Breaking a Lease

VelmaD

Hi,

Myself and my girlfriend have just broken up 6 months into a 1 year lease.

I understand I am liable to to pay the remaining rent, or may lose my deposit etc. My concern is how to approach the letting agent. They haven't been the most helpful and Im afraid they're going to make this as difficult as possible to save themselves the hassle of advertising again, which of course, as I entered into the lease they are perfectly entitled to do.

Should I simply state that I intend to break the lease or offer to sublet/find someone else. I have no problem losing my deposit, I just want to get out ASAP.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Gasherbraun

The landlord / agent has no right to make things difficult for you. At the end of the day sometimes people genuinely have to break leases and there is no reason why this should not be handled in a professional manner.

What the agent does have to do is make every effort to re-let the property promptly to mitigate loss.

I would make sure that the property is re-advertised properly and quickly since if they do not do so then they are not complying with their requirements in these circumstances.

You, as you correctly note, have the right to assign (as opposed to sub-let) the property to a person acceptable to the landlord / agent at the same rent you are currently paying. If the assignment is 'unreasonably refused' then your obligations for ongoing rent are negated although you can still be held liable for other issues such as damage or cleaning that may apply at the date of termination. If you find an assignee that will take the property but at a lower rent then the landlord can deduct the shortfall in rent from your deposit or simply refuse the assignment.

The term 'unreasonably refuse' is obviously subjective to a point so can cause problems.

A landlord can only collect rent as it falls due so legally he cannot just demand 6 months rent from you. In theory they could make a claim via PRTB when the full loss is quantified i.e when they re-let but I have never known a claim like this be successful. In the real world a landlord has the deposit as compensation for any loss and pursuing any amount above the deposit is a pointless exercise with residential tenants.

I would also note that assignments seem to be very rare. We deal with approx 300 properties and only see about two assignment annually. On the occasions that tenants break their lease's the property is either re-let quickly or they occasionally lose their deposit

VelmaD

Thanks for taking the time to Gasherbraun, appreciate your input.

sarkozy

I'm sorry to hear about why you're leaving. Totally understandable and letting agents shouldn't use this to do anything other than fulfill their obligations.

The first thing to do is inform them of your intention to leave the apartment. As I understand the legal situation, you may offer to assign the lease to new tenants - this is your automatic responsibility. If they refuse, you will therefore be entitled to giving your statutory notice (probably 5 weeks if you've been there more than 6 months) and vacate on on the last day. You are entitled to your deposit back in both situations.

If they agree to let you assign the lease (takes the effort off their shoulders), then you must move quickly to advertise the apartment, arrange viewings and choose your replacement. Now, I haven't done this myself, so there would probably be other things missing that people here can fill you in on. I've been lucky in that I'm breaking my lease and our landlord is really nice; he's letting us leave on whatever date suits us, break the lease penalty-free and show the place when we're gone. But this seems unusual.

Best of luck.