Serviced Office - Notice Question
Discussion
One for the hive minds, as I just want to be sure I am interpreting this properly.
I rent a serviced office with the current tenancy / lease due to expire on 31st December 2022. Because the landlord is a dick, I have decided to move from here (I didn't want to, but he's forcing my hand) and I've found an alternative, which will actually work better for me in some ways. Win win...
I have a clause in my tenancy which allows either of us to break it early:
Ending the tenancy early
8.1 You can end this agreement anytime by
giving written notice of not less than one
month provided you are not in arrears with
your rent. We can end this agreement
anytime by giving written notice of not less
than one month. This tenancy will expire
upon expiration of the notice period but
without prejudice to any claim which either
we or you may have against each other
arising prior to the agreement ending.
8.2 If we or you serve a notice you must deliver
to us vacant possession of the whole of the
premises on or before the end of the
tenancy.
For the 'written notice' part, I will print out and mail something, rather than email.
My question / point of clarification was around the 'month'. The agreement doesn't seem to make any mention that the notice period should start or end on a month-end or month-start (i.e. it doesn't explicitly state that if I give notice, say, on Monday 24th October, that my notice isn't effective until the start of the month (1st November), meaning that the tenancy would end on 31st November / 1st December.
My understanding is, I could give notice on 24th October and would then need to vacate by 24th November?
I rent a serviced office with the current tenancy / lease due to expire on 31st December 2022. Because the landlord is a dick, I have decided to move from here (I didn't want to, but he's forcing my hand) and I've found an alternative, which will actually work better for me in some ways. Win win...
I have a clause in my tenancy which allows either of us to break it early:
Ending the tenancy early
8.1 You can end this agreement anytime by
giving written notice of not less than one
month provided you are not in arrears with
your rent. We can end this agreement
anytime by giving written notice of not less
than one month. This tenancy will expire
upon expiration of the notice period but
without prejudice to any claim which either
we or you may have against each other
arising prior to the agreement ending.
8.2 If we or you serve a notice you must deliver
to us vacant possession of the whole of the
premises on or before the end of the
tenancy.
For the 'written notice' part, I will print out and mail something, rather than email.
My question / point of clarification was around the 'month'. The agreement doesn't seem to make any mention that the notice period should start or end on a month-end or month-start (i.e. it doesn't explicitly state that if I give notice, say, on Monday 24th October, that my notice isn't effective until the start of the month (1st November), meaning that the tenancy would end on 31st November / 1st December.
My understanding is, I could give notice on 24th October and would then need to vacate by 24th November?
Canon_Fodder said:
Your understanding is correct OP
Fab, thanks.He decided to raise my rent by 40%, but isn't the only provider of serviced office space in town, so I've secured a better deal (lower rent, zero VAT, car parking space included) elsewhere.
Since money was clearly a primary objective for my landlord, it would be unlikely (with an exit date of 24th November) that he would be able to let it again quickly - so he's going to lose everything he tried to gouge from me, plus some more besides.
He's running my current place as a bit of a side hustle (and is never here) so my notice will be sent, in writing, to here - and its the 'landlord address' on my agreement, so actually my 'month' notice may end up being only a couple of weeks or so...;)
Canon_Fodder said:
If you give notice on (say) the 9th of September, you'll pay for the entire month of September and then the first 9 days of October
Yeah so this is the conundrum / question I have. This isn't clear, but a bit of Googling:https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/542/the-le...
English common law has centuries of experience on this issue, and has developed some settled principles that are applied by the courts.
Prior to 1925, references in contracts to months were interpreted as lunar months. There are 13 lunar months in a year. By section 61 of the Law of Property Act 1925, references in contracts to months are to be interpreted as calendar months, unless the context otherwise requires.
Calendar months are counted from a specified date. It is not necessary to consider the period from the 1st of a month to, say, 31st (unless the notice period starts on 1st of a month). This contrasts with the usual understanding of calendar year, which tends to be thought of as the period from 1st January to 31st December.
The “corresponding date rule” requires that one looks at the same date in the diary the relevant number of months ahead. Thus a period of 3 months from 20th April expires on 20th July. In the case of Dodds v Walker [1980] 1 WLR 1061, in the Court of Appeal, Templeman LJ said:
"…if an act is authorised to be performed on any arbitrary day in any month of the year, then one month elapses on the corresponding day of the next month, provided that the day of the act itself is excluded from computation."
In the same case, in the House of Lords, Lord Diplock said:
"The corresponding date rule is simple. It is easy of application. …all that the calculator has to do is make in his diary the corresponding date in the appropriate subsequent month."
In the same case, Templeman LJ clarified that if the period expired on a date that did not exist in a particular month (eg 31st February), then the period would expire on the last day of that month.
GranpaB said:
Hardly seems worth it if you are due to leave at the end of December anyway.
What hardly seems worth it?Firstly, I go on holiday on 30th December (plus Xmas week before) so the last thing I want to be doing at the end of December is moving offices.
Secondly, I will need to start paying for the 2nd office, and have a start-date in mind, else (quite rightly) the new landlord wouldn't have any commitment from me and could let it to someone else.
If I let my existing tenancy just run its course, I'll definitely end up paying twice for the month of December - and as I have a break clause, I may as well exercise it. Why on earth would I want to give my current landlord an extra £600? He's a dick, and he doesn't deserve any freebies from me.
The way I see it, I have 3 options:
1. give notice this week, 1 month's notice to expire on 19th November (if I did it on Wednesday), and ask for a prorated invoice for November. This option costs me the least, gets me out the quickest, and gives him the bare minimum of additional monies and notice.
2. give notice this week, 1 month's notice to expire on 30th November / 1st December, and pay for November in full. This option costs me an extra 11 days rent (vs the scenario in Option 1, which is £220. It also gives him 6+ weeks notice, not 4. Seems generous.
3. give notice on 30th October, pay for November in full. Same financial position as 2., but gives him less notice.
Either way, I expect I'll have the new office starting early in November, which is good as I need some time to move stuff over. Most things will go in my car, but I have a massive standing desk (which I don't want to dismantle) plus a pinball table and a large chair, so I'm going to need help / man with a van anyway. The offices are only about 800m apart, but too far / too awkward to walk this stuff around.
His actions are forcing a course of action on me (moving) that I didn't want to do, at a time of year I really didn't want to be doing it, so I'll be damned if I want to make his life easy!
timetex said:
my notice will be sent, in writing, to here - and its the 'landlord address' on my agreement
check that there isn't a different address listed towards the back as the address for notices / correspondence - they may well be. also check that a hard copy paper notice is permitted by the terms of the lease. surprising if not, but you never know - it might say only faxes...?
these provisions are strictly interpreted so you want to make sure it goes to the right place and is sent in the right way, especially if it might be contentious.
K4sper said:
check that there isn't a different address listed towards the back as the address for notices / correspondence - they may well be.
also check that a hard copy paper notice is permitted by the terms of the lease. surprising if not, but you never know - it might say only faxes...?
these provisions are strictly interpreted so you want to make sure it goes to the right place and is sent in the right way, especially if it might be contentious.
Good points - but there is only 1 address (its also the address of the building I rent an office in), and the clause mentions only 'written notice', it doesn't explicitly state (or exclude) any forms. I know that 'email' can sometimes not be considered as 'written', but sending a letter to this building is an enjoyable 'malicious compliance' in itself... also check that a hard copy paper notice is permitted by the terms of the lease. surprising if not, but you never know - it might say only faxes...?
these provisions are strictly interpreted so you want to make sure it goes to the right place and is sent in the right way, especially if it might be contentious.
I know you are trying to play the game and annoy the landlord by serving notice to an address you know he's not at, but given that if you serve notice mid month you will need him to issue a pro-rate invoice, is it not less hassle to wait a couple more weeks and serve notice bang on the month end so you don't need him to do anything outside of his normal process? Otherwise he may "play the game" in return by serving your invoice to your office address after you've moved out or "misplacing" your forwarding address, then raise a money claim for unpaid debt and try and cause you hassle.
Also, if you suspect the Landlord will make things difficult for you, make sure you cover off everything you need to in terms of exit process / cleaning / making good any alterations etc. and take photographs. Hopefully you have a "check in" inventory that you can reference, to make sure at check out you are leaving the place as you found it so that there is no excuse not to receive your full deposit back.
edit for spellung
Also, if you suspect the Landlord will make things difficult for you, make sure you cover off everything you need to in terms of exit process / cleaning / making good any alterations etc. and take photographs. Hopefully you have a "check in" inventory that you can reference, to make sure at check out you are leaving the place as you found it so that there is no excuse not to receive your full deposit back.
edit for spellung
Edited by 48k on Monday 17th October 17:18
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