Help needed with my old landlord

[richatnort]

Afternoon all,

So after some legal advice and not sure if this is the place to put it so apologies.

So in July we bought our first house and were in a rental at the time. I explained this to the landlord as i asked if i could end the contract early. She didn't agree but agreed to a month early which would mean my contracted ended on the 30th September.

I had a text message from her today asking for £40 for a British gas bill for a period of time. After phoning BG up and finding the dates she told me stupidly that the new tenants moved into the house on the 7th September. I've raised this with her as in my eyes i'm owed 27 days worth of rent back as she got someone in before my contract ran out and therefore has additional rent to the sum of £498.18.

Cut a long story short she's refusing to give me the sum back and isn't giving me a clear reason why not. This is completely out of my depth and I don't know where to start. I know some will say it's not a lot of money and forget about it but being a first time buyer not on a great wage it's very much a large sum of money to myself and could go towards so much on my house.

Thanks

[richatnort]

sidekickdmr said:

iphonedyou said:

You're entitled to not one bean. Which makes sense, when you think about it!

We left our rented flat a week early and handed back the keys, and didn't expect (or get) a return of any rent. It was contractually due, and taken, per the landlord's entitlement.

She did try and keep back £1,500 of the deposit, mind, of which she got not one bean.

The difference with your senario is you had the flat till the end of the tenancy agreement you paid for.

In OP's case, he paid for it till the end of the newly agreed shortened term, the contract finished on the 30th September and they had paid till this date.

The Landlord moved someone in while someone else was still in contract and paying the rent.

Has she therefore sublet the house while i was still in possession of it?

I found this article interesting.

https://blog.upad.co.uk/blog/what-happens-after-yo...

[richatnort]

Muncher said:

By handing the keys back you have surrendered the lease, it's come to an end regardless of what your contract said, therefore she can do what she likes with it from that point onwards.

Think about it, you haven't been deprived of anything even if you think the contract ran beyond the date you handed the keys back, you couldn't have continued to use the property as you had no keys.

I gave the keys back to help the landlord get viewings to the property as it was vacant. I could of really easily gone back to the estate agents and asked for the keys back to do something in the property as the estate agent even has on their records that our contract is to end on the 30th September.

[richatnort]

So i read up a bit more in this issue and it would seem that legally I am in my rights to get my rent back. As I didn't legally sign that I relinquish my tenancy she's technically sub rented the house out while I'm in my tenancy. The problem is my contracted said that my tenancy runs out on the 30th September so if I choose to leave it unoccupied for that time that's my choice as there isn't anything in the contract to say it can't be unoccupied for X amount days. I'm going to write her a formal letter and tell her these facts and tell her that I'm going to small claims court because it's £35 and if the law decides I'm not right and I'm bit owed it but I just feel robbed and I can't understand how someone can keep £500 when they aren't out of pocket and could easily send it back instead of spending it on whatever she's spent it on

[richatnort]

I think you are all right i think I'm just real upset at seeing that sum of money in her pocket and not in mine and I'm just angry. I'm going to reply back and tell her I'm not paying the gas and electric bill as it was after we moved out and not my responsibility as it was from when we relinquished the keys as you've said and tell her she can use the £500 she robed of me to pay it back easily and not to contact me again