We moved 3 months ago into a privately rented house. We signed for 12 months but both ourselves and LL discussed a long term let, 3-5 years, as our children go to the local school and he lives overseas. We couldn't afford to buy here so this was perfect for us and our kid's education.

Since we moved in, the house has had a few problems and needs some repairs. The LL is now saying it is draining him financially and he will now have to consider selling sooner rather than later.

I am absolutely gutted, we left our old home of 10 years to come here. We have a signed tenancy agreement until October. Would we be able to stay until then or can he put the house up for sale? Am I right in thinking he is under obligation to complete these repairs?

You have a contract. Unless he has a non BTL mortgage and is repossessed, your tenancy is secure until then. If the house is sold before, it must be with you as tenants in situ.

Depending on what the repaies are, he has a legal resposibility to do them. If he refuses, you have the right of offset against your rent, subject to a certaon procedure. See http://www.letlink.co.uk/articles/disrepair/ & http://www.letlink.co.uk/letting-factsheet...bligations.html

Just out of curiosity, did you pay a deposit, and was it secured in a TDS scheme?

Just check that there are no break clauses in the agreement which says that either you or your landlord can end the agreement after six months by giving the required notice, quite a few ASTs of greater than 6 months have these clauses in. If its there, then you could be without a home much quicker than October.

If you have signed for 12 months then you can live in the house for 12 months, he can't kick you out before the end of your tenancy (although you could agree to let him out of the tenancy contract sooner than that...in return for a large amount of compensation of course!)

He can put the house on sale while you're living in it, and he can sell the property to someone with you as sitting tenants, but there's no way he (or the new buyer) can get you out before the end of your tenancy agreement. Of course you don't have to allow prospective buyers to view the house if you don't want to, that's your decision- you're within your rights to say that buyers can only view the house at certain times, or if you want to be awkward you can say that they can't view it at all while you're living there. The landlord can't expect you to tidy up before viewings either - our landlord had a fit when potential buyers came round and the washing up was piled up to the ceiling, and my boyfriend was in the bath so they couldn't see the bathroom - after that we just refused to allow viewings, and we were within our rights to do that.

Regarding repairs, your landlord is legally obliged to do repairs within a reasonable time frame. Call the letting agent if the landlord isn't helpful, and as a last resort call the environmental health dept if the repair is a danger (who will give the landlord a fine and a court order to make him do the repairs). If something hasn't been done within a few weeks I'd speak to the CAB and threaten to take the landlord to court if necessary, that usually sorts them out.

I have managed to speak to the agent today. There is no 6 month clause and he has told us we can stay until October when our tenancy expires. He said that the LL can put the property up for sale 2 months prior to the end of our agreement. He also told me about the enviromental health dept and said that because the problem is causing mould at an alarming rate then it will need addressing asap.
Our deposit has been paid under the new scheme.
I had planned to stay for a number of years as it is perfect for us (apart from the repairs), for our children's school and lifestyle and because it's such a tiny village we felt very lucky to get it as rentals don't come up often.
Ho hum.

Im affraid your incorrect, if the agreement has a break clause you could be asked to leave after 6 months.

Glad the O/P has sorted the problem. Its a shame you have to move again though after such a short period.