How much notice do I need to give on a rented property?

Question

I have advised my landlord that I may be giving notice as I have put an application in for a bigger house with another letting agent.

I have been in the property for over 2 years and the 'fixed' lease expired in Feb 2008 and I have not signed another since.

The landlord advised that I need to give 1 months notice but from the anniversary date. Is this correct? i.e. my anniversary date is the 12th of the month, so if I gave notice on 20th October, I would have to pay rent until 12th December.

The reason I ask is that the new lettings agents are now only awaiting the reference from my landlord (have been waiting for 1 week) so this is holding up my giving notice. The 12th has now come and gone and I would feel aggrieved to have to give extra notice because he was slow with providing a reference.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Answer 1

usually it is one months notice from the day you pay your rent. if he is fair he would accept that the 12th has only just passed.

Answer 2

Notice should be accepted when given, once a certain time period has elapsed, but since you are out of contract then there is nothing legally binding that means notice cannot be accepted when given. In a normal tenancy agreement the first date that the notice can be given is listed and notice can be given at any time passed this, the example would be the 6 month break clause with a one month notice period. On the due date for the rent of the fifth month you would be entitled to hand in a months notice or at any time from there on.

As you are now on a rolling contract there is no grace period. The landlord has to accept the notice when given.

The landlord would have no legal ground to seek rent if you gave notice on the 20th and left a month later, unless the previous expire tenancy agreement stated that notice could only be given on the anniversary, but that sounds to me like it would fall under the 'unfair clause' rule and be unenforceable.



I don't understand why the fact that your present landlord is being slow with the reference means you can't give notice. I would give the notice immediately. If you explain that the present landlord is being awkward about the reference I am sure they would be more than understanding.

Answer 3

Read your lease and find out when you need to provide notice. Usually it's 30 days notice from the date you send it. If you send notice on October 14th then you should be able to move on November 14th. Nothing is stating you have to actually stay there the entire month you gave notice. You can pay him one months rent or pro-rated 14 days if you already paid for the month of October 1-31st. You can move out November 1st if you wanted but must still give the landlord the 14 days in November. He is probably waiting on you before sending a reference to the new landlord. It's not like because the 12th has passed that you have to wait until November 12th to give notice holding you up until December 12th. Just provide him with 30 days notice to vacate and be done with it.



When in doubt read your lease find a section labeled Termination and see what it says.

Answer 4

Check your tenancy, it will have this clause in there, if not then a months notice from any date is correct. If he continues to be difficult, wait till you have his reference and the new house is yours, and pay no further rent (not the done thing but some LL wants it all).

Also you can refuse to have any viewings done whilst your still in the property. In UK you are legally entitled to refuse entry.this would mean that he could not show prospective tenants, and will have a dead period between you leaving and new tenants starting. He will loose out, battle this out.

Answer 5

As an ex landlady I have never heard of that rule. I have always accepted notice when it was given. Check your contract and if it doesn't say there that you have to give your notice on your anniversary date I would say that he told you a load of bull so he can get more money from you.



Just to be on the safe side, contact CAB and see what they have to say about it.



If he's correct you could ask him to waiver the notice on the date due to his being slow in providing the reference but he is right if he says that he doesn't have to give a reference as he doesn't have to.



Good luck.

Answer 6

You do not have to give a month from the day your rent is due. You have to give 1 full months notice, and pay for the extra days you're living there; the days your monthly rent does not cover.

Answer 7

yOUR CONTRACT HAS BEEN ROLLED ON SINCE YOUR TENANCY AGREEMENT. YOU WILL NEED TO SERVE A MONTHS NOTICE ON THE DAY YOU PAY YOUR RENT. EXAMPLE IF YOU PAY THE 1ST OF EACH MONTH THEN THEY TAKE YOUR NOTICE STARTING 1ST NOV FOR YOU TO VACATE THE 1ST DEC 08.

CAN YOUR AGENT PROVIDE A REFERENCE. AS LONG AS YOUR CREDIT HISTORY FINE AND YOUR WORKING REFERENCE COMPANIES ARE SURPOSE TO WAIVE THE LANDLORDS REFERENCE IF NOT RECIEVED IN 2 WEEKS. i use to be a lettings agent myself before I got redundant.

Answer 8

Depends what is stated in your tenancy agreement!