united-kingdom contract-law real-estate
What happens to a contract when company is disolved?
<p>I have been renting a property (residential) for 10 months from a limited company.</p>

<p>I wanted to move out of the property recently, they informed me I still  have two months left on my contract, i would need to pay for. Then i would also need to pay £400 in checking out fees, Im not sure what the "checking out fees" are for, but i had to pay a similar "checking in fee" when i picked up the keys, granted this was a bit less. </p>

<p>Shocked i looked through my contract and realized i had in fact agreed to this.</p>

<p>However, The name on the contract for the company i have been paying, has been dissolved according to companies house </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Final Gazette dissolved via voluntary strike-off</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The company filled for this a week before i even signed the contract with them.</p>

<p>Is there anything I can do here? I have never been informed of anything that has changed regarding the company.</p>

<p>**Edit
Update. There is nothing in my contract stating that it can be switched to a different entity. </p>

<p>The landlord name on the contract is the company that is now dissolved. The director is still the person I am dealing with. I signed a contract agreeing said company will be my landlord but that company doesn't exist...is this contract void?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p><em>Having received clarification in the comments, and bearing in mind that I'm not a lawyer or expert:</em></p>

<p>One of following is probably true:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>The landlord (and owner) always was, and still is, the director, and the company was never the landlord; hence the contract contains an error.</p></li>
<li><p>The landlord (and owner) was the company, but at some point, the property was transferred out of the company to the director, and the company was dissolved.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>If it's (2), this is legal, as property can always be sold or otherwise transferred (e.g. by inheritance). If the property has a tenant, then <strong>the new owner is bound by the tenancy agreement, and so is the tenant.</strong> So in that respect, nothing has changed.</p>

<p>However, the new owner is <a href="https://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2017/01/23/warning-new-landlords-taking-existing-tenancies/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">required to inform the tenant</a> of a change of ownership within 2 months, or face prosecution and a fine. (There may also be tax implications for the company and the director.)</p>

<p>The important thing here is when (or if) a change of ownership happened, relative to the start of the tenancy and the dissolution of the company.</p>

<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> as revealed in a comment, it's (1): the company was dissolved before the tenancy was started. As it's impossible for a company which doesn't exist to be a party to a contract, this would suggest that this tenancy agreement is not valid.</p>

<p><strong>However,</strong> a tenancy between the actual owner of the property, and the tenant, does still exist. This is because a tenancy is deemed to exist if all the normal conditions (e.g. paying rent to the owner in exchange for use of the property) are met, <a href="https://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2015/06/08/what-happens-if-you-dont-have-a-written-tenancy-agreement/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">even if it's never written down</a>.</p>

<p>But a consequence of this is that any check-out fee cannot be insisted on, since that was part of the invalid contract.</p>

<p>So, to return to the original question, if the owner insists on you paying the check-out fee, it might be possible to challenge it on these grounds - but I would not recommend going down that path without speaking to someone who is an expert in these matters.</p>
