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My daughter is a year 2 Uni student and decided in December to try and find someone who would be willing to take over her (shared house) tenancy. The landlord was reasonably supportive at outset but made clear that the onus was on my daughter to advertise/find a new tenant and to also ensure that any proposed new tenant would be acceptable to the existing tenants. Assuming all of that was done, the landlord will only get involved at the end to get the new contracts drawn up and signed. Fair enough.
To my surprise, my daughter did quickly find a new tenant and that change of tenancy has now gone through this week. The landlord got steadily less helpful as things progressed and I suspect that was because they realised the original hypothetical discussions were moving on and they were going to be required to actually do something. As a result, my daughter was told on the day the new tenant was moving in that there will be are a couple of outstanding payments/fees as follows: -
1. She has been told that she owes one weeks rent. However the two rent payments made (and stated in the contract payment schedule) were to cover the periods 1 July 21 – 22 September 21 and 23 September 21 – 12 January. On the basis that the change of tenancy was effective from the 7 January 21, I’m struggling to find any good reason as to why this final weeks rent is due. If anything, my daughter would be due a refund for the period 7 – 12 January? (which by the way, we wouldn’t have any intention of asking for)
2. She has also been told that an Administration Fee of £200.00 is payable for the extra work. I had a quick look online and stumbled across the Tenet Fees Act 2019 and this suggests that the fee for changes of tenant is capped at £50.00, unless the landlord can demonstrate that their costs incurred were higher and are reasonable. And in fact, if a Landlord is in breach of the act and plucking figures out of the air for the fun of it, they could be fined up to £5,000 for a first offence and an unlimited amount thereafter.
On both of the above points, I’d appreciate any thoughts before I steam in and make an absolutely idiot of myself. My aim is to try and sort this out amicably with the landlord if we can - but at the same time, if they are want to play hardball on this, I’ll have no issue in taking this to independent adjudication if it sounds like the landlord is blatantly trying to take advantage of students in this way.
Many thanks, PPS
To my surprise, my daughter did quickly find a new tenant and that change of tenancy has now gone through this week. The landlord got steadily less helpful as things progressed and I suspect that was because they realised the original hypothetical discussions were moving on and they were going to be required to actually do something. As a result, my daughter was told on the day the new tenant was moving in that there will be are a couple of outstanding payments/fees as follows: -
1. She has been told that she owes one weeks rent. However the two rent payments made (and stated in the contract payment schedule) were to cover the periods 1 July 21 – 22 September 21 and 23 September 21 – 12 January. On the basis that the change of tenancy was effective from the 7 January 21, I’m struggling to find any good reason as to why this final weeks rent is due. If anything, my daughter would be due a refund for the period 7 – 12 January? (which by the way, we wouldn’t have any intention of asking for)
2. She has also been told that an Administration Fee of £200.00 is payable for the extra work. I had a quick look online and stumbled across the Tenet Fees Act 2019 and this suggests that the fee for changes of tenant is capped at £50.00, unless the landlord can demonstrate that their costs incurred were higher and are reasonable. And in fact, if a Landlord is in breach of the act and plucking figures out of the air for the fun of it, they could be fined up to £5,000 for a first offence and an unlimited amount thereafter.
On both of the above points, I’d appreciate any thoughts before I steam in and make an absolutely idiot of myself. My aim is to try and sort this out amicably with the landlord if we can - but at the same time, if they are want to play hardball on this, I’ll have no issue in taking this to independent adjudication if it sounds like the landlord is blatantly trying to take advantage of students in this way.
Many thanks, PPS
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