Breaking Lease Early

Noopti

Hi Folks,
Just a few quick questions that someone here might be able to help me with.

Myself and my fiancee are currently renting a 1 bed in Dublin, we signed the usual 1 year lease in November 07, and had been planning to stay there for a good while (probably a few years anyway).
However, there is a strong possibility that my fiancee will be moved to another job which is in another part of the country and as such we would have to move out, thus breaking the 1 year lease.

What are the ramifications of this? That is, can we just give the months notice and that would be ok? Or will we lose our deposit? etc

Basically, I have to ring the letting agency today to feel out the situation and would like to know what cards I hold regarding this situation.

Thanks in advance

Afuera

Noopti wrote: »

What are the ramifications of this? That is, can we just give the months notice and that would be ok? Or will we lose our deposit? etc

Since you signed a fixed term lease you can't just give a months notice. The only way I know that you can get out if it legally is if you find someone else to take over the lease. You would then need to make a request to the landlord/agent to assign the lease over to them. It does not matter if they refuse to assign the lease over, you will then be able to give your months notice. Under that scenario you would be entitled to get your deposit back.

Noopti

Ah right, to be honest I am not bothered with the deposit. Yes, I would like to get it back, but if that means spending my evenings arranging adverts in papers/daft and finding replacement tenants then I would rather just give the months notice, leave, and not get my deposit back.

This kind of came out of the blue, so we have no time to be faffing(?) about tbh, we need to get it sorted and find a new place to rent asap.

Thanks for the advice.

Afuera

Noopti wrote: »

Ah right, to be honest I am not bothered with the deposit. Yes, I would like to get it back, but if that means spending my evenings arranging adverts in papers/daft and finding replacement tenants then I would rather just give the months notice, leave, and not get my deposit back.

I understand the amount of hassle that can be involved in finding a new tenant, but be careful here because the landlord would be entitled to more than just your deposit if they had difficulty finding replacement tenants after you left. Signing a fixed term lease means you are liable for the rent over the entire duration of the lease.

Noopti

I have searched the forum and there are so many conflicting opinions on this:

Answer a:
Yes, you are liable to pay the full year

Answer b:
Not you are not, according to the Tenants Act

It all seems to be very messy, with differant agencies stating different things!
Tbh, if he has a letting agent working for him, is it not their responsibilty to find him/her tenants? I don't even deal with the landlord at all, everything is done through the letting agent.

If the landlord keeps the deposit then he will have the final month notice for the letting agent to get a replacement, and he will also have the deposit to act as another months rent to cover additional time needed.

I guess I just have to hope that the letting agent/landlord is sound about the circumstances. But, paying a full years rent is out of the question.

astrofool

If you have a one year lease, then that's really what decides your option.

Legally, the landlord could pursue the full years rent from you if you just upped and left, however, it's in the landlords interest to facilitate the moving, if only to keep the property occupied, and you can legally transfer the lease to another party that the landlord approves of.

The guidelines on threshold apply where a fixed term lease is not present, which seems to be more prevalent for council housing and the like. Does anyone on here not have a fixed term lease?

Afuera

Noopti wrote: »

It all seems to be very messy, with differant agencies stating different things!

I agree, the whole legislation around this area is a mess. It's only been in place since 2004 so a lot of it is still largely untested. At the moment it doesn't serve tenants or landlords very well so I'm sure it will have to be revised sometime in the future.

Noopti wrote: »

Tbh, if he has a letting agent working for him, is it not their responsibilty to find him/her tenants? I don't even deal with the landlord at all, everything is done through the letting agent.

You deal with the letting agent then and it is from them that you would request to assign the lease. Maybe you could try and bluff them by making a written request to assign the lease, without providing the details of to whom? If they accept, then you would have to find someone on daft, but if they didn't accept, then you could simply give your notice and would be free of any legal obligations on the tenancy.

Noopti wrote: »

If the landlord keeps the deposit then he will have the final month notice for the letting agent to get a replacement, and he will also have the deposit to act as another months rent to cover additional time needed.

In the past, this was certainly enough time to find another tenant. I'm not too sure how easy it is to find tenants these days though. If the landlord had problems getting someone, they would be entitled to go after you for the loss of earnings.

Noopti wrote: »

I guess I just have to hope that the letting agent/landlord is sound about the circumstances. But, paying a full years rent is out of the question.

The two options you have then are:
1) Attempt to get the lease assigned to someone else (either a real person prepared to move in immediately, or someone to be determined after you get the ok to assign it).
2) Give a months notice and hope that there are no problems finding replacement tenants, or that the landlord/agency would not be bothered persuing you in the event that they did have problems renting after you left.

Personally I would go with option 1. While not exactly hassle-free, it would free you of any legal obligations and would allow you to get your deposit back. Option 2 leaves things up in the air and could cause problems later on.

Noopti

Great advice, thanks!

I am going to ring the letting agent this afternoon about it. Going to be straight with her and say that the job opportunity is something we can't ignore, and that we will give the full notice and facilitate any viewings etc while we are still in the property (although we will probably have moved out quite quickly all going well), and that the deposit can be retained to cover the extra month rent if they are having problems finding someone to replace us.

I am going to just take the risk on it, hoping that they find new tenants, because we will be on the other side of the country and trying to find tenants ourselves (if we offered the sublet option) would be next to impossible.

Also, what is to stop the landlord saying that it took them 2 months to find someone and that the deposit won't be given back, even if they do have someone to replace us quickly? We have no way of knowing if he gets someone or not!

Afuera

Noopti wrote: »

Also, what is to stop the landlord saying that it took them 2 months to find someone and that the deposit won't be given back, even if they do have someone to replace us quickly? We have no way of knowing if he gets someone or not!

They have to register the new tenacy with the PRTB so it should prevent any funny accounting going on.

Noopti

Anyway, an update if anyone is interested.

Was talking to letting agent and there seems to be no problem. She is very sound anyway, so wasn't expecting much hassle but wanted to know my rights.

Basically it will be a case of giving her the months notice, and that the chances are we will be move out in 2 weeks, so she could in theory have tenants in before our months notice is over.

Also, I said they can withhold the deposit in case they need more time to find replacement tenants, and she was fine with everything.

So I guess I'm lucky I have a sound letting agent!

Afuera

Noopti wrote: »

So I guess I'm lucky I have a sound letting agent!

Glad to see that sense seems to be ruling here rather than the letter of the law.

beeno67

Noopti wrote: »

Anyway, an update if anyone is interested.

Was talking to letting agent and there seems to be no problem. She is very sound anyway, so wasn't expecting much hassle but wanted to know my rights.

Basically it will be a case of giving her the months notice, and that the chances are we will be move out in 2 weeks, so she could in theory have tenants in before our months notice is over.

Also, I said they can withhold the deposit in case they need more time to find replacement tenants, and she was fine with everything.

So I guess I'm lucky I have a sound letting agent!

Also it is in the landlords interest. Your lease would have been up in November which is a nightmare time to get new tennants. Much easier to get people in summer.

sam34

in a similar situation myself, rang letting agent and he was sound, said just give a months notice and i'll get deposit back