Tenant left early for landlord's benefit- rent reclaimable?

[darwinsfoot]

Hi,

I recently moved out of rented accomodation where I had been living for three years. To get out on the required date I gave two months notice and the landlord was fine with this. However, he then informed me that he wantred to get some works done at the house before letting it out again and so he wanted me out two weeks earlier, and this meant inventory and hand-over keys time, so handing over control of the flat so to speak. This seemed odd to me as I had paid up to the full two months notice and he was asking me to leave at 6 weeks, in which case he was getting two weeks free money.

I contacted the landlord about this just to check if he intended to return two weeks money and he said no as the contract said we had to give two months notice and that was to the originally agreed upon date X, not the subsequent earlier date. I phoned the letting agent and they said he was in the right to do this. I phoned a different letting agent and they said he wasn't.

However, I didn't want to risk annoying him too much as he had a months rent as deposit and I figured if I found out I could insist he pay the two weeks rent he would just be ultra-picky about the inventory and find a way of weasling out £500 there so I just left it. It sort of annoyed me so was just wondering some of your thoughts?

Cheers for any replies...

[Ericthelobster]

ROFL!!! The landlord is taking the Michael bigtime - sue 'im!!, as somebody else intoned here the other day.

[MrShed]

It was me eric.....and I shall intone again! Sue the balls off him.

[darwinsfoot]

Thanks for the replies...I had that feeling that I was being screwed at the time.

As for sueing him - I haven't got the money to risk losing if it all went horribly wrong. Although, in my favour, on the day of the check-out the landlady apologised for not having replaced the carpets before I moved in and she then went on to have a bust up with the inventory clerk who then sided completely with me on everything. And I don't mean "sided with me" to imply that there was any dispute over anything between me and the landlord/lady (it was an amicable split so to speak as was too soft to argue about the two weeks free rent at the time as I didn't want to risk losing any of my deposit). Just that she was more disposed to right off anything as justifiable wear and tear than she might have been (I think the only thing that might have been any issue is 3 small scratches to the bottom of a door where some weights had rubbed it, which perhaps could have been to be damage as opposed to wear and tear). So if I did try and get my money back I have an inventory, signed off by both parties, to show I left the place just as I found it, excluding wear and tear.

[MrShed]

All the money you can lose is the cost of the small claims fee - £50 ish. And believe me, from what you have told us, there is no way you will lose. In a case such as this, there is no need for you to use a solicitor. I would suggest a strongly worded letter, insisting upon the return of the rent, and stating you will pursue to small claims if you do not receive it - the majority of dodgy landlords will buckle to this sort of pressure.