Can landlord do this?

PhoneMain

Hi,

So we're leaving our student house in the next few weeks. We'd originally said we'd take the house in June 2017 but the landlord let us know that the house was empty so we could move in our stuff a few days early. We're adamant that he said for free, he says he didn't say anything. We said fine and moved in our stuff, slowly and in no rush. We paid our first rent on June 1st and have subsequently paid in on the first of every month since then. We didn't sign a lease until September. Anyway, the landlord came over this week and has told us that we've to move out on May 19th cos that's the date that we moved in last year. We're adamant that the original understanding was that the lease was for a year from June 1st. We don't mind moving out but our understanding is that we paid for the full month of May to be here and want the pro rata rent back but he's telling us that he obliged us by letting us in on May 19th 2017 and that the house was only available for a year and is adamant we're not entitled to a refund. He's registered with the PRTB.

Any advise would be grately appreciated!

jimmycrackcorm

Just tell him you have part IV rights and he also has to give you appropriate notice in accordance with the law. The lease doesn't override your legal rights.

There's nothing he can do, if he says anything tell him to expect to pay out a lot in an RTB dispute. He's trying to take advantage thinking as students you don't know better. Don't entertain him, he has no rights and a lot to lose.

dennyk

You have been in the property for more than six months, so you now have security of tenure under Part 4 of the Residential Tenancies Act. This means that until you have been in the property for six years, your landlord can only terminate the tenancy for one of the allowable reasons under Part 4 (generally, they require the property for themselves or a family member to live in, or they are selling the property, or they intend to change the use of the property, e.g. from residential to commercial, or they are going to perform substantial renovations that require vacant possession).

You acquire Part 4 tenancy rights after six months even if you signed a fixed term lease; the expiration of your original lease term does not override your Part 4 rights and the landlord cannot end your tenancy just because the lease term has ended. If you do intend to stay in the property beyond the term of your initial lease, you should send written notice to the landlord advising them of that at least a month before the end of the fixed term. Failure to notify them does not invalidate your Part 4 rights, but it may make you responsible for any costs incurred by the landlord due to your lack of notice (e.g. listing fees from them relisting the property for rent because they believed you would be vacating at the end of your term).

If your tenancy does end (either by your choice, or by his for an allowable reason and with the appropriate and legally required notice), you only owe rent up to the end of the notice period; if you've paid rent in advance for beyond that time, you would absolutely be due a refund (assuming you are not otherwise in arrears, of course). However, in this case you may technically be in arrears for 14 days of rent, if you occupied the property from May 19th but didn't start paying rent until June 1st, so he might actually be correct about that. If you don't have written confirmation that he was giving you early possession of the property rent-free, that may be difficult to prove, but if the initial lease lists June 1st rather than May 19th as the commencement date of the tenancy, then he may not have a leg to stand on either.

If your landlord is ending the tenancy for an allowable reason, he must give you five weeks notice at this point, so he can't end your tenancy on May 19th in any case. (Also, if he doesn't give you proper notice before May 20th (or June 1st, depending on the lease), then he'd need to give you six weeks of notice instead at that point, as you'll have been there for more than a year at that point...). He must also give you a properly formatted written notice of termination, following all of the requirements as outlined in the above link (which vary depending on the reason for the termination). If the notice does not comply with the requirements, it is not a valid notice, and the notice period doesn't begin until you receive a valid notice; he can't just text you one day "get out in five weeks kthxbai" and then come round a few weeks later to give you a proper notice after you told him it was required and still expect you to be out five weeks from his original improper notice.

davo10

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Just tell him you have part IV rights and he also has to give you appropriate notice in accordance with the law. The lease doesn't override your legal rights.

There's nothing he can do, if he says anything tell him to expect to pay out a lot in an RTB dispute. He's trying to take advantage thinking as students you don't know better. Don't entertain him, he has no rights and a lot to lose.

They are students, have you considered that it is the op who wants to move out at the end of college term?

OP, what's the start date on the lease you signed? This should clarify the situation.

Wabbit Ears

I rent to students and, while i admit to being lucky, Its been in four year blocks for the last three turns ( jaysus, 12 years go by quickly!!)