PLEASE ADVISE: AST ended; tenant not responding to me

[solari]

Hello all,

I'm sorry to leech off your knowledge and experience but I'd really appreciate your help here.

I'm a LL and my AST contract ended yesterday. In the weeks beforehand, my tenant and I couldn't agree on a new rental rate so we agreed for him to move out. He told me he would "be around all day" to give me the keys but when it came to the day, he did not pick up any of my calls and did not respond to my e-mails at all. I arrived at the property and he did not open the door for me. Completely silent.

I e-mailed him asking him what was going on and he still will not reply or pick up my calls.

What can I do now? I'm happy to give him a bit more time if he needs it and is willing to continue paying rent, but I want to protect myself as muych as possible. For all I know he will not pay me anything more because he's not replying to me. What can I do to a) prevent myself from losing any rent and to get him out of my property ASAP?

Furthermore, as per the contract (which has ended) I am responsibilt for paying for the council tax and electricity and water bills - can I now cancel these? I don't want to be responsible for paying them any more - do I have to be??

Lastly can I withold his deposit? And can I unprotect it now?

[Grampa]

A quick answer for the council tax is the tenant is responsible for it as until he gives notice to quit, it is accepted by you and he vacates the property. If he hasnt given back the keys and you haven't taken over the property the liability remains with the tenant because you havent got possession.

[solari]

Thanks - but maybe I didn't explain clearly. In the contract, it is me who is responsible for paying council tax and electricty and water bills. He was never responsible for those. So in this case, what is to happen now, given that the contract is over but he hasn't handed over the property to me?

[Grampa]

Is there a guarantor? 

[Richlist]

How do you know he hasn't left the property ?

He agreed to move out when the contract ended. If I got no answer I'd have used my keys to let myself into the property to determine if he had left as he promised.

Did you get any of this agreement in writing ?

[fionaf]

You say ' In the weeks beforehand' you couldn't come to an agreement, but did you serve formal notice to end the agreement? Even if there is an end date in the tenancy agreement you still need to serve formal notice with the appropriate notice period, usually two months by the landlord. If you didn't serve formal notice then my understanding is that your tenant now has an AST periodic tenancy and you still have to provide notice.