Being served a Notice to Quit (NTQ) as late mother's Executor from her Landlord

[daveseekinfo]

Hi, I am the executor of my late mother’s will (she passed away in early November) and I’m seeking clarity on my obligations with regards to being served a Notice To Quit (NTQ) by the Landlord of my mother’s flat. My sister and niece were living with my mother for a considerable period of time prior to her passing and essentially have nowhere to go, so have stayed put. The structure of the lease apparently was some kind of ongoing monthly periodic tenancy, and following a rental inspection in July the Landlord gave them notice that he wanted them out by early November because my sister was not on the lease, had unauthorised pets, and the flat was’nt being maintained in a presentable way etc; however he seemed to soften his tone after my mother passed away and was apparently going to offer my sister and niece a 6 month lease till the end of May this year.

There was discussion occurring with the local council to organise housing benefit for the 6 month lease but thus far this has’nt been finalised yet, partly because the flat failed an electrical inspection before Christmas and this has only just been remedied; so the Landlord has’nt received rent for a couple of months as yet.

Suddenly, out of the blue, the council have asked my sister for the contact details of the Executor of my mother’s will and estate, and she passed this request on to me. When I contacted the council to find out what they wanted they emailed me to inform me that the Landlord is considering serving an NTQ on me as Executor of my mother’s estate to formally extinguish any claim to tenancy of the flat which existed in my mother’s name; I believe this will lead to a court order for evicting my sister and niece.

The council have asked if I give my permission for them to pass my contact details on to the Landlord.
Given that I’m worried about my sister and niece being made homeless in the middle of winter when there is a lockdown in place and a severe pandemic, I’d be interested to know if I am obligated in any way to authorise the council to pass my contact details on to the Landlord? Am I legally obligated to authorise this?

[efpom]

It seems to me that your mother's tenancy ended with her death. I think, therefore that the landlord needs your contact details as executor so as to make a claim against your mother's estate.

If I understand correctly your sister and niece currently occupy the premises on a 6 month AST. As the current tenant is in rent arrears, It would be unlikely that the Landlord would grant a further AST and that tenant runs the risk of eviction before the current term of the AST expires.

If, however, there is no arrangement with the landlord, the occupants have no legal right to occupy the property.

[daveseekinfo]

Prior to christmas the Landlord seemed to be trying to establish a 6 month short term tenancy for my sister and niece but needed approval for housing benefit from the council, which was complicated by the failed electrical inspection. Apparently the Landlord was going to ask for the housing benefit to be backdated to the date after my mother's lease expired in early November, that's how the Landlord was intending to recoup his rent owed. Maybe something has gone wrong with all that, and he just wants possession of the flat back now regardless.

To provide further context; both my sister and niece live on welfare and have a number of psychological and dysfunctionality issues.

So am I legally obliged to authorise the council to pass my contact details on to the Landlord so that they can issue the NTQ, even if that leads to my sister and niece being evicted?

[efpom]

I think you may find this informative.

https://landlordlawblog.co.uk/2014/0...e-tenant-dies/

I cannot answer your question

[daveseekinfo]

Thanks for the info EFPOM.

[islandgirl]

Forgive me for stating the obvious but a Landlord not receiving rent makes a possession notice far more likely....I am confused by the electrical inspection angle - the new certificate for rented property is not a legal requirement until April this year as far as I know unless your council has a different rule?

[daveseekinfo]

Further update on this; I did provide the council authorisation for my contact details to be passed to the landlord (that was late January, a few days after the previous post above), but a few weeks went by with no contact from the landlord, the council then asked if I'd heard anything and I informed them I had'nt so they said they would contact the landlord again, a few more weeks went by and I'd still heard nothing so then I emailed the council again. My sister said she had'nt heard from the landlord for weeks either and was'nt doing much to follow up to be honest as she's quite dysfunctional.

The council did'nt respond to me but finally towards the end of March the Landlord sent me an email to say they had decided to offer a 6 month lease to my sister with the assistance of Housing Benefit from the council, and that they needed to serve a thing called a Section 8 on me as the lawful inheritor and administrator of my mother's lease to formally end the lease so that a new lease could be signed with my sister.

I replied that I had thought the lease had already ended back in November based of the notice served back in July, so did'nt understand why the lease was considered to be still in effect. The landlord replied that the previous notice was a Section 21, different to a Section 8, and that because my mother passed away before the expiry of the Section 21 then it meant that a Section 8 was then required. So I agreed to accept the Section 8 notice and the landlord did engage their estate agent to set up a 6 month lease for my sister commencing April 1.

The landlord's estate agent did contact me a few days later though to say that there are rent arrears due, in my mother's name, effective to the end of March. I assume this means that they need to be paid from my mother's estate.

My question though is do I have grounds to push back to any extent and say that the landlord could have engaged with me weeks/months earlier to resolve the ending of the lease when the council had first gotten in touch, and that I was'nt presented with all the necessary information to understand that the lease was still in effect for such a long period and accruing large rent arrears? Does it sound like there are grounds for asking to negotiate?

[islandgirl]

In fairness you were living in the property and knew that no rent was being paid. It was 100% obvious that arrears were accruing.