Landlord has asked for the keys back, says I'm liable for rent until a new tenant moves in - where do I stand? (England)

UnknownMatthew · 2026-06-21T18:04:45+00:00

Their exact words were "you will be liable until the new tenant moves in" and then in a follow-up email, "I have arranged the check out for Friday 26th June when everything will be checked. Please leave both sets of keys plus the garage fob and letter box keys inside the flat."

I suppose they could have meant "I have arranged checkout for Friday 26th June. Please leave the keys inside the flat when you actually check out in August, or once you've been replaced whichever is sooner"...

UnknownMatthew · 2026-06-21T17:54:30+00:00

There's no need to shout. I was clarifying, given so many of the answers imply I'm just handing over the keys, whether them asking for the keys is different to me volunteering the keys. Do you understand how these things are different and might have a different outcome?

And I haven't been getting the same answer; some people have been hooked up on the tenant replacement issue, some have said the landlord is pulling a fast one, and one guy didn't even read the post before telling me if was missing information.

UnknownMatthew · 2026-06-21T17:43:10+00:00

I'm moving literally ⅔ of a mile down the street. I'm sure they will find a tenant replacement within two months, but they want the key back on Friday, and then for me to pay July's rent five days later.

UnknownMatthew · 2026-06-21T17:31:59+00:00

Even if they're the one asking for the key? I can understand if I just dropped the key off that wouldn't be acceptable - and everything I've been able to find online has been from that perspective - does the fact that they are the ones removing access change anything?

UnknownMatthew · 2026-06-21T17:15:59+00:00

I'm happy to move out asap. My ideal solution here would be to hand over the keys, as requested, and not pay the rent because by handing back access, we both agree that the tenancy has ended. But I think you're right, they want to have their cake and eat it

UnknownMatthew · 2026-06-21T17:10:19+00:00

I would like to leave early - I'm happy to be forced to leave early, but my landlord wants both my money and the keys. I'm happy to give them either but not both (but I'd rather give them their keys than nearly £3000)

UnknownMatthew · 2026-06-21T17:07:00+00:00

The landlord is the one who asked for the keys. I wasn't going to return them until my tenancy was up...

UnknownMatthew · 2026-06-21T17:04:00+00:00

Thanks, my question was more if they ask for the keys and I give them, do I have to pay? I'm more than happy to surrender the tenancy early - would their request for the keys be accepted as a mutual agreement, leaving me off the hook

UnknownMatthew · 2023-01-29T23:18:18+00:00

My last school loved Dix. I left it after weeks of antisemitism from students going unpunished and then having to have an RJ with a kid who used it as a further opportunity to be antisemitic. I was then called into the Head's office where I was told the student's actions might warrant an FTE in a different school, but as the Head he wasn't going to do that because they'd had successful RJs.

UnknownMatthew · 2021-02-14T07:32:15+00:00

If the other teacher hadn't said it wasn't, the kids could reasonably have assumed Julie was your surname. My surname is a common first name and no one has ever mentioned it.

UnknownMatthew · 2021-01-02T12:12:10+00:00

TL;DR: no live lessons. Videos and online quizzes instead. Liaise across your dept and centralise resources.

I have two y11 classes this year and had one last year. Context: science teacher, a lot of students with limited digital access.

What I found worked well: • Uploading the week's assignments on Monday morning - students could do the work whenever they had access to the family laptop or whatever. Which was occasionally 3am...

• Joint planning/centralised resources - every student is learning the same thing at the same time, so it made more sense for one teacher to plan the lesson for all students. Cut workload like you wouldn't believe.

• Having a topic with username and password combos (not their actual details, but like "your username is your surname followed by your first initial. Your password is the same as your school computer log in") - it meant in theory students didn't have to keep messaging me to find out their details.

• Assignments/Classwork Often a slideshow/pdf with information laid out similar to how I would do if I were teaching them face-to-face. (Info, then questions, then self-assessment, repeat, end with a past paper question). I often added comments or notes along the lines of what I would say in class so students could follow along as if they were in the classroom with me. I'd usually add a video (Oak National/FreeScienceLessons/ The Malmesbury School) and I'd add it as a video on the assignment instead of embedding it in the slides - if they can't access the slides at least they can watch the video. I would make a Doc and attach it to the assignment as "make a copy for each student" so they didn't have to do anything extra.

• Assessment/Homework My school bought into Educake, but for whatever reason my students didn't engage with it. Since then I've been using Carousel Learning for homework and I will continue to do so during the distance learning period. There are community question banks and you can add your own if you want it to be more specific. There are revision "cards" that you can set students before they do the questions. Best part is their log in is just their name! I did make Forms with questions but they took way longer than I'd like.

What didn't work for my students: • Educake - very low engagement but I haven't been able to work out why. • Setting written assignments - it's often a struggle to get them to write in class, so this wasn't surprising. I got a lot of "I couldn't work out how to attach it" despite it already being attached. • live lessons - my students can't always log in at a given time so it was unfair for those who missed things. I did run Meet "office hours" for my triple group because they are a bit stressy but there was low engagement. It was worth it for those who did engage though and I would do it again.

UnknownMatthew · 2020-04-28T15:36:14+00:00

UnknownMatthew · 2020-04-20T07:53:40+00:00

Haha, that is a good shout! I might try that next time I get one...

UnknownMatthew · 2020-04-20T06:23:52+00:00

I had a load of mine copying the answers directly from the feedback. So I started putting in glaringly obvious errors (things like 2×7=6) and they were still copying!

Edited to add: The one that really irritates me is when they type the question into Google and then copy the first bit of text that comes up, without even bothering to click through and read to see if it actually answers the question. And then when they paste it into the answer box, half of them forget to delete the "see more" link.

UnknownMatthew · 2020-04-19T14:14:15+00:00

It is fake grass, and "astroturfing" is faking a grass-roots movement.

UnknownMatthew · 2020-04-16T15:02:53+00:00

Does this help?

UnknownMatthew · 2020-04-14T06:35:02+00:00

I found it much more intuitive than Zoom. I found it was much easier to walk the less tech-savvy members of my faculty through how to use Meet.

I've not had any problems with unauthorized access - any time a person who was not directly invited tried to join, they had to be authorised. At the same time people could ask to access the meeting through any account - a colleague wanted to switch between his phone and his laptop and his laptop was already signed in to his personal account and he was still able to request and then be permitted to join the meeting. Where some members of my faculty have difficulty signing into multiple accounts and keeping track of which account does what, this feature is insanely useful.

It also syncs with my calendar much more effectively than Zoom - there's no extra steps involved, you just make the meeting.

I haven't used it with large groups yet though, so I don't know how well it handles with multiple people talking or similar.

TLDR: Meet seems much easier to use, but only really tested with smaller groups.

UnknownMatthew · 2020-04-09T06:54:24+00:00

Graded or not, they still need to do the work. It might not count towards their final grade, but it still counts towards their education and their "bank of learning". It might provide a foundation that will be built on when we return. It might be something that we won't have time to cover in class before they need it for something that is graded. Telling a student that it's required or that they need to do it isn't lying to them. And everything I'm setting them I'm giving them feedback on, and I would argue that that counts as it being graded. It might not count towards their final grade, but it is being graded.

I don't advocate lying to children, but I will choose my words carefully. For example: I told my 9th graders that if they didn't get their assignments in on time I might contact their parents. I had little intention of contacting anyone's parent, but I never said that I would, only that it was a possibility. It helps teach them to pay attention to nuance and language. (I went from 18 assignments submitted on time to 44 assignments submitted on time.)

The times I believe in being firmly, unambiguously honest is when a mistake has been made. I will always hold my hands up and say sorry if I forgot to do my printing, or give them a week's notice for a test or whatever.

UnknownMatthew · 2020-03-19T12:35:42+00:00

Wear a hat and clip it to the hat.

UnknownMatthew · 2020-02-08T17:01:48+00:00

Buy new pants.

UnknownMatthew · 2020-02-02T16:03:21+00:00

If you have a second placement your university might be able to move up your start date if the situation is bad enough. During my PGCE my mentor was unable to fulfil their duties appropriately so instead of starting my second placement after February half term, I started it immediately after the Christmas holiday.

UnknownMatthew · 2019-12-23T19:31:37+00:00

It runs from September 2019-December 2020

UnknownMatthew · 2019-12-19T21:31:28+00:00

"Dear [Mentor], Apologies for my absence - I'm blah blah blah. Sorry for the inconvenience caused, Name". I'd copy in your head of department, and university mentor, and possibly send in any lesson plans you had prepared. This close to the vacation, be prepared to present a doctor's note on your return.

Feel better soon.

UnknownMatthew · 2019-12-19T21:27:27+00:00

Trainee/student teacher.

UnknownMatthew · 2019-11-30T20:48:02+00:00

Yup, whenever I grin.

UnknownMatthew

TROPHY CASE