help needed asap!!!!!

[hannahbella24]

hi
im currently with a private landlord he has recently given us 2 months notice to vacate the property due to him moving back in.
the notice ends on june 18th.
we have the rent paid up until the 18th of may at present.
my queiry is that we have recently found a new property we like and can move in a week.
1. Can we leave before the notice ends? ie in a week
2. is the landlord liable to pay us back any rent owed as we have paid up until 18th may.

we know the landlord through a family member and although when we first moved in a year ago we had a tenancy agreement for 6months but when we renewed after 6 months we didnt recieve another agreement.(rolling tenancy)
we are friends with the landlord and dont think he would rip us off but we dont want to be out of pocket leaving early with the rent paid up till 18th may.
any advice is greatly recieved!!

[Ericthelobster]

This exact same issue is currently being debated here:
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=10959.
Suggest you consult that thread!

[hannahbella24]

thanks
i had read that already but i dont seem to get any sense out of it!!
does it make any diff that the notice given to us was verbal and not written?

[Ericthelobster]

thanks
i had read that already but i dont seem to get any sense out of it!!
does it make any diff that the notice given to us was verbal and not written?
Well - there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer to the question yet! Seems strange, as I'd have thought it was a pretty fundamental and well tested issue to which the answer would be a straighforward yes or no.

In terms of the verbal notice - basically yes, that's a big difference, because legally-speaking you haven't been given notice at all yet: it has to be in a specially prescribed, written form (a "Section 21" notice). You say you're friends with the LL, so really it depends whether you want to play hardball or not. If you were to string him along and ignore the request to move out, then there wouldn't be a damned thing he can do about it: when on 19th June you hadn't left, he'd be obliged to give you 2 months proper written notice.

You might want to point out nicely that as you can't afford to move out on 19 May because he won't release you, you'll have to stay put until you can find something else, and as he hasn't given you written notice (which needs to be given on a rent day) you will have until 18 August to do so. That will probably screw up his plans to move back in, so hopefully he'll climb down and let you leave early.

(Of course if you didn't say anything and played dumb, when he found out on 19 May that you hadn't left, he wouldn't be able to give you notice to quit for a further month, taking you up to 18 September!... and then in the likely event that he screws up the Section 21 notice, being clueless, that would give you almost a further 3 months after that...)