Breaking tenancy early

Soldato
Joined
27 Nov 2005
Posts
24,548
Location
Guernsey
If your landlord is feeling lenient they may be happy to accept early surrender of the tenancy, especially if as you say the flat needs an entire makeover. If the landlord waits until you've vacated in January, it could be a couple of months of work which then results in zero income, so they lose out either way.
Am guessing December would be the worst time to have a Flat make over done with the Christmas & New Year holidays
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Mar 2010
Posts
12,305
Am guessing December would be the worst time to have a Flat make over done with the Christmas & New Year holidays

Depends I suppose on what you can do yourself, or if you've got close contacts with tradesmen who can prioritise you. I would guess December would also be a bad month for people wanting to move.

It's a loss either way for the landlord. Either they accept early surrender and spend December/January ripping the flat out. Or they hold diddums to contract, but then start the works in January.
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2006
Posts
22,966
Location
London
For reference if an estate agent wants you to sign a new contract. Just refuse and say you want it to automatically turn into a rolling monthly contract under the existing contract.

If they don't like it then they can serve notice to for you to leave and then they can explain to the landlord why his/her property is gonna be empty for a period of time losing rent (also with the additional costs of getting a new tenant).

The only reason estate agents do this is so they can charge the landlord some fees as well as the tenant. After all they are creating a "new" contract.
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Mar 2007
Posts
2,723
Location
Essex
Current lockdown rules coming up i don’t think he will break early .

IN terms of leaks and weather it habitable or not you will have to get in touch with your local housing Officer and let him asses it , i doubt you have the time to resolve this now given you tenancy ends in January or at the end of January ?

Withholding rent for repairs is frowned upon should it turn legal .

At this late stage in the game is it worth the hassle. You will lose your holding deposit and yes it can be used against non payment of rent at the end of the tenancy .
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Oct 2002
Posts
17,854
Location
London
Most ASTs (what I believe is a standard 12 month contract cooked up by most scu.. I mean letting agents) include a break clause after 6 months. You need to read your contract. https://england.shelter.org.uk/legal/security_of_tenure/break_clauses#:~:text=A break clause is a,of the fixed term period.&text=In practice, they are mainly,term assured shorthold tenancy agreements. So I dunno, perhaps you can give 2 months notice now and save a bit compared to moving out in January.

I suspect given the timing, the agent and landlord will fight tooth and nail for every penny. But like others have said we're already in November so 2 months notice is pretty well as good as you'd ever get...
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
13,345
Location
London
Ask if you can end your contact early. Maybe meet half way and say you will pay for 1 out of the 2 months.

if they say no maybe move and try and make some cash back on air B&B
 
Permabanned
Joined
22 Mar 2020
Posts
2,337
Need some advices pls!

Ok so a few facts first:

We're not that unhappy with the place we're in and the problems are perfectly manageable.

Our estate agents, like most, are bottom feeding scum who will do anything to make a quick buck.

According to our tenancy agreement, if we wish to break the tenancy early, we have to pay the rent until they find a new tenant.

We're paying considerably under market value for our place as we're good tenants and I tend to take care of most issues in the building.

So, on to the story.

We want to move. Reasons are that our commute has become ridiculous mainly, but we're also fed up with the neighbourhood which has gone downhill significantly since we moved in back in 2009. The flat is also riddled with leaks which have been ongoing for years and still aren't fixed. This is a problem in the whole block as this block was apparently built by Laurel and Hardy at 4pm on a Friday. It's causing some problems, mainly being damp issues and now we're getting to the point of having moss growing on the wall in our spare bedroom. To put it bluntly, this flat will need a complete refit and redecorating before it can be rented out again.

So, enough is enough. Our tenancy ends in January and we're all prepped to move out, but we've fallen in love with a place in Chiswick which won't be on the market for long so we want to act fast.

I was recently made redundant and my new job is less money so there's that angle too. We can still easily afford this place but I might be able to use that as leverage.

So, what's the deal here? I'm going to call our landlord tomorrow and see what her response is but I'd like to know what's possible in terms of breaking early with no costs.

My angle is that the place will need refurbing, we can't afford it anymore and the place is now unfit for purpose.

Obviously this is me just chancing my luck as we're perfectly happy to stay until January but as we want this new place I want to push.

Thoughts? Cheers :)

Simple have you told your landlord About the disrepair? Are you feeling unwell wink wink go to gp. I guess you can see the issues of disrepair. Take pictures email the landlord and managed company. If you have moss it is. Health hazard.contacr your council private rent department.
The rules have changed last year look it up.
 
Permabanned
Joined
22 Mar 2020
Posts
2,337
I reckon your best bet would be to play up the building maintenance / damp issues. Unfortunately I think the standard for 'unliveable' is actually pretty appallingly low though (as a student had some friends who got a council officer to inspect their place when it became apparent there were major problems with water leaks, damp, and mould that had been painted over when they viewed it, along with other general poor maintenance, council officer said while the conditions could cause poor health it wasn't bad enough for them to claim breach of contract in providing somewhere to live / do any kind of enforcement). Therefore doubt you'll be able to force the issue if push comes to shove, but there's always a chance I suppose.
The rules have changed it is easy to sue now .
 
Back
Top Bottom