Breaking my lease - moving for work

lolie8888

Can anyone help- I'm desperate!

I have to move house for work- at the moment its taking me and my boyfriend 30 hours a week to get to work. I found a place i want to rent, and have paid a holding fee. I had handed in my one month notice to my landlord at the beginning of the week, and she replied after I had paid my deposit that I was breaking the lease!! As far as I was concerned there was no fixed term period on the lease, and we are only one month short of a full 12 months anyway. As first term renters she told us we would be ok she would look after it- but is a different story now.
She is not answering phone email fax or text. Our rent for December is due today- which we were prepared to pay, but she is now saying that we are not entitled to deposit back- in which case we would have to pay this months rent and loose deposit anyway. I cant afford both. She is drawing it out for a long time as she knows our rent is due!!! We felt we had no choice but to leave, not pay the rent and forfit the deposit. I dont like it but i dont see any other option.

Can she come after us legally- she is through a letting agency. We are not looking for our deposit back at this stage as we did not furfill a notice period.

Also can she report us to the PTRB- can other landlords see that we lived there and that she was our landlord?

I just want to move on and get away from the situation!!!!

thanks

not even wrong

As far as I was concerned there was no fixed term period on the lease

so what exactly does your lease say?

we are only one month short of a full 12 months anyway.

So why not stick it out for one more month?

lolie8888

We never recieved a copy of the lease- but when we signed it there was no fixed term on it.

We can't stick it out anymore circumstances have seriously changed and we have to move

Lantus

you have to get a copy of the lease. Would the letting agency have it?

make sure that you get the copy you signed as well. A copy could of been altered by this woman and as you dont have a copy ( I wont get into how silly that was) you wont be able to remember whether it was there to begin with.

lolie8888

That is the ideal route- however as I have to pay rent today and do not want to owe them rent AND pay the deposit.

I agree I should have got the contract initially- was silly.
Spoke to someone who used the same agency and delt with the same person who did the same- did not communicate with the person regarding their lease, dragged on into the next rental month and then they lost the deposit anyway and had to pay the rent.

This is exactly what I dont want to happen.

not even wrong

I had handed in my one month notice to my landlord at the beginning of the week

Even in the absence of a fixed-term lease, you have been there 11 months so you owe her 35 days notice.

edellc

Op legally there is nothing that can be done by her or you we dont have the laws in place in this country

She can report you the the PRTB but all they can do is recommend you pay the last months rent the cant make you or blacklist you for future tenancy agreements

However morally you shouldnt be breaking your lease but likewise she should have given you a copy of it and you should have asked for a copy..would you sign a work contract and not get a copy???

As for she is down a months rent and having to pay advertisements costs and so on well you have given her a months notice which is a lot more than some ppl give and realistically if your lease is up next month the landlord should be finding out now if your going to renew it or not so if your not then adverts can be placed and viewing arranged so they wont be out a months rent but if the landlord leaves it till the lease is out then they are going to incur financial losses which leaving tenants are not responsible for

So for the reason outlined above i do think its unfair for her to keep all your deposit but morally your breaking the lease so she is entitled to it

you could however just not pay this months rent and use it for your deposit/rent in the next place but this is morally wrong :rolleyes:

Graces7

edellc wrote: »

Op legally there is nothing that can be done by her or you we dont have the laws in place in this country

She can report you the the PRTB but all they can do is recommend you pay the last months rent the cant make you or blacklist you for future tenancy agreements

However morally you shouldnt be breaking your lease but likewise she should have given you a copy of it and you should have asked for a copy..would you sign a work contract and not get a copy???

As for she is down a months rent and having to pay advertisements costs and so on well you have given her a months notice which is a lot more than some ppl give and realistically if your lease is up next month the landlord should be finding out now if your going to renew it or not so if your not then adverts can be placed and viewing arranged so they wont be out a months rent but if the landlord leaves it till the lease is out then they are going to incur financial losses which leaving tenants are not responsible for

So for the reason outlined above i do think its unfair for her to keep all your deposit but morally your breaking the lease so she is entitled to it

you could however just not pay this months rent and use it for your deposit/rent in the next place but this is morally wrong :rolleyes:

I do't think morally is the right word here! But I know what you mean.

We did this last year; we were fighting illegal eviction and had no money for new deposit etc. Disabled pensioner..

We did check with a solicitor friend who opined that yes, it was illegal, but given the situation and our very real poverty no judge etc would blame.

IF landlords followed the law then we would be able to . Any moral blame is the landlord's . Please don't worry.. do what you need to do for you.

Ray Palmer

Graces7 wrote: »

[/B]

I do't think morally is the right word here! But I know what you mean.

We did this last year; we were fighting illegal eviction and had no money for new deposit etc. Disabled pensioner..

We did check with a solicitor friend who opined that yes, it was illegal, but given the situation and our very real poverty no judge etc would blame.

IF landlords followed the law then we would be able to . Any moral blame is the landlord's . Please don't worry.. do what you need to do for you.

No morally is the right word. If you have a lease and you are breaking it, it is both contry to the agreement which is a legal thing and morally you broke your word. You seem to think that this landlord is the same as the LL you had before.This LL hasn't done anything other than ask them to honour their agreement, morally that is their bad.

That is assuming the lease stated a year, which makes sense, I doubt many lease agreement is signed without a term in place.

OS119

OP, could you be a bit clearer on some of the facts?

i assume you have a 12 month lease, where you moved in in January of this year and the lease is due to expire on the corresponding date of January next year - is that correct?

if you can give us the relevent dates - when you signed lease, when you moved in, when you pay rent - we can give you better advice.

we also need to know the date you want to move out of the current place and into the new place.

because you're post is unclear i can't tell whether you are giving one months notice at the start of month 12 - which is fine, and you'd be entitled to your deposit back - or giving one months notice at the start of month 11, which isn't so fine, but not exactly insurmountable.