yes, technically they should pay the additional 4 days rent. I can't see any LL going after it though. Did they do handover of keys/get deposit back at the point they moved out?

djimi

If they are there between 1 and 2 years then 42 days (6 weeks) notice is required.

Their notice doesnt end until two weeks into the next rental month, so technically the landlord could charge them for two weeks rent, even if they decided to move out well before the end of the notice period. I dont know how many would bother (my landlord didnt ask me for additional rent when I gave notice half way through a month, but then I had big problems with the place that the landlord was sympathetic about), especially if they were able to get a new tenant in before the 1st of the month, but technically there would be nothing stopping the landlord chasing what they are owed, and potentially taking it from the deposit.

confuseddotcom

Sorry for interrupting. Just wondered how much Notice would I have to give when I pay rent on a month-by-month basis. I'm not under any Contract, none that I've currently signed-for anyway, no Contract was presented to me after the initial 6-month Contract ended. I just pay my rent month by month now. So how much Notice would I technically be required to give? I don't know anything about this Part-4 stuff or Fixed-Term-Lease or whatever. I don't know what difference it makes anyway but am sure there's a name on it for a reason.

Castlehaven

confuseddotcom wrote: »

Sorry for interrupting. Just wondered how much Notice would I have to give when I pay rent on a month-by-month basis. I'm not under any Contract, none that I've currently signed-for anyway, no Contract was presented to me after the initial 6-month Contract ended. I just pay my rent month by month now. So how much Notice would I technically be required to give? I don't know anything about this Part-4 stuff or Fixed-Term-Lease or whatever. I don't know what difference it makes anyway but am sure there's a name on it for a reason.

Notice is dependent on length of tenancy irrespective of any written lease (except where the term is implicit in a fixed term)

The length of tenancy is the period over which you have rented the property.

Put another way you could rent a property on a 12 month fixed term, the lease expires and you remain in occupation for another 12 months. Your tenancy would be 24 months and the length of notice is based on 24 months as specified in the 2004 Residential Tenancies Act.

fasttalkerchat

confuseddotcom wrote: »

Sorry for interrupting. Just wondered how much Notice would I have to give when I pay rent on a month-by-month basis. I'm not under any Contract, none that I've currently signed-for anyway, no Contract was presented to me after the initial 6-month Contract ended. I just pay my rent month by month now. So how much Notice would I technically be required to give? I don't know anything about this Part-4 stuff or Fixed-Term-Lease or whatever. I don't know what difference it makes anyway but am sure there's a name on it for a reason.

If you stay in a house after a fixed term lease ends it automatically becomes part 4 AFAIK.
So you would give notice according to this scale:

Length of tenancy -- Notice by tenant
Less than 6 months -- 4 weeks (28 days)
6 months to 1 year - - 5 weeks (35 days)
1 – 2 years -- 6 weeks (42 days)
2 or more years -- 8 weeks (56 days)

Milk & Honey

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

If you stay in a house after a fixed term lease ends it automatically becomes part 4 AFAIK.

A tenancy becomes Part 4 after 6 months. It doesn't matter if there is a fixed term lease running. The fixed term lease overrides the statutory provisions as regards security of tenure if they are more favourable to the tenant however.

fasttalkerchat

Milk & Honey wrote: »

A tenancy becomes Part 4 after 6 months. It doesn't matter if there is a fixed term lease running. The fixed term lease overrides the statutory provisions as regards security of tenure if they are more favourable to the tenant however.

But that would mean that 7 months into 12 month contract I could give 35 days notice and walk away with full deposit.
Or have I picked you up wrong?

djimi

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

But that would mean that 7 months into 12 month contract I could give 35 days notice and walk away with full deposit.
Or have I picked you up wrong?

Youve picked it up wrong!

A fixed term lease gives more security to both parties. A tenant cannot be evicted with the usual notice period given, and the landlord is protected in so far as the tenant cannot just give notice and leave.

fasttalkerchat

djimi wrote: »

Youve picked it up wrong!

A fixed term lease gives more security to both parties. A tenant cannot be evicted with the usual notice period given, and the landlord is protected in so far as the tenant cannot just give notice and leave.

The way he said it was (I think) that part 4 replaces fixed contract after 6 months unless it works in the tenants favour to go by fixed contract.

djimi

The part 4 runs in parellel with the fixed term lease after 6 months, but the terms of the fixed term lease will always supersede where they differ, provided that they are legal and that they do not attempt to take rights away from the tenant (for example the landlord cannot write into the lease that they will let themselves into the property at any time to have a look around).

The notice period is probably one of the cases where this differs slightly, in so far as it is in the residential tenants act that the terms of a fixed term lease mean that the part 4 notice periods do not apply.