UKC

This might be a little different to normal rent queries as I rent a room on a converted Oil Tanker boat from a professional letting agency in London.

I moved in two months ago on a six month contract which ends late september. Thirteen others are out of contract and now on rolling monthly contracts. The most recent tenant was only allowed a 3 month contract which ends on 31st July.

The issue is, the boat needs painting on the outside to ensure it is waterproof and it is a condition of the licence/insurance so needs to be done. Word on the street (or bank?) is that this might be getting done in August but the agency are refusing to comment on this when asked.

Now, due to the size of the vessel (it's pretty huge) it needs to be tugged out to the sea and taken out of the water for the painting during which no one could stay on it and the disruption would be for a minimum of two weeks.

If the August date is correct we will all be homeless (but I will be the only person still within contract) for a period at least. So I am wondering what my rights are as a tenant as my contract doesn't mention anything like this. If it is due to insurance reasons then I would think they knew about this before I moved in and agreed to the terms - especially as I found out about it from others on day 1 so it must have been on their radar as an agent.

I plan to move out at the end of my 6 month tenancy due to moving cities as I am on a 6 month job secondment. But it will be hugely disruptive, hard, and expensive to find somewhere to live for such a short period in London.

So essentially - if they ask me to leave, are there any laws around this that they need to comply with?

Any advice would very much be appreciated. Thanks!

In reply to James Malloch:

Wow. Either that's a completely unique situation in the history of the law, or else there's a whole other side to renting in London which nobody outside London knows about.

No idea of rights, but I do know that in situations like this, the ship's owners will weigh up the cost of not complying with their maintenance requirements, against the potential cost of disrupting you. As any claim you make will be civil (off your own back) rather than criminal (unless you literally dig in and they then try to physically shift you), they may take the view that refunding you some money and turfing you out is cheaper than letting you stick around while the boat becomes uninsured (at which point they'd probably have failed in their duty of care to you, which would potentially attract further financial loss and hassle).

My experience of this kind of stuff isn't what they can and can't do, but whether there's anything you can do when they just go ahead and evict you anyway. Money talks.

In reply to Martin not maisie:

Yeah it's a bit of an odd one. It's not necessarily the early eviction that's annoying me, it's that:

- The potential date is getting closer and they are refusing to comment but must be planning for it.

- Lots of people are withholding rent (this was also due to having no hot water for two months over the winter and not being compensated) which is annoying them and not helping communications. I paid 3.5 months in advance though so I don't owe anything else until July but I don't want to pay it and then have to have lots of hassle getting it back.

- They wont treat me like an adult and discuss the situation.

If it has to be moved then that's fine - but the lack of response/secrecy around this is ridiculous. I want to be able to plan for potential moves. I work approx 8am-7pm so moving would be very disruptive and I'd probably have to take time off to look for alternative housing and move which means lost earnings/holiday etc. Plus if it went to a civil claim this means more stress and lost time...

Bloody landlords haha!!

In reply to James Malloch:

Probably they are obliged to put you up somewhere else while they do the work. Not guaranteed though. Are you on a assured shorthold tenancy? Check your contract and any paperwork that came with it, every contract I've had in the past decade has had a clause saying what happens if major works are needed. The charity Shelter give advice on things like this too.

In reply to James Malloch:

They cannot tow you out to sea.

If your tenancy is legit, then they cannot chuck out before it ends without agreement.

You wait until the contract ends and then move...or stay if you have nowhere else to go, The court eviction process will take a while, so no need to see the end of contract as a deadline to move if you have nowhere else to go.

In reply to James Malloch:

Check your contract - like Jack B, every contract I've had has had provisions for such an event, generally the gist is that they'll arrange for alternative accommodation or will reimburse rent. If your contract doesn't have these provisions, and they boot you out for maintenance, then you'd need to claim for breach of contract, unless you managed to reach agreement with them about reimbursing your costs.

The easiest thing for them to do is simply wait until your lease is going to expire, and serve notice that you can't carry on as a periodic tenancy - unless they have a specific reason for doing the work earlier. Legally, they can't evict you (unless you have given them just cause) before the end of your tenancy.