One of the five tenants on a single AST (victorian semi-detached house with 5 bedrooms/shared facilities) notified us 2 days before their contract as due to end (30 June) that they had C-19 and had to self-isolate for 10 days and were unable to move out of the property for 7 days or so. The property had been relet so we notified the incoming tenants who had no choice but to agree to delay moving into the property. The tenants in question moved out on 7 July and the outgoing inventory was conducted 24 hours later (as per government guidelines), with the new set of tenants free to move in on the 9th.
We deducted the cost of the rent from 1 July - 8 July from the outgoing tenants' deposit and returned this money to the incoming tenants compensating them for the rent paid from 1 -8 July as they could not move into the property until the 9th.
The outgoing tenant made a claim to myDeposits, whose adjudicator, much to our surprise, ruled as follows:
"Due to the unforeseen, and rather unfortunate, nature of the stay up until 7 July 2021, which
was only necessary due to the pandemic, I find this stay up until and including 7 July 2021 to
be a separate agreement between XXXX XXXXXX and the agent/landlord, rather than an
extension of the existing joint and several tenancy agreement that had been in place prior.
While the subsequent occupancy may have been put off a tad longer than 7 July 2021, and
the landlord has shown they compensated the subsequent occupants for this, I find the
tenant’s deposit cannot be used to cover any future losses of rent on any future tenancies,
hence my award is limited to the periods of time I am satisfied the tenant stayed extra for."
A few queries.
AA. Legally, as the 5 tenants were on a single AST does the contract not ends when the tenant as a 'whole' has moved out and the house is 100% empty?
BB. While it may have been only one of the five tenants that had to isolate, the whole house was being "occupied" and this fact prevented the incoming tenants from moving in and it was only correct that they are compensated for the rent on the whole property.
CC. Government guidelines are there to ensure the status quo is maintained and that neither party takes advantage of the unfortunate situation. In other words, the terms and conditions of the current contract should be respected on both sides until the tenant is able/allowed to move out. Otherwise, why should the original contact's monthly rental be divided by 5 * number of days in occupation in order to work out the portion of rent due... surely the use of a daily b&b rate would be more appropriate!
